Marlon Brando

[Auroranorth]

I still love him in Guys and Dolls. Good actor, really weird personal life. Even for Hollywood.

[footballerswife]

Turner Classic Movies is airing a new documentary about him tonight and tomorrow night. I already missed the first showing of part one, but it's coming on again now. I just thought I'd give any Brando fans a heads-up-- it looks like it should be good. (Oh, and after that they're showing A Streetcar Named Desire and Guys and Dolls!)

[berrybearie]

footballerswife said:

Turner Classic Movies is airing a new documentary about him tonight and tomorrow night. I already missed the first showing of part one, but it's coming on again now. I just thought I'd give any Brando fans a heads-up-- it looks like it should be good. (Oh, and after that they're showing A Streetcar Named Desire and Guys and Dolls!)

I caught part of it. There was some good commentary. They got so many different people to offer their memories and analysis. I liked the John Gielgud comments.

He was so so good it was ridiculous. That string of roles in Streetcar, Waterfront, Wild One, Julius Caesar, etc., is just unparalleled. He was amazing. Everytime I see one of his early movies, I'm just blown away, and he just oozed sex appeal.

What a complex guy. It was interesting how he picked a guy to be his agent who was pretty green and then that guy (Jay Kastner?) said his job became trying to talk Marlon into doing movies because he didn't like working.

And it was interesting to see clip of him out-of-character relatively young with his intense sensuality that was a trademark but seemed weirder as he got older (... kissing Larry King ... [shudders]).

[footballerswife]

I actually don't know much about his life beyond how reclusive/weird he was and all the incidents with his children, so I am excited to watch this.

I agree about the sex appeal-- I don't think I've ever seen it emanate from an actor as much as it did from him. He was an amazing actor, but in his earlier movies I'm usually so distracted by the hotness that I can barely pay attention to what he's saying. Gah. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

[ownlife]

I'm usually so distracted by the hotness that I can barely pay attention to what he's saying.

If you did pay attention you wouldn't understand him because he mumbled so much.

[divasahm]

ownlife said:

I'm usually so distracted by the hotness that I can barely pay attention to what he's saying.

If you did pay attention you wouldn't understand him because he mumbled so much.

Some of my favorite clips from the documentary were from Julius Caesar and a couple of other films where he took on a British accent. He was perfectly understandable when he chose to be--I just wish he'd done more Shakespeare.

[may2]

I wish he hadn't given up after The Godfather and just gone after money. He was brilliant. He didn't mumble. He was just the first actor to talk the way people really talked.

[ownlife]

I can't comment on any roles where he assumed a British accent because I haven't seen those films but Brando was a mumbler in his other roles, a great actor to be sure, but one who did not speak clearly.

[Deleted]

I was entering my teens when "Mutiny on the Bounty" came out and I fell in love with him immediately. Watching the TCM documentary, I was floored by his seductiveness. In clips, he was shown meeting a reporter and also a young (non-celebrity) woman and with each, he instantly drew her in and completely focused his considerable attention upon her, drawing her into an intimacy that was fascinating, but also almost embarrassing to watch. His eyes never left theirs and he picked up on little personal details about their mannerisms or appearance that he found attractively quirky. He didn't make a secret of his lifelong obsession with seducing women, but it went beyond women, according to Cloris Leachman's husband (or ex or good friend or whatever he was.) He was candid about Brando's seductive intimacy with men as well. He didn't imply a sexual aspect, but did say Brando was deeply warm and physically affectionate with him and other men as well. And with someone like Brando, where do you draw the line between "sexual" and "non-sexual"? While he was a very inquisitive and creatively intelligent man, he was also utterly, instinctively physical.

I believe it was Sir John Gielgud who expressed regret that Brando hadn't done more Shakespeare: quite an endorsement! And after seeing the "Julius Caesar" clip, it seemed to me that his mumbling had to have been a conscious choice.

Yes, some things revealed about Brando in the documentary were disappointing (especially his deliberately creating endless delays during filming in order to make more money) but ultimately, his legacy dwarfs things like that.

[berrybearie]

nursenoir said:

I was entering my teens when "Mutiny on the Bounty" came out and I fell in love with him immediately. Watching the TCM documentary, I was floored by his seductiveness. In clips, he was shown meeting a reporter and also a young (non-celebrity) woman and with each, he instantly drew her in and completely focused his considerable attention upon her, drawing her into an intimacy that was fascinating, but also almost embarrassing to watch. His eyes never left theirs and he picked up on little personal details about their mannerisms or appearance that he found attractively quirky. He didn't make a secret of his lifelong obsession with seducing women, but it went beyond women, according to Cloris Leachman's husband (or ex or good friend or whatever he was.)

George Englund. Their son morning was Dylan on Guiding Light years ago.

I believe it was Sir John Gielgud who expressed regret that Brando hadn't done more Shakespeare: quite an endorsement! And after seeing the "Julius Caesar" clip, it seemed to me that his mumbling had to have been a conscious choice.

Yes, Gielgud said that he had wanted Brando to do Hamlet.

Yes, some things revealed about Brando in the documentary were disappointing (especially his deliberately creating endless delays during filming in order to make more money) but ultimately, his legacy dwarfs things like that.

On a related note, he had some impulse control problems for sure. Tales of him overeating are frequent and the costumer for Mutiny on the Bounty had to make something like 50 pairs of pants for him because he kept splitting them, allegedly due to his overeating. That'll delay production.