In 2022, Bruce Willis retired from performing following a prognosis of aphasia, which was then confirmed to be frontotemporal dementia the next yr. That sobering improvement definitely solid his late-career selections in a distinct mild. Willis’ remaining film was the ignored 2023 sci-fi motion thriller “Murderer,” however for probably the most half he had turn into a rent-a-star for low finances B-movie schlock. Contemplating what we now learn about his well being, nonetheless, a lot of that would simply be defined as a person making an attempt to make his cash earlier than it was too late. Such a state of affairs would make for a tragic ending to a profession that in any other case stays one of the spectacular in Hollywood historical past. However even with a slew of middling motion thrillers populating his later filmography, nothing may actually take away from Willis’ standing as the most effective to ever do it.
Willis was and is a film star in each sense of the phrase. He not solely redefined what an motion hero could possibly be within the ’80s with “Die Onerous,” however he additionally had an actual versatility that had beforehand allowed him to entrance the ABC comedy drama “Moonlighting,” and would see him carry the whole lot from psychological thrillers similar to “The Sixth Sense” to comedies similar to “The Entire 9 Yards.” As dire as a few of his newer selections have been, then, his early filmography will all the time converse for itself.
However even in his heyday, the “Die Onerous” star was no stranger to field workplace flops and important failures. Willis regretted starring within the notorious 1990 flop that was “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” after which there was, in fact, his infamous 1991 misfire “Hudson Hawk,” a misunderstood business catastrophe that just about ruined his profession. However neither of these actually match the outright blunder that was 1999’s “Breakfast of Champions,” a movie that was primarily withdrawn from public consumption instantly following its abysmal crucial debut. As with so many movies lambasted upon their arrival, the movie has undergone considerably of a reappraisal because the years have gone on. In 2024, IndieWire known as it “Certainly one of Bruce Willis’ finest motion pictures,” and YouTube is filled with video essays about how the movie deserves a re-examination. Nonetheless, on the time of its launch, “Breakfast of Champions” was met with a response worse than a number of the stuff from Willis’ late-career B-movie run.
Bruce Willis’ field workplace flop was a misunderstood satire
Having beforehand labored collectively on the 1991 neo-noir thriller “Mortal Ideas,” Bruce Willis and director Alan Rudolph determined to reteam for “Breakfast of Champions” in 1999. An adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s 1973 novel of the identical identify, the film noticed Willis taking part in the lead position of automobile salesman Dwayne Hoover, who’s teetering on the sting of a nervous breakdown. Regardless that he is revered because the best salesman within the fictional Midland Metropolis, Indiana, Hoover feels so remoted and is so consumed by his mid-life neurosis that he ceaselessly goes via the motions of ending all of it, stopping in need of truly pulling his revolver’s set off. When science fiction creator Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney) involves Midland Metropolis for an arts competition, Hoover tracks him down seeking solutions to his ongoing turmoil. The movie truly strays from the guide all through, most notably by ending on a way more life-affirming be aware after Hoover takes Trout’s assertion that “It is our life” to coronary heart and reclaims possession of his story.
“Breakfast of Champions” was a satirical tackle the America of the late ’90s, taking purpose at its rampant commercialism which robs people — on this case Dwayne Hoover — of an actual sense of self. The tone of the movie is outlandish, erratic, and even cartoonish at occasions, sending up the absurdity of recent life within the American suburbs and at occasions conveying a kind of prototypical “Tim & Eric Nice Present, Superior Job!” — model. The business that opens the movie is mainly “Free Actual Property.” It is that very same darkish comedic model, whereby each absurd beat is haunted by the sense that one thing is deeply improper underneath the floor.
If that sounds in any respect attention-grabbing, the critics definitely did not assume so on the time. “Breakfast of Champions” was savaged upon its debut, and the field workplace wasn’t significantly better.
Breakfast of Champions was a crucial and business catastrophe
How dangerous was the field workplace for “Breakfast of Champions.” $178,000 on a finances of $12 million dangerous. Simply to be sure to learn that proper, that is not $178 million, however $178,000. How dangerous have been the crucial reactions? Leisure Weekly calling the movie “Unwatchable” dangerous. Or, so dangerous that the film was pulled from vast launch after its preliminary theatrical debut on September 17, 1999. Chatting with IndieWire, Alan Rudolph described the film as “radioactive” upon its launch. The distributor, Buena Vista, buried the film after abysmal preliminary reactions, to the extent that even Rudolph could not get a duplicate of his film. “I went to Wherehouse Data the day they have been closing and located the DVD within the 99-cent bin,” he stated. “That was my solely copy of the film.”
What makes this complete debacle even worse is that Bruce Willis was excited sufficient to make the film that he secured the funding himself. As Rudolph informed IndieWire
“[Bruce] learn it and stated, ‘Let’s go.’ I stated, ‘When, 100 years from now?’ And he stated, ‘No, I will get the cash so long as we do not spend loads. However I have to go now, as quickly as attainable.’ I do not know the place Bruce bought the cash, however he snapped his fingers, and some months later, we have been capturing.”
After all, and not using a studio backing the challenge, Rudolph and his star have been free to make no matter film they needed, resulting in a very unique and subversive effort that surprised critics for all of the improper causes, in addition to the distributor. “We had no interference,” Rudolph informed IndieWire, including, “The powers that be noticed it and handled it like some sort of radioactive rock or a deadly illness. Everybody simply pretended that it wasn’t there.”
Right this moment, the film has a 27% rating based mostly on 49 opinions on Rotten Tomatoes, and was described by Rudolph as “one of the reviled movies in trendy American cinema,” though he maintains that it’s his “proudest achievement.” Whereas the identical won’t maintain true for Willis and his muscular filmography, “Breakfast of Champions” stays one other instance of the person’s outstanding versatility and a field workplace bomb that’s truly price watching. As such, it deserves all of the reappraisal it has coming its manner.
