Marlon Brando

[mongoII]

A glowing review from the Orlando Sentinel in Florida of the Marlon Brando Documentary:


Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
Posted April 29, 2007

A new profile of actor Marlon Brando is -- with apologies to Tennessee Williams -- stellar, stellar.

Brando examines this iconic actor, impassioned activist and conflicted man. The documentary explains why Brando, who died in 2004, inspires such complicated feelings. He was brilliant and difficult, innovative and greedy, playful and tragic. He was never one way, and neither is this thoughtful profile.

This two-part, three-hour program, which premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday on TCM, restores humanity to his legend. All movie stars should be so lucky.

This profile will be indispensable to movie fans. "He is the marker," director Martin Scorsese says. "There's 'before Brando' and 'after Brando.' "

Part 2 is mandatory for anyone who loves The Godfather, the 1972 mob drama. Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and James Caan discuss pivotal scenes. The profile shares Brando's knockout test for Don Corleone, the role that brought him a second best-actor Oscar.

In the program, Sacheen Littlefeather tells how she declined that prize on his behalf and delivered his condemnation of Hollywood's treatment of American Indians. She says John Wayne was so angry that he had to be restrained.

The segment on Last Tango in Paris, a 1973 drama, is equally fascinating. In a 1977 interview, Brando says, "I never could figure out what that movie was about."

Director Bernardo Bertolucci wanted authenticity from Brando in playing a widower. The actor delivered, especially in a ferocious monologue directed at the corpse of his character's suicidal spouse. Bertolucci says the movie shocked Brando and caused a rift between them for years.

Brando never again matched that career peak. His dismissive behavior toward acting divides his colleagues. "This was not a dedicated actor who was going to work his craft," Jane Fonda says. "This man who brought so much joy to the rest of us, consummate actor, never enjoyed it."

Johnny Depp says Brando didn't care all that much, but concludes: "He's the god, and he would kill me for saying that."

Part 1 studies Brando's seminal collaborations with director Elia Kazan on A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. Martin Landau notes that Brando was nothing like brutish Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar.

Kazan liked Brando's turmoil, ambivalence and passion. Those qualities were all on display in 1954's On the Waterfront, which brought Brando his first best-actor Oscar. Brando recalls his shame at collecting that prize.

He grew increasingly difficult on sets, and Brando's disastrous 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty poisoned Hollywood against him.

"He could eviscerate you," says George Englund, a friend who directed him in 1963's The Ugly American.

The actor was the child of an alcoholic mother and an overbearing father. The profile suggests those beginnings shaped him. He had a reputation for breaking women's hearts and clashing with directors, who serve as father figures on sets.

The program touches on family tragedies that devastated the actor. But in this balanced profile, his children and grandchildren testify to his humor.

The profile contains many fascinating nuggets. Edward R. Murrow conducted a revealing interview with Brando in 1955. Brando and Montgomery Clift clowned in a home movie. Brando went into a sexy dance during a UNICEF gala in 1967. Praising Brando in vintage clips are John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, who says, "I adore Marlon."

It's a shame that director Francis Ford Coppola didn't weigh in on The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Other missing voices include Eva Marie Saint, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Nicholson.

Still, wonderful lore fills Brando. Scorsese reveals that the inspiration for Robert De Niro's "you talkin' to me?" in Taxi Driver came from Brando talking to himself in a mirror in Reflections in a Golden Eye.

However Brando felt about acting, he left an indelible contribution. The documentary Brando puts that legacy in thrilling perspective.

Reviewing key: ***** excellent,

[Mr. Arkadin]

I have mixed feelings about Brando. When the part was right for him (Streetcar is a fine example) and he was "on", he was incredible.

In other roles he seems to overact or be completely out of place. It will be interesting to view the documentary and get some new insights. I do wish TCM could have shown Viva Zapata (1952).

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thanks for the review, Mongo.

[vallo]

Not much of a Brando Fan (shoot-me) but maybe I'll find something I like about him after my viewing this Documentary. Thank you Mongo, for the heads up. Hopefully, I'll walk away with a better respect for him and his films. I do like his standards, "Street Car", "On the Water Front", "The Wild One" and of course, "The Godfather.

vallo

[Lzcutter]

I must say, that was 90 mins well spent. I learned a great deal about Brando the man which I enjoyed.

Boy, was his dad a piece of work in that Edward R. Murrow interview. Also, I realized how far television talk shows have truly fallen. Loved the stock footage of Chicago and New York from the 1950s. Loved that they talked with Brando's high school chums and that they made the cut.

Loved the interviewees, especially his agent (great story about how he became Brando's agent) and George Englund and Cloris Leachman. Angie Dickinson and May Britt looked like they were having a lot of fun reminiscing about Brando. Too bad we couldn't see more of that. Kevin McCarthy was so handsome back in the day.

Johnny Depp was great, too! Looking forward to tomorrow's installment.

And I'm not a big Brando fan. Go figure.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I wasn't a big Brando fan either, but I enjoyed this documentary so much.
I loved hearing about how he would gear up for a scene, and I didn't realize how deeply he felt about Kazan.

Photos of him as a youngster reveal how he seemed to struggle for attention everywhere.

Karl Malden's comments were so sweet, and I enjoyed Cloris getting in her digs in to ex- husband George.

Interesting Olivier comment considering statements folks have made about the Brando Unzipped bio. I think Angie and May had more to reveal, too.

Made me definitely want to tune in tomorrow night.

[Hollis]

I too thought the first part was well worth all the hype and learned some very interesting new facts. One thing I'm curious about and maybe someone can help out. In the review cited above, the !962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty was referred to as "disastrous" and I'm wondering why? I enjoyed both versions of the movie and I felt that each had its own unique qualities. Was it something that went on behind the scenes or was it the finished product? How did it "poison" Hollywood against him?

Thanks in advance all,

Hollis

[moira finnie]

The best thing about the documentary for me was seeing actors who seem like old friends and who actually knew and worked with Brando, such as Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, Martin Landau, Kevin McCarthy, Mai Britt, and Angie Dickinson. I could've lived without the "wit" and "insights" of Al Pacino, (who looks as though he just came from the beauty salon), John Turturro and Jane Fonda, whose connection to Marlon seems pretty tenuous to me. Other than that, I found that the documentary tended to confirm my belief that Brando's unstable youth and the inevitable self-indulgence fostered by a Hollywood career helped to destroy him as a person. I'll probably try to catch Part II sometime this month. Hope it gives me something new to ponder, but I'm not overly optimistic.

I liked the Franz Kline-looking abstract expressionist paintings motif used throughout the documentary and enjoyed Andrea Morricone's score, (at least I think it was Andrea). Great to know that Ennio's gift has been passed on in some form to another generation.

I enjoyed The Men (1950) that followed the documentary, though I'd seen it many years ago. I'd forgotten how good Richard Erdman & Jack Webb were in this film. I didn't think that Marlon Brando-Teresa Wright pairing worked completely, but that unlikely couple moved me, despite this, especially in the scene in which she comes to see him alone in the dark in the ward.

[benwhowell]

I enjoyed part one...although it was a bit repetitive and some of the comments from the actors who were "inspired" by Brando's method were a little too "diefying" and felt like filler that could have been edited for a more comfortable and tight running time.
I was moved by the usage of Brando's screen dialogue (screen test for "Rebel Without A Cause," "Last Tango In Paris") to give us insight into his memories (good and bad) of his childhood.
I'm curious as to why there was no mention (at all) of his lifelong friend, Wally Cox...
It also made me want to see "Burn!" I don't know why I always forget about that movie.
It was fun seeing photos of his raccoon.
It was also fun seeing Freddy Krueger's parents!
And I would love to have seen Jessica Tandy as Blanche...

[cmvgor]

Brando: Ahead of the times?

I would have liked seeing a recap of this incident, especially since I am unable to name the origional source. I think it was in the early 90's that
this story came out. Somebody who was SOMEBODY in the creation of
television programming told of Brando coming to him and pitching an idea
for a TV show. Brando proposed to take a film crew to his island home and have them film him and his family and children as they lived their lives, played together, frolicked in the surf, etc. No plot, no fictional story
to tell; just Brando and family on display, and producers paying him to
let the world watch. The programmer didn't buy it. He considered it
egotistical (no argument here) and just not commercial. The idea withered.

But look what has happened since. Ozzie Osbourne, Gene Simmons of KISS and even that Gotti broad have fielded projects along exactly those lines, and have found some success at it.

Ahead of the times. Ahead of the times.

[cmvgor]

More Retro Brando

A couple of other factoids, mentioned in the press when they happened, but not seen in the recent tribute coverage:

--Supposedly Brando expressed little interest at first in The Godfather. Then he decided it was all about Big Business, and was all for it.

--At the time of the Superman premier, the story came out that Brando arranged a meeting, during casting,
with someone from the production to seriously discuss the question: Would Superman's father, being alien, really look like an Earthling Human
and not, say, "a suitcase, or a bagel?" (One might consider the possibility
that a deadpan sense of humor was in control here.) Of course, Brando took the role. Perhaps the bagel had other commitments.

[Dewey1960]

>>Perhaps the bagel had other commitments.

The bagel might have fared better in the role.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Many years ago, I was in a restaurant in Geneva and a woman was causing quite a ruckus a few tables away. She wanted more liquor and the management wanted her out.
Finally a gendarme literally came and had to pick her up and carry her to a waiting police van.
She certainly was the center of attention and finally one of the waiters told everyone, "That was Anna Kashfi!!".....

I also am not necessarily a Marlon Brando fan. I have seen a few of his movies but not all.
I liked him in "The Young Lions", a movie that gets nearly no mention any more.
Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin are also excellent in this.

I thought the opening of "Superman" was great and different. Loved it!!
Brando as a suitcase or a bagel would have been unforgettable; certainly Oscar worthy, you'll agree.....

Larry!!