Review of A Breed Apart (1984) by Bob T — 25 Aug 2013

Jim Malden (Rutger Hauer), a Vietnam veteran who has lost his wife and child, lives as a recluse on an island full of rare birds. His only contact with humanity is with Stella Clayton (Kathleen Turner) and her young son Adam, who have a small supply store on the mainland. One day, a mountain climber named Mike Walker (Powers Boothe) arrives to the island to observe two very rare eagles; what he doesn't tell Malden is that he's hired by the obsessive egg collector J.P. Whittier (Donald Pleasence) to steal the eagle´s eggs. But, the situation takes different turns for Walker...

I had totally forgotten about this movie, I did see it back in 1985, and now I found it on dvd in Germany. First of all, the plot with the animal protective and recluse Malden and his whole island set up is intriguing. His outfits, animals and general weirdness adds to the storyline. Hauer is ok, but this is hardly his finest moment, nor is it Turners or Boothes either. The acting is pretty wobbly, the movie feels out of sequence and there´s no proper structure. Then I red that after principal filming in South Carolina had finished, the film reels were sent back by plane to Los Angeles. One reel (of 4) never arrived, so the film was substantially reorganized around the missing scenes (shot out of order) in the editing room. This partly explains why some sub-plots are incomplete and Malden has no back story. Thus, this hardly helps the movie. Variety said that the film "lacks reason, dramatic tension or emotional involvement." and to that I can only agree. "A Breed Apart" doesn´t hold together properly despite the fact that there´s a foundation with a good story. I reckon the production team and the director Phillipe Mora simply only managed to take "A Breed Apart" to some sort of b-movie level. But, there´s still something I like with this movie.