Yeah. I think Kazan said something along the lines of Brando’s greatest performing being offscreen, when he managed to behave like a good human being. Otherwise he was literally dangerous.
All I can say is the Method sure must work. I absolutely loved Brando in the Godfather. Gawd, that was such a good flick. So many people quote him from “On the Waterfron”, “coulda’ been a contender” and all that, but my favorite Brando moment is during the big meeting between the Five Families, and just after:
“But I’m a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him (referring to Michael)…if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightning, then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room…and that I do not forgive.”
…and later…
“Tattaglia’s a pimp. He never coulda outfoxed Santino. But I didn’t know until this day that it was Barzini all along.”
A critic once commented on Brando’s performance in the stage version of Streetcar, “I felt embarrassed for what I thought was a young actor having a seizure onstage – until I realized he was acting”.
Brando was so revolutionary that’s it’s almost irrelevant whether you like his acting – if you like any acting in the last forty years or so, you probably are watching someone he influenced.
And, as others have said, a sadly messed-up human being, which almost certainly contributed to the brilliance of his work.
Yes, it seems Larry King will be having a Marlon Brando tribute tonight at 9:00 pm http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/
(small nitpick but notice the date? Friday, June 2 ? No doubt someone forgot to wind their calendar at CNN … unless they had the prescience to know of this news story a month ahead of time.)
There have been many postings about Brando’s death but I believe one person mentioned the fire department going to his residence at Mulholland Drive? Pretty fancy address to have when you are destitute.
Marlon Brando was certainly in a class all his own. As someone else mentioned, his acting style probably influenced a great many actors over the last 4 or 5 decades. So long Marlon.
I remember when I very young, I was watching an old movie with my mom, I don’t recall which one. I mentioned to my Mom how they didn’t seem to be trying to act like “real people”. She said that was how they acted back then. I later learned it was Brando that really changed things.
OK, I wasa trying to be nice because the guy’s dead, but I really must protest.
You cannot tell me Jimmy Cagney or Barbara Stanwyck or Lillian Gish, etc., etc., “couldn’t act.” That “scratch and mumble” Actor’s Studio stuff was responsible for a lot of bad, mannered, self-indulgent posturing, and Brando—though he did give some good performances—was one of the worst offenders.
I wasn’t trying to say they couldn’t act; just that it seemed to me that the acting styles of old movies didn’t seem (to me) that their goal was to be realistic or try to make the viewer feel they were watching genuine human interaction, and not a performance. It’s a difference in style, not skill.
In any case, I know you know a shitload more about old flicks than I do (whenever I see a black and white news photo, I realize an Eve old-star-death-notice thread is forthcoming). It’s possible I noticed something from the few old flicks I saw that is not representative of the whole, and bow to your greater knowledge.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love ham (except deviled ham!), and Marlon Brando was a good, old-fashioned ham, as much as John Barrymore. What irks me is the whole “he was an Ac-Tor!” pretension.
I just keep thinking about that gawdawful *Island Of Dr. Moreau * thing he did a couple years back… the one where it seemed like they took a bunch of talented actors, and the ones who didn’t wear animal makeup had to get seriously drunk before they’d roll the cameras.
In particular, I’m thinking about the scene where Marlon and Fairuza Balk are talking, and Brando’s basically delivering a monologue with Balk there to provide reaction shots, and Brando is wearing this odd chrome hat that, at one point, a servant stops to empty ice cubes into.
For a man of such talent, he so often did some extremely bizarre stuff. More than once, I have wondered what Fairuza Balk was thinking when they were filming that scene…
