A Breed Apart

Summary

“Anybody see that bird man… just blow him up.”

This week I had focused my attention on some of Rutger Hauer’s lesser known roles. One film on Shout!Factory’s catalog caught my attention because of the great cast and the film’s relative obscurity. A Breed Apart stars Rutger Hauer, Kathleen Turner, Powers Booth, Donald Pleasance, and Brion James. That is a pretty fantastic cast. I purchased the film and watched it the other night.

Vietnam veteran Jim (Rutger Hauer) lives an eccentric life alone on an island in a lake. He occasionally captures birds and cleans oil off of them. His island that he lives on is a target for hunters because of its abundance of birds. Two hunters-Charlie (Brion James) and Joey sneak onto Jim’s land and start shooting birds in his area. Jim rides into the action on a horse. From a safe space in the forest he shoots a crossbow dart into one of their legs. As they escape by boat, Jim shoots a dart into their boat motor, disabling it. Michael Walker (Powers Booth,) expert mountaineer, wants to climb the highest point in China. He needs $150,000 to achieve his goal and become the first to fly the flag over the mountain. A rich benefactor (Donald Pleasance) hires Michael to track down a rare bird’s egg. It will complete his collection which is the largest in the world. The issue is that to collect these eggs will make the rare breed of bald eagle extinct. The only place to find the bird is atop the mountain on Jim’s land. Michael accepts the mission. Near the island, there is a local shop owner that sells supplies to fishermen named Stella (Kathleen Turner.) Jim occasionally goes into town and interacts with her. When Michael comes into town, he asks her out on a date. They have a one night fling. The next day Michael travels to Jim’s island and tries to pass himself off as an ecologist. Hauer doesn’t trust him at first but they become friends. Hauer is eccentric and he wants to watch over the bald eagles until the eggs hatch. When the hunters return, Hauer fights the hillbillies and Michael helps. This solidifies their friendship. They get drunk and Jim reveals that his wife and child had died in an accident four years earlier. Jim finds out that Michael had been with Stella which causes tension. Soon the hunters will return to the island and Michael must choose whether or not to betray his friend in order to achieve his dream.

A Breed Apart did not receive a lot of press upon its release on Blu-ray. Shout!Factory occasionally will sneak out minor films that nostalgists may want but are not of great interest to others. A perfect example of this release strategy would be Deadly Force starring Wings Hauser or A Breed Apart. When I purchased the film it was essentially a blind buy. The film itself is a pretty minor effort. Director Philipe Mora is not quite up to the task of making all of the elements work. The issue may be the script itself which never quite finds a way to build up enough suspense, but I also thought that the performances in the film were not quite tuned in. They could have used a little more reigning in by the director. I think these are the reasons the film has faded into relative obscurity. 

That said, the film takes place in a beautiful area. A Breed Apart was shot in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. It also has a small sequence which was shot at the Biltmore Mansion. I enjoyed looking at all the scenery in the film, especially some of the shots taken at the top of the mountain with the eagle’s nest.

Overall – curiosity led me to checking out A Breed Apart. The film is pretty minor but it has its moments and a great cast. There isn’t really much here to recommend or dissuade viewers from watching.

Video

Presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC Encoded image, the 1080p presentation looks okay but it is not exemplary. Grain is prevalent. The film is fairly soft looking at some times and the print looks a little faded. The cinematography in the film is attractive, but the visuals never seem to have enough color to make them really pop. 

Audio

The audio presentation on A Breed Apart sounds good. The DTS-HD MA Mono track capably recreates the original sound design. One thing that I found interesting was that the score by Maurice Gibb (of The Bee Gees) seemed to have drawn some unintentional inspiration from the Blade Runner score. I think that Brion James and Rutger Hauer’s presence in the film led to the composer unintentionally (or possibly intentionally?) drawing some cues from the iconic Vangelis score. 

Supplements:

Commentary – director Philipe Mora discusses working on the film with an enthusiastic interviewer. This commentary is enjoyable and upbeat but there are long pauses where the two participants seem to watch the film.

Interview – this brief interview with director Philippe Mora is interesting and entertaining. My favorite aspect of the interview involved how they used an injured bald eagle for the shoot. 

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.5/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 3/5

Overall – 3/5

A Breed Apart is a minor effort with some excellent character actors. The film has some pretty scenery and some great scenes, but it never ramps up enough tension to really work. The film is mainly of interest for the great cast. Shout!Factory has provided some good supplemental material for the film that should please fans. I appreciate that Shout!Factory seeks out these relatively minor films and helps them find their way onto Blu-ray, even when they have not aged particularly well.