Thursday, 22 July 2004
Marlon Brando - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER - The death of the actor Marlon Brando a couple of weeks ago, gave much to think about. Whether it was his film performances, his stormy private and public family life, or his eccentricities, there was much in Marlon Brando's 80 years to ponder.
One is reminded of Roman Polanski's work a couple years back for The Pianist. Polanski's own life was just as infamous, what with his living in Europe in exile for being guilty of having sex with a minor in the United States 30 years ago. One recalls as his film The Pianist was getting raves from critics, there were some in the Hollywood community who felt it was in poor taste that his artistic achievement be lauded when in life the man was a bit of a scumbag. It came to the point that the rape victim, who was then a minor, went on Larry King's program to say that his private life had to be removed from consideration when pondering whether to vote his film an Academy Award. The film surprised many by copping the Best Actor statuette for Adrien Brody, and the director's prize for Polanski, albeit in absentia.
Marlon Brando had his problems in life. His latter years were marred with an over indulgence in food, that saw him become a caricature of his former self, that brooding sex symbol in his films of the 1950s: The Wild One, On The Waterfront, and A Streetcar Named Desire. From achieving legendary and pioneering status from critics and actors as the most unique, if not greatest actor of his generation, he eschewed the trappings of fame, and grew vigorously contemptuous of celebrity and Hollywood. He was brilliant, no doubt, but he was also wary of how his fame and talent could destroy him. Perhaps it did, but the work remains and in his death, as in life, it was lauded, though the man himself was often snickered at. A piece in the Daily Telegraph equated Brando to Orson Welles, another film genius in youth who literally ballooned, whose choice of roles "went beyond eccentricity, verging on capriciousness."
His performance in The Godfather was considered "towering" in cinema history, "intuitively brilliant and utterly authoritative." He won the Oscar that year, but in a move that was purely irreverent he dispatched an actress who donned Native garb and called herself Sasheen Littlefeather to appear on the telecast to refuse the prize owing to the film industry's treatment of Native Americans. The New York Times ran the complete speech, and reading it today it is fraught with quintessential Brando petulance, bringing himself into his activism for legitimate social issues.
The Brando that current contemporary popular culture knew was that bloated and aging actor whose public appearances were few and far between, just as his film work. The Score, a brilliant caper from 2001, had Brando's supporting turn one more as part of the scenery or fascination, rather than one that were integral to the plot. Nonetheless it was a delight considering he was practically out of the limelight. He made a couple of appearances on Larry King Live in the mid-1990s, giving the CNN talker an exclusive with the genius gone gargantuan, who sang and kissed King on the lips during the first interview in 1994, and who managed to offend Jews in his 1995 appearance. (Which, by the way, you cannot obtain a transcript of on Lexis Nexis. Perhaps it's due to the controversy had with what Brando had to say, as well as the fact that Brando swore uncensored.)
Marlon Brando was enigmatic, and rightfully so. Someone who was so expressive, yet seemingly laconic about his talent, bore a lot of the roles he brought to the screen in his performances. Obviously he was tortured by his success, and he died a shadow of himself, forever trying to live down the glorious adjectives used about him. Just who Brando was is something that filmgoers and observers will doubtless discuss henceforth. Like Katharine Hepburn who died last year, around this time, Brando was a towering force, who overshadowed those performers who came after him. Like Hepburn, he also kept a certain mystique and history about himself, which was essentially part of the legacy he leaves behind. For all his talents and his groundbreaking and prodigious work, his eccentricities and sins are forgiven.
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HarperCollins has just signed a deal with George Englund, the former husband of the actress Cloris Leachman, who was a friend and confidante to Brando. The forthcoming book will talk about the close friendship between Brando and Englund, who were friends for fifty years. Englund last saw Brando some 24 hours before his death. The publishers are naturally lauding the book as the incisive memoir on Brando, even more than Brando's own autobiography. The book will be published in the fall.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .