Not to speak for Revtim, but that’s true, we should have our own opinions. Nevertheless, it did warm my heart to see you NOT engaging in the lovefest that has broken out today on other parts of the internet. I really liked him in the Godfather movies, but cripes, I don’t see how anyone could think he was attractive in A Streetcar Named Desire. He had average looks, but the character was so repellent…“Oh, he was so hot, I watch that movie over and over!!” Seriously, that’s being said. It boggles my mind.
I watched the movie, (I read the play, too) and I saw a caveman brute portrayed with “grunt, mumble, and sneer”. Then the jerk character proceeded to rape a woman to break her spirit. And didn’t she have to go to a mental hospital after he got done with her? What a sexy character! Ugh. Brando was not attractive, ever, and especially not playing a caveman rapist. He just oozed assholishness, and from what I’ve heard of his off-screen personality, I don’t think it was a great stretch on his part. Of course, I tend to think people get more kudos than they deserve for playing jerks, like how hard is it to get to the lowest common denominator of human behavior?
So I guess I’ll vote for horribly overrated in his younger days, horribly sad in his personal life, and also the only old Don Vito Corleone that I can ever picture. RIP.
Eve, I was merely expressing a layman’s observation of how different movies are since method acting came along. Not a value judgement – it’s no different than the contrast between blues and rock and roll.
Olivier is supposed to have observed Brando punching a light bag backstage between scenes in Streetcar, shaken his head in bemusement and inquired, “Can’t you just… act?!”
Since you brought up Barrymore, I will also quote his comment on method acting: “*There are quite a few ‘methods’. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass, and some cracked ice. *”
FTR, I’m an acoustic blues guitarist, and I borrow this line when young pickers ask me what effects I use: “Effects? A Martin; a bottle; and a truckload of talent”.
(Quotes are from memory, correct them if necessary – we here on SDMB will bow to your knowledge of movies, whether you like it or not!)
Well, if I must . . . The Olivier quote was to Dustin Hoffman, after he’d stayed up all night to register “exhaustion.”
I’ve never heard the Barrymore quite, but it does put me in mind of Spencer Tracy’s acting advice: “Just stand there and tell the truth.”
All the news shows are calling Brando “the finest talent of his generation.” Now, I do admit he did do some terrific acting pieces. But “his generation” also contained Kirk Douglas, Judy Holliday, Richard Widmark, Robert Mitchum, Peter Finch, Shelley Winters, Patricia Neal, Julie Harris, Judy Garland, Paul Newman, Gloria Grahame . . . I’ll stack any of them, at their best, opposite Marlon Brando.
I don’t wish to argue with this, but would like further explanation. From what I’ve heard, it seems more like his adult children ruined their OWN lives.
Also, does anybody know if Brando still owned the island in the South Pacific?
I do think it’s odd that this news came just a few days after the bankruptcy announcement…
I always thought Miko Brando seemed to be doing fine. And it wasn’t just Brando who was a bad parent. The mothers of his children seemed to be unstable, like Christian’s mother.
I liked ISLAND! Not as good as Laughton’s ISLAND OF LOST SOULS but still better than Burt Lancaster’s 1970’s IoDrM… but now I’m eagerly awaiting the South Park tribute to Brando starring Dr. Mephisto! (Maybe a NAMBLA reunion!*)
*the National Association of Marlon Brando LookAlikes, not the other one!
Though I wonder what they are saying in the newspaper offices? “Well, no major bombings today, I guess we’ll spare the front page for Brando. Baby-boomers love him, it’ll sell out.”
I don’t think people are being as “disrespectful” here as they are being honest and well-informed. I mean, I’m no fan, but I’m not saying, “he sucked!” I’ve said flat-out several times he turned in several terrific performances. I just think he is vastly overrated, tended to self-indulgence (off-screen and on- ), and that some of his contemporaries were certainly his equal.
Including the still very much alive Karl Malden and Eli Wallach, both of whom appeared with him and neither of whom has ever gotten the respect he deserved (or, to quote Red Buttons, a dinner).
I’m in no league to debate this, but I’ll offer my own huble explanation: Good or bad, right or wrong, there was nobody quite like Brando. Yeah, he was pretty way out there sometimes. Yeah, the Method fully straddles the line of earnest craft and psychotic pretention. There are things that are horrific that are, against our better instincts, undeniably fascinating. I think that’s what Brando brought to the table. He wasn’t smarter, better looking, sexier, more ingenious, any of those things than some of your heros, but he was Brando, the rarest of rare specimines. When it worked, it worked like nothing I have ever seen, and I don’t have the words to describe it. I know it sounds like gushing, but I’m trying not to, really. I’ve found watching Brando at his best not always an especially pleasant experience (Last Tango in Paris comes to mind). But, I mean, think about it, Robert Mitchum in Last Tango?
I 'd think they’d have needed all the space on the front page – both above and below the fold – to fit his picture on there.
(OW! Ow! Stop hitting!)
I guess the biggest tragedy here is that now we’ll never be able to ask Marlon Brando if that was really his hand picking up a crystal at the beginning of Superman II.
