I wouldn’t think there would be rare egg collectors, yet some of the things I collect have made me realize there are collectors for absolutely anything. Not sure which would surprise me more, the weirdest things anybody has ever collected or the most bizarre sexual kinks which have ever existed.
In 1984’s A Breed Apart, Donald Pleasence is a very wealthy egg collector who is willing to pay mountaineer Powers Boothe $150,000 to obtain the bald eagle eggs atop a steep cliff on an island owned by Rutger Hauer. Even as rare of these would normally be, this particular strain of eagle is apparently different from any others known. Taking those from the nest will likely result in the extinct of this particular breed. That is a question Boothe asks, and is confirmed by, Pleasence. Anybody mistaking this question for concern would be mistaken when Boothe expresses no worries when he’s being paid that kind of money.
What he didn’t plan for was Hauer, a Vietnam vet with trust issues who has nearly cut himself off from humanity. The little interaction he has with anybody is mostly with Kathleen Turner, who owns a dockside general store and boat rental. He especially has a bond with her son Andy Fenwick, who is always anxious to get Hauer’s approval for such things as a fort he has made in the woods.
All Hauer wants to do is live in peace on his island, observing and caring for the wildlife. Of course, people can’t just leave him alone. As somebody who values their privacy above all else, I fully identified with the man in this regard. Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with angry hunters like Brion James and John Dennis Johnston. These two ignore the no trespassing signs posted on the shore and proceed to engage in wholesale slaughter. For a movie with such a noble environmentalist message, there’s a lot of bird corpses shown and I doubt they all died of natural causes. I, for one, cry fowl.
Hauer chases the guys off his island, but not before landing an arrow in Johnston’s leg. Our hero also stacks the avian corpses in a pile, pours something out of his canteen and then sets the lot on fire. I was baffled as to what must be in that canteen to fuel flames like that and my first thought was, inexplicably, gasoline. Wouldn’t it be interesting if he accidentally took a swig of that? Instead, it is later revealed to be moonshine he distills himself. I have relatives used to do the same (I assume “used to”) and I actually had a sip of that once. Even for an alcoholic, that was a one-and-done.
A complication arrives when Hauer is attacked by James and Johnston in Turner’s store and Boothe keeps the man from getting shot. Having saved his life, it seems fair Hauer should agree to Boothe’s request to camp on his island. After all, the man is only there for shooting—and, by that, I mean he will be shooting photographs. For much of the movie, these two carefully circle each other, neither one of them sure where the other stands. In addition to the eagles, there is the complication of a love triangle, with Boothe taking Turner on a date and Hauer gradually acknowledging he has feelings for the same woman. Given Hauer has already lost a wife and son, he is very reluctant to connect with somebody romantically.
Boothe proves to be extremely helpful when James, Johnston and four of their friends invade the island with the intention of dynamiting Hauer’s weird house that is like something out of Swiss Family Robinson. Still, Hauer is suspicious of Boothe’s motives, and rightfully so.
Everything leads up to the day Boothe finally decides to make the ascent to the eagle’s nest. I liked how the suspense isn’t simply whether he will succeed in getting to the summit, but whether he will follow through on his mission if he does.
This is an odd, though largely enjoyable, movie which meanders down a number of tangents that feel like distractions from the main plot. The worst of these concerns TV reporter Jayne Bentzen, who sleeps with Boothe for the inside scoop on the reclusive Hauer, only for him to intentionally stiff her…um, so to speak. How about I instead say he jerked her around…um, no. Oh, goddamit.
As far as the performances go, Hauer pretty much owns this movie despite some unevenness in his accent. In at least one of the scenes in Turner’s shop, I marveled at his American accent. At other times, he sounds like how we have become accustomed to him sounding. In one scene, he even delivers a speech in the manner of his famous “tears in rain” monologue from Blade Runner. Now that I think about it, more than a little of his performance here seems to channel that film’s Roy Batty.
Turner is quite good in this, and I completely believed her character. She especially has a casual rapport with Fenwick, such as the little juggling routine they have going on at the beginning when they’re stocking the shelves. She has a decent monologue where she explains to Hauer how her date with Boothe allowed her to forget for one night she isn’t somebody who just owns a store or who is a mom. I especially felt her frustration in trying to get Hauer to take an interest in her, eventually forcing him to cop a feel. His reaction to it is to remark upon how odd it is to feel her heartbeat, and I can’t imagine any other guy on Earth in the same situation and that being their takeaway from the experience.
Boothe is so-so in this. I never find him to be a bad actor, but always a bit bland. This is going to sound cruel, but I was distracted by the many close-ups on him that only seemed to emphasize the rather large pock marks on his face. I was wondering if a subplot would have Fenwick inexplicably fall into one of those, and then we would have a tiny Lassie running around on the man’s face and barking, trying to draw attention to yet another kid falling down a well.
Another aspect of Boothe’s role I found irritating doesn’t have to do with acting or his appearance. Instead, it is how I couldn’t stop thinking about why he wants that money from Pleasence, and it is because he wants to go to China to climb some previously unconquered peaks after the country has opened up more areas for foreigners. I wondered if those mountains had yet to be climbed by White people, similar to how the alleged conquerors of Everest only made it because of sherpas who clearly already knew the place. Also, I found it bizarre what the man wears when finally making his climb up to the eagle’s nest: headband, Izod shirt and jeans. I wondered if he undertakes every such ascent looking like a mountaineering Yuppie who is ready to audition to be Springsteen’s E-Street Band.
A Breed Apart is equal parts goofy and sincere, action-packed and meditative. Its heart is in the right place even when its head is up somewhere else. If nothing else, it is worth seeing for yet another interesting, yet quirky, performance by Hauer. It is strange to see him playing with a baby bear for a while, but I think it says something about the weirdness of this movie overall that he collapses with the cub on a bear-skin rug, complete with head.
Dir: Phillipe Mora
Starring Rutger Hauer, Powers Boothe, Kathleen Turner, Donald Pleasence
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray