Ken (The Men)The Men (1950) Directed by Fred Zinneman
This is one of those rather earnest 1950s social conscience films. Brando had already made a name for himself as an energetic and groundbreaking theatre actor in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Candida and A Flag is Born, so he had his pick of film roles when Hollywood came calling. He chose this movie out of a whole bunch because he thought the script was very well-written. In The Men he plays Ken, a young WWII soldier struck down in the prime of his life by a bullet to the spine. The Men follows his journey from hopeless bedcase to an independent life in a wheelchair... Brando is absolutely electrifying, he's so realistic and seperated from the acting conventions of the time that he pop-rivets your eyeballs to the screen. As Brando was unknown at the time of filming he was able to to check in to a Californian hospital and pretend to be an actual paraplegic... for three weeks he co-inhabited the hospital with real, crippled war veterans and studied their attitudes. He learnt foremost that they despised pity, and so he brought this to the film as the central motivation for his character. Ken is an angry young man who borders on suicidal, and Brando plays his arc in an unpredictable but wholly believable fashion.
Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire)A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Directed by Elia Kazan
This is the movie that catapaulted Brando into fame and fortune, and got him his first Academy Award nomination. For many people it remains the quintessential classic Brando role, and by this point Brando himself was happy enough with filmmaking (and the money attached to it) to turn his back on the theatre for good. Stanley Kowalski is written as a sweat-dripping, callously masculine brute and Brando was certainly not what playwright Tennessee Williams had in mind when creating the role. I've read that Anthony Quinn's less ambiguous and more animalistic take on the role later on in the theatre was closer to what the text required, but no one could ever argue that Brando didn't make film history when he sauntered into the frame as Stanley - a complexly sensitive take on a dominating and primal force of nature. Brando's work in this role was a reflection of the complicated nature of people and key to his own philosophy on acting (a philosophy that would remain through all his performances, no matter how little he seemed to care in the later years) - that people are neither inherently good or evil, and that even the most villainous role should be tempered by a realistic helping of humanity. Brando's performance as Stanley isn't a sympathetic role by any stretch of the imagination, but his every appearance attracts the viewer's eye like a moth to a candle, and is rightly deserving of it's gilded place in the history of screen acting. He manages to remain true to the character's innate violence and misogyny whilst displaying an unexpected sensitivity that goes some way towards explaining Stella's sexual attraction to her monstrous and controlling husband. Brando and controversial director Elia Kazan would work together on two more films. Read a full film review here.
Emiliano Zapata (Viva Zapata)Viva Zapata! (1952) Directed by Elia Kazan
Now that Brando had an Oscar nomination under his belt he probably felt a bit more comfortable with branching out and displaying his diversity as an actor. Viva Zapata! was a pet project of Elia Kazan and was written by celebrated novelist John Steinbeck, and Brando agreed to jump on board as a favour to Kazan. He gives a rather dignified and unshowy performance despite the ethnic prosphetics and makeup he wears (apparently they put things in his nostrils to make them wider), and he affects a light Mexican accent (light enough to convince in the role, but not so heavy as to invite ridicule). Brando got his second Oscar nomination for his work as the revolutionary hero Zapata, though it was his co-star Anthony Quinn who won for Best Supporting Actor as Zapata's brother. Brando had little care for the business side of acting at this point, so when he signed on to play Zapata he was only dimly aware of actually signing a two-picture contract with the Studio. Brando delighted in making the studio man sweat by signing in disappearing ink, but it would eventually be the Studio who had the last laugh in this case (see entry for Desiree).
Marc Antony (Julius Caesar)Julius Caesar (1953) Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Brando didn't think much of his work in this film, later believing himself to be too inexperienced and uncultured to have done Shakespeare alongside people like John Gielgud and James Mason. However it's not an opinion many people shared as he still managed to get himself a third consecutive Best Actor Oscar nomination for his heartfelt portrayal of the loyal Marc Antony. It's not really the lead role in the film, most of Brando's performance is focused into the famous "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech, but he delivers his lines so naturalistically that he doesn't feel out of place at all. It's easy to see why people took notice - up until this point a lot of film reviewers had been critical of Brando's style of speaking in movies, they didn't seem to grasp that the mumbling was supposed to convey a style of speech more in tune with the real world. So when he tackled Shakespeare and managed to do it both eloquently and unaffectedly, he proved to many of the naysayers that he was capable of a more oratory style, it was just that he chose (for the most part) to reject it in favour of sounding like a real person when he acted. Read a full film review here.
Johnny (The Wild One)The Wild One (1953) Directed by Laslo Benedek
Whilst this probably remains one of Brando's most iconic roles, the film itself hasn't really aged all that well and a lot of it comes across as quite cheesy now. The Wild One is very much a product of the 1950s, tapping into a social hysteria related to motorcycle gangs with a message that confusingly seeks to villify the biker subculture without alienating the film's youthful target audience. As a result it's neither really here nor there, and seems a bit over the top. Brando does a good job of embodying the anti-authoritarian streak in his character and kind of turns Johnny into an anti-hero for the times (as opposed to the figure of warning the film probably aimed for him to be). His lazy-sounding delivery of rebellious dialogue (lines that would've been shouted and wrung out for all they're worth if put in the hands of a less innovative talent) seals this characterisation as one that he would forever be associated with, right down the line to films like The Fugitive Kind and The Night of the Following Day.
Terry Molloy (On The Waterfront)This is the film that cemented Brando's immortality as a screen legend and won him his first Best Actor Oscar (incidentally, Brando later lost the trophy only for it to turn up at an auction in London. The auctioner claimed that Brando had given it to them as a present). He plays Terry Molloy, a rather dim dockworker who threw away a career as a successful boxer when he agreed to take a dive on the advice of his gangster brother Charlie (Rod Steiger). Brando gives a realistically mannered performance with roughened, slightly punch-drunk speech, working class body language, and a scar across his right eyebrow. A lot of the idealogy behind the performance was a direct line of justification on behalf of director Kazan, who had recently sold out his colleagues to the House of UnAmerican Activities. With this in mind some of the film's themes might rub modern viewers up the wrong way, though Brando cuts through this politicising by making things as simple as possible and simply playing Molloy as a broken failure who takes a chance to reclaim some dignity and respect. The part of Terry Molloy was actually written for John Garfield originally but he died before the film could be made. Kazan wanted Frank Sinatra for the part after that, and also courted Montgomery Clift, but due to Brando's recent box office and critical successes the studio used it's clout to get Kazan to bring Brando on board instead. On The Waterfront has a memorable final scene where Brando gets the absolute crap smacked out of him - starting the great Brando tradition of copping a beating (see also The Chase and One-Eyed Jacks).
Napoleon Bonaparte (Desiree)Desiree (1954) Directed by Henry Koster
Brando was strongarmed into doing this film as part of the two-picture deal he signed for Viva Zapata! He was originally asked to do a film called The Egyptian (a sword and sandals epic set in Ancient Egypt) but flat out refused, and ended up doing Desiree as a compromise. The film is based on a popular novel about Napoleon's first fiance, Desiree, who goes on to become a lady of his court. Brando's role is a leading one, but it's viewed through the eyes of Desiree so a good deal of interesting stuff about Napoleon gets left out in favour of more trivial politics involving his sisters and his right-hand general. As a result it's a fairly mediocre movie, though Brando does the best he can with what he's got. He very much looks the business but wisely doesn't attempt a french accent, instead opting to adopt a clipped neutral-ish British tone in order to fit in with the rest of the cast. He has a few great scenes where he acts out Napoleon's frustrations and indignance but aside from this it's a pretty dull movie. The very idea of Brando playing Napoleon in the 1950s should've made for cinematic gold... the fact that it doesn't pan out that way should tell you something about the quality of this movie. Read a full film review here.
Sky Masterson (Guys and Dolls)Guys and Dolls (1955) Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Brando's first foray into light comedy territory comes in the shape of Sky Masterson, a no good gangster and gambler who accepts the challenge of warming up a rather frosty missionary (who in turn is intent on ridding him of sin). Brando was admittedly not much of a singer but opted to do Guys and Dolls instead of a fourth Elia Kazan movie, East of Eden (Brando's part in that film went to James Dean instead), presumably because it would afford him a break from all the more dramatic roles he had become associated with. Brando's singing was so bad that he had to record the songs over and over again, enough times so that the sound engineers could cut and paste various notes and words into the shapes of the songs, and then Brando would lip synch the words whilst filming. Brando's singing co-star, Frank Sinatra, was reputedly quite unhappy to be playing second fiddle to Brando in a musical. Our man Marlon's performance isn't too bad, his smirking and bemusement is pretty much what the role requires, though this inability to take comedy seriously is what will drag down the majority of his future performances in the genre. A piece of trivia: Brando almost never attended the premieres of the films he starred in, but producer Sam Goldwyn gave the actor a new car in order to convince him to break this rule just once for Guys and Dolls.
Sakini (Teahouse of the August Moon)Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) Directed by Daniel Mann
Brando fans haven't seen it all until they've seen him play a wiley Japanese interpreter, complete with Okinawan accent, coal black hair and fake slanted eyes. His ethnic make-up is actually quite convincing (as you can see above) but unfortunately he never quite convinces amongst his genuine Japanese co-stars due to his height. Brando does all he can to keep his body hunched or short, often projecting deference to his white employer (Glen Ford) whilst slyly leading him up the merry path. As a character, Sakini is pure comedy - Brando isn't required to give his role any real dramatic weight, and so once again he gets away with smirking his way through a fairly lightweight role. Some modern viewers will no doubt be offended with the idea of Marlon Brando playing an asian, but it does remain an inoffensive characterisation that suggests intelligence and good humour, and Brando does his best to play the ethnicity of the character without descending into ugly stereotyping (unlike, say, Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's). Read a full film review here.
Major Lloyd "Ace" Gruver (Sayonara)Sayonara (1957) Directed by Joshua Logan
Keeping on the Japanese theme, in Sayonara Brando plays an airforce Major in recovering post-war Japan who finds himself smitten (despite his own cultural beliefs) with a popular Japanese stage performer. Brando adopts a southern accent, calling to mind the 'good old boy' network of the military and marking him out as at odds with the rest of the cast. His character starts out the film as an easygoing yet firm objector to interracial relationships, and alongside this character the audience comes to see the wrongness of this stance as we're taken inside a grand soap opera of tragedy and hope loosely based on the experiences of real life American military personnel. Brando actually took on this film on the proviso that he could change the ending to a more hopeful one, marking the start of his trend towards films that reflect a positive social message. He got his fifth Best Actor Oscar nomination for it.
Lt. Christian Diestl (The Young Lions)The Young Lions (1958) Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Brando as a Nazi! This is a sprawling war drama co-starring Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift that tells the disparate stories of two Americans and one German in WWII. Both Martin and Clift were in the throws of escalating alcoholism at the time, so Brando pretty much steals the movie by default as a result. He employs a realistic German accent, sports shockingly blond hair and plays Diestl as an impassioned and tragic idealist who becomes increasingly disallusioned with Hitler's propaganda as the film progresses. There's actually something very annoying about watching Brando playing a Nazi whilst insisting to do it as the hero of the movie... by this point he had it in his contracts that he had the right to exercise creative control on his film projects, so (much to the chagrin of the director and writer) he changed his character from a typically evil Nazi to something a bit more reflective of reality and less demonising. Whilst it's commendable that Brando gives us a lone 'good' Nazi, it's also quite boring, vain, and ultimately irritating, especially when you consider how awesome it might've been to see Brando play someone more typical of Hitler's regime.
Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (The Fugitive Kind)Brando plays second fiddle to Italian actress Anna Magnani in this rather stale adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play. His performance is very much a sullen and inobtrusive rehash of his casually rebellious work in The Wild One, and for a great deal of the film he's pretty much just there as material for Magnani's character to work around. He also never once plays his guitar despite carrying it around for a good portion of the movie. The only real highlight of his performance is the opening pre-titles sequence in which Valentine is put on trial for causing mischief at a bar, a lively monologue (written specially for the film) that gives more insight into the character than the entire rest of the film. Brando became the first actor to be paid $1 million for a movie role when he agreed to be in The Fugitive Kind, and there was some tension between himself and Magnani due to his unwillingness to sleep with the older actress. Magnani also couldn't speak English and had learnt all her lines phonetically, which made it difficult for her to pick up her cues when Brando improvised or downplayed his dialogue. As a result the film falls kind of flat.
Rio (One-Eyed Jacks)This complex western took a lot of trouble to make, mostly due to Brando's turn as first-time director. Stanley Kubrick was originally set to direct but got in an argument with Brando over casting, and so Brando decided to step into the director's chair to make the movie he envisioned. The result is a slightly overlong but ultimately interesting revenge western about grey morality. At times it takes a lazy pace but it also prefigures the radicalisation of the western genre and spaghetti-westerns in particular, with Brando cutting an intriguingly ambiguous figure as a lank-haired anti-hero in opposition to Karl Malden's genial but traitorous villain. Rio was initially meant to be Billy the Kid, with One-Eyed Jacks based on the novel The Death of Henry Jones, but Brando wasn't really interested in playing a straight-up villain. Instead he made the film into an epic saga of characters disguising their true natures (hence the title - 'one-eyed jack' is a reference to people only showing one side and one eye), with his re-written version of the lead character now a black-clad, single-minded force of vengeance who must choose between love and revenge. Brando's inexperience as a director (the original cut ran at something like 5 hours) and the studio's resulting post-production edit of his film (making the film more upbeat) led to a crushing artistic disappointment for the actor. He would never direct again, nor would he would ever again invest his integrity in a film role so completely.
Fletcher Christian (Mutiny on the Bounty)Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) Directed by Lewis Milestone
As it was now the 1960s it was suddenly okay for actors to portray historical figures with authentically long hair, so Brando continued growing his hair after One-Eyed Jacks. Brando copped some backlash amongst the critics at the time for his plummy British accent but he's actually quite good in this large scale retelling of the famous incident. He resists the film's attempts to carve him into a standard Hollywood hero by resolutely playing Christian as a foppish dandy whose charm and class seems to prohibit him from getting his hands dirty in any way whatsoever. Of course, events eventually conspire to force Christian's hand to action and Brando plunges the character into a realistically dark fugue as a result. The ending of this version of Mutiny on the Bounty is nothing short of nonsense but Brando is fairly entertaining throughout and the film itself is quite a spectacular historical adventure. He loved the Tahitian location and people so much that he purchased a small island in the area, and built a private hotel there. Read a full film review here.
Harrison Carter MacWhite (The Ugly American)The Ugly American (1963) Directed by George Englund
Another one of Brando's 'message' films, this one deals with American foreign policy in a fictional South-East Asian country (ala Vietnam and Cambodia). Brando plays a U.S. Ambassador seeking to improve the lot of the Sarkhenese through the construction of a 'freedom' highway. The film is loosely based on a book of the same name, with the idea being that the imposition of American ideals on other countries can do just as much damage as the communist ideals they hold in so much contempt. MacWhite is shown to be a misguided idealist who very much believes in what he's doing, a naive character who doesn't really learn anything until it's far too late. It's a fairly flawed film, with too much sermonizing (both for and against) and lots of scenes with Brando projecting his inner turmoil over what this poor country is going through. Brando very much had a big hand in getting this film made, he personally chose Japanese actor Eiji Okada (in the only English-speaking role of his career) as his co-star, and Brando's sister Joceyln also co-stars as a nurse. Unfortunately, the film apparently deviates a fair bit from the very famous book it's based on, and as a result it's largely considered a failure.
Freddy Benson (Bedtime Story)Bedtime Story (1964) Directed by Ralph Levy
Brando returns to comedy in this bold, deliciously bad-taste tale of rival conmen in the french riviera. He plays a small-time con-artist quietly discharged from the army after seducing one woman too many and finds himself let loose on Europe like a kid in a candy store. He wanders into the playground of a big-time operator portrayed by David Niven and soon the two are competing for the attentions of a rich tourist, embroiled in an escalating game of outlandish lies and schemes. Bedtime Story is a fairly amusing comedy that thankfully resists sugarcoating it's subject matter, though the weakest link is easily Brando. He doesn't seem able to take his role all that seriously, continuously trying to fight the smirk off his face because he's just too amused by it all. There's a few small moments where he manages to be quite funny but overall it's Niven who steals the show as the older, classier con artist. Freddy is a rather cocky character so he's not even really all that likeable, with Brando playing him as a crude lowlife who thinks a little too highly of himself. A large portion of the film sees Brando's character faking a debilitating mental condition that leaves him bound to a wheelchair... it's a far cry from his serious and critically acclaimed work in The Men but it's interesting to see Brando play the same material for laughs. Bedtime Story isn't very well-known these days, it was remade more famously as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in the late 80s, which is easily as good if not better. Brando was fully aware of his shortcomings as a comic actor and he would rarely do an out-and-out comedy like this ever again. He also later said that this was the only film he ever truly enjoyed making and that he found David Niven absolutely hilarious. Read a full review of Bedtime Story here.
Robert Crain (Morituri)Morituri (1965) Directed by Bernhard Wicki
This was the last black and white film Brando made, and aside from a few mentions of rape and anti-semitism it feels fairly dated too. Brando plays a WW2-era German for the second and last time, once again employing a spot-on German accent and doing his best serious routine. His character is a German traitor waiting out the war in India who gets blackmailed into working for the British as a spy onboard a German ship. The resulting film is a fairly run of the mill war thriller, with a non-German accented Yul Brynner playing the strangely heroic captain of the ship. Brando isn't really all that interesting in this, the movie looks cool and atmospheric but not all that much happens and Brando stays firmly in brooding, introspective mode for the bulk of the duration.
Sheriff Calder (The Chase)The Chase (1966) Directed by Arthur Penn
A fairly decent and very 60s satire-drama about smalltown ignorance and lynchmob mentality getting the better of the law. Brando plays the resolute but worldweary sheriff who must do his best to protect a prisoner (a young Robert Redford) from self-righteously ugly townspeople hellbent on mutiny. In true Brando tradition he takes one hell of a beating in order to symbolise the struggle of those who must uphold what's right. He's actually a lot better here than he is in his last few preceding films, employing a suitably southern accent and demonstrating a sense of wryness and familiarity in the earlier scenes where the Sheriff patrols his constituents. He boils up at the unfairness of his situation with a sense of dignity befitting his profession, and the film is never better than when he's on screen. It's also worth noting that this is probably the point where Brando first starts showing signs of ageing, he looks heavier in this film than he does in any film before it and sports greying hair, but it also suits his character and doesn't distract in the way it does in some of his later movies where his weight balloons much more noticeably.
Matt Fletcher (The Appaloosa)The Appaloosa (1966) Directed by Sidney J. Furie
This is a fairly B-grade western with no real pretensions and is hence fairly enjoyable in a pseudo-spaghetti western kind of way. Brando spends some of the film looking rather shabby and unkempt, liked a bearded hobo of the desert, before smartening himself up and embarking on a revenge quest to liberate his stolen horse from some dirty steenkin Mexican badguys. The head of these villains is played by John Saxon, an actor best described as a low rent cross between Burt Reynolds and Al Lettieri, and there's a few good scenes where he and Brando square off against each other - not the least of these is a bizarre arm-wrestling competition where the loser gets his hand pushed into the territory of a deadly scorpion! For most of the film Brando isn't really required to put too much effort in... during one part of his revenge quest he goes undercover as a Mexican and employs an over-the-top Mexican accent, and it's about a million miles away from his more subtle work 14 years earlier in Viva Zapata, suggesting that he wasn't really treating this role all that seriously.
Ogden Mears (A Countess From Hong Kong)A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) Directed by Charles Chaplin
Even the disallusioned Brando couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with a screen legend like Charlie Chaplin. Here he appears in Chaplin's last film as a stuffy, well-to-do diplomat who shelters a stowaway (Sophia Loren) onboard on an ocean liner. Brando wasn't keen to do another comedy but the presence of Chaplin was the dealbreaker, though Brando would come to regret every minute of the film due to Chaplin's mean-spirited and generally disagreeable nature. The film itself is a lifeless and turgid farce... Brando plays a figure more than a little remniscent of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, and seems less than happy to be on the screen. You can practically see him gritting his teeth just to get through it, and A Countess From Hong Kong probably remains his worst film simply due to the fact that it's hideously boring and completely without interest.
Maj. Weldon Penderton (Reflections in a Golden Eye)Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) Directed by John Huston
This is one of the stranger and more risky dramas to come out of the radical 60s with a definite sheen of quality on it. Liz Taylor plays the rather loose and frustrated army wife of an army professor (Brando) on a military base. A young private (Robert Forster, in his film debut) has a voyeuristic obsession with Taylor's character, but is also unaware that he is the secret object of desire of Brando's character, a closeted and self-loathing homosexual, which places the three characters in a rather twisted and ultimately doomed love triangle. Brando's willingness to play an obviously gay character like Weldon shows just how ahead of his time he truly was, and proved that he was still leagues ahead of his contemporaries. He affects an authentic-sounding southern accent and takes on a dour disposition for most of the film, cracking his exterior in a few riveting key scenes to reveal the depth of confusion and pain underneath... the most memorable of these would have to be the infamous horse-whipping scene, featuring a flood of raw emotion on Brando's part that is only matched by his later Oscar-nominated work in Last Tango in Paris. The film isn't the masterpiece some fans claim it to be, but it stands the test of time as a highly interesting porthole into the changing attitudes of the era and remains a must-see film due to the level of commitment offered by both the cast and the director. This film pre-figures the beginning of Brando's return to glory... a five year stretch of inspired performances (with one or two glaring exceptions) that would culminate in his second Oscar win.
Grindl (Candy)
This is one of the stranger and more risky dramas to come out of the radical 60s with a definite sheen of quality on it. Liz Taylor plays the rather loose and frustrated army wife of an army professor (Brando) on a military base. A young private (Robert Forster, in his film debut) has a voyeuristic obsession with Taylor's character, but is also unaware that he is the secret object of desire of Brando's character, a closeted and self-loathing homosexual, which places the three characters in a rather twisted and ultimately doomed love triangle. Brando's willingness to play an obviously gay character like Weldon shows just how ahead of his time he truly was, and proved that he was still leagues ahead of his contemporaries. He affects an authentic-sounding southern accent and takes on a dour disposition for most of the film, cracking his exterior in a few riveting key scenes to reveal the depth of confusion and pain underneath... the most memorable of these would have to be the infamous horse-whipping scene, featuring a flood of raw emotion on Brando's part that is only matched by his later Oscar-nominated work in Last Tango in Paris. The film isn't the masterpiece some fans claim it to be, but it stands the test of time as a highly interesting porthole into the changing attitudes of the era and remains a must-see film due to the level of commitment offered by both the cast and the director. This film pre-figures the beginning of Brando's return to glory... a five year stretch of inspired performances (with one or two glaring exceptions) that would culminate in his second Oscar win.
Grindl (Candy)Candy (1968) Directed by Christian Marquand
There's just something grotesquely hynoptic about the very idea of Marlon Brando playing an Indian Guru proficient in the art of the Kama Sutra. It might've been the worst role he would ever play if he wasn't so obviously aware of how ridiculous it all is. As he's patently in on the joke it simply remains bizarre and mildly amusing. The film itself is very much a product of it's time, a 60s sex comedy that plays as a pastiche on 60s pop culture, but aside from the various celebrity cameos it's a fairly dull and dated affair that manages to wear out it's welcome very quickly. Brando's thick Indian accent, boot-polish skin and unruly black wig would've been offensive if his character wasn't so obviously a charlatan... he rides around in a makeshift Guru-den in the back of a truck and spouts all manner of half-arsed spiritual nonsense in order to get the lead character to have sex with him multiple times. The scene is mildly amusing at first but it goes on for far too long (like the movie itself). Brando agreed to appear in the film as a favour to the director, who he was friends with. Read a full film review here.
The Chauffeur (The Night of the Following Day)The Night of the Following Day (1968) Directed by Hubert Cornfield
A rather pointless and vaguely arty thriller that seems to think it's clever, this one features Brando as part of a gang who kidnap the daughter of a diplomat and hold her to ransom. His character is the one in the gang who has pangs of conscience when things start to go a bit awry, though most of the film sees him having to contend with his drug-addicted girlfriend. Brando looks surprisingly fit and young here in comparison to his roles in Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Chase, and this is pretty much the last film in which he looks lean and in-shape... from here on in it would be a steady decline towards morbid obesity. A lot of Brando's angry scenes in this film call to mind his work as young rebellious characters in The Wild One and The Fugitive Kind, though it's pretty clear that he only did this film for the money. The Night of the Following Day is every bit as dumb as it's title, and Brando spends most of the film looking snazzy and sub-Eurotrash in a black skivvy and a blond Andy Warhol wig. When he realised that the film was a real piece of crap he started making things difficult for the director, including refusing to smile for the film's final scene (the director ended up having to use a still shot instead). It's a stupid ending that doesn't make any sense anyway, so Brando was probably right to act so disaparagingly. Read a full film review here.
Sir William Walker (Burn!)Burn! (1969) Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
Also known as Quiemada. This is probably my absolute favourite Brando role, and is also a criminally underrated film. Brando plays Sir William Walker, a 18th century British spy and professional rabble-rouser. He is sent to the Portuguese-held Caribbean island of Queimada by the British to foment revolution, and is later financially-motivated to return ten years later to help put an end to the subsequent slave-led regime. Brando plays Sir William as a dashing master-spy and all-round cad, employing the same foppish accent he used in Mutiny on the Bounty and carrying a sophisticated implication of depravity that comes to the fore when the character eventually falls on hard times due to alcoholism and gambling problems. Brando is a delight throughout, shining whenever Sir William manipulates his prey and displaying an alarmingly believable sense of ammorality. Burn! also happens to be a very interesting film with a strong, uncompromised vision of filibusting and the political agendas involved. At this point Brando was increasingly finding himself offered less work in Hollywood, which led to him working with European directors such as Pontecorvo (most famous for The Battle of Algiers). Brando and Pontecorvo had increasingly volatile disagreements throughout the making of Burn!... Brando was upset by the director's ill treatment of the extras (played by local islanders) and the two men took to threatening each other with weapons (Brando had a rather large knife, Pontecorvo started carrying a gun). Despite this, Brando never lost respect for Pontecorvo's talent and often cited this film as amongst the best he ever made. He actually opted to make this film rather than be in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Peter Quint (The Nightcomers)The Nightcomers (1971) Directed by Michael Winner
Brando is also excellent in this low-key psychological horror-thriller set in the 19th century British countryside. The film itself is an obscure prequel to the Henry James classic The Turn of the Screw, and is memorable if only for Brando's performance as the Irish scoundrel, Peter Quint. Quint is the lazy gardener of a large estate that has been abandoned by it's legal owner, and he finds himself as an unofficial father-figure to two young orphans. Quint is the last man you would ever want influencing your children, and Brando takes great delight in playing this less than charming character as a low-class rogue who treads a fine line between careless irresponsibility and outright immorality. When he isn't giving the children dodgy 'facts' regarding the afterlife or showing them how to blow up poor defenceless toads, he's sticking it to the foxy young nanny, Miss Jessel (the buxom Stephanie Beacham) in ways that border on rape. Brando got on very well with the director Michael Winner, which probably goes someway towards explaining the perversely controlled and excellent performance he gives, complete with genuine-sounding Irish accent. Read a full film review here.
Don Corleone (The Godfather)The Godfather (1972) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
No one could dispute that this isn't Brando's most iconic and celebrated role... for many people no other Brando film before this one even exists. The hype and reputation surrounding this role is more than deserved as Brando gives a stunning, serious comeback performance so inspired and outside of the box that no one could deny him the second Best Actor Oscar he won for it (no one aside from Brando himself, that is. He refused this Oscar and sent a Native American in his place in order to grandstand his political beliefs). Brando's Don Corleone is a king amongst mobsters who grows soft with age and wishes to aquire legitimacy for his family before he dies. Never once do you feel that he isn't capable of the things that got him to where he was, whether he's expressing quiet outrage at a favour asked or mocking a grown man for crying. Brando famously stuffed his cheeks to give the character a bulldog-like look, and adopted a light Sicillian accent of unassuming volume (a vocal stylizing that has become often emulated and synonymous with the genre ever since). The studio heads didn't want Brando to be in The Godfather, they felt he was too much of a troublemaker and were discouraged by the fact that he hadn't even been in a hit movie since the early 60s. Francis Ford Coppola held fast to his choice despite the studio's misgivings and tricked Brando into doing a screen test (he told him it was a make-up test and that he already had the role) in order to get him onboard. Brando was due to appear in the flashback scene near the end of The Godfather Part II two years later but he didn't show up on the day of filming as a way of saying "Screw you" to the producers who never wanted him in the first film.
Paul (Last Tango in Paris)Last Tango in Paris (1972) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Brando was still on fire when he made this naturalistically-lit, arty European film about two strangers embarking on an affair that revolves around sex. The director encouraged Brando to play the character as if it were autobiographical, resulting in the actor adlibbing a lot of his dialogue. Parts of the film where Paul reminisces about his childhood or gets emotional about his parents are very much Brando simply baring his soul for the camera. Last Tango in Paris attracted some infamy for it's daring sex scenes (one of which featured a stick of a butter) and Brando's nonchalance about performing such graphic scenes at the age of 49 went some way towards getting him yet another Best Actor Oscar nomination. The director wanted Brando to actually have sex with the actress for real, but Brando declined as he felt it would've been too gimmicky. He was also meant to do full frontal nudity for one scene but he was so nervous and cold that it was less than flattering so the director cut it altogether. Brando was left emotionally exhausted after investing so much of himself into the character, and he vowed to never again get so close to a role. He felt that Last Tango in Paris was an interesting but overrated movie... I'm not sure I agree with the overrated bit, it's a startling performance and the film virtually revolves around Brando, so it remains an overt tribute to the actor's talent.
Robert E. Lee Clayton (The Missouri Breaks)The Missouri Breaks (1976) Directed by Arthur Penn
This western has Brando off-the-leash and at his craziest. Here he plays Lee Clayton, an Irish bounty hunter called in to put an end to a gang of desperate cattle rustlers (led by Jack Nicholson). Apparently Brando absolutely refused to do anything he was told, so the director just gave up and let Brando do his scenes in any way he saw fit. The result is a very colourful and often amusing performance with Brando getting as close as he would ever get to playing a big epic villain, though he virtually derails the whole movie. Most of the film sees him dressed in an odd assortment of outfits (including a granny dress), sporting an outrageous Irish accent (which he curiously seems not to have in one or two scenes) and wielding a strange cross-like weapon (that the actor invented himself). By this stage Brando refused to memorize a script, he had been adlibbing and using cue cards since The Godfather. This caused him to often get on the nerves of the actors he shared scenes with (Nicholson found himself distracted by the cue cards in this film) but he did it for two very clear reasons; the first was that it allowed for his line readings to seem spontaneous and unrehearsed, and the second was because it was less effort and he knew he could get away with it. Brando also shocked the cast and crew of The Missouri Breaks with his bizarre behaviour off-screen, allegedly catching and taking a bite out of a live frog at one point.
Jor-El (Superman)Superman (1978) Directed by Richard Donner
This role is infamous simply because Brando was paid an unprecedented $4 million for what amounts to little more than a cameo role. Brando had actually signed a contract that also specified a share of the profits, though he had to eventually sue the producers to see the rest of his money (he was eventually paid a further $10 million). Pre-production of Superman was originally due to take place in Rome but this had to be abandoned once Brando signed on as there was an obscenity charge waiting for him in Italy due to his work in Last Tango in Paris. As evidenced by his behaviour in The Missouri Breaks, Brando was by now a creative liability - he suggested having his character represented by a floating green bagel (!) and he would just provide the voice. Obviously this idea was turned down. He instead settled for draping himself all in white (complete with snow white hair) like an angel and adopted his trusty British accent to give the role some extra gravitas. It was also actually Brando's idea for Jor-El to have the same 'S' on his chest that Superman later puts on his costume. Brando shot 11 days worth of footage for the role, with several scenes going unused. The plan was for this extra footage to feature in Superman II but Brando disallowed it as he was still suing the producer by this point. The footage would eventually go to use in both Superman Returns and the director's cut of Superman II.
George Lincoln Rockwell (Roots: The Next Generation)Roots: The Next Generation (1979) Directed
In a stark visual contrast to Superman's dad, George Lincoln Rockwell is a swarthy, urbane figure decked out in black Nazi paraphenalia. In what would be Brando's only role for television, this 7-minute appearance in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generation (a sequel to a previous mini-series about the history of African-Americans) won him an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a a Limited Series or Special (yes, they really have an award for that). Rockwell was a real-life leader of American Nazi organisations in the 60s, and Brando adopts his dark hair, corn-cob pipe and all-American manner to portray the charismatic activist as a good-humoured and casually smug bigot. In typical Brando-fashion, he resists turning the Nazi into a standard villain and gives him a good-ol'-boy flavour instead. I'm not sure it really deserves an Emmy, it seems very much to be Brando doing his usual smirking grey-area schtick, but it does realistically suit the role.
Colonel Kurtz (Apocalypse Now)Apocalypse Now (1979) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Although the film was released in 1979, it was actually filmed in 1976 with Brando making this just after The Missouri Breaks and still very much an unpredictable quantity. This sprawling and insane Vietnam war epic was based on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, with Brando cast as Kurtz, the mysterious and distant character who sits at the end of the protagonist's quest. Brando famously turned up for his role completely unprepared... he hadn't read the book, was grossly overweight, had shaved his head without consulting with Coppola, and was frequently drunk. Coppola had to read large parts of Heart of Darkness out loud to Brando in order to get him thinking about his performance, though Brando continued to ignore the script and insisted on being shot in shadows. Amazingly, his scattered and rambling interpretation of Kurtz as a buddha-like figure with more than a few screws loose actually works in favour of the film - though a good deal of this is no doubt due to editing. Brando amusingly claims in his autobiography to have found the script to be inconsistent with his character (he also claims that he had read the novel, which he hadn't), and says that he rewrote his scenes for the good of the film but also later admits that he mostly bullshitted just so he could make his part smaller and do less work (!) Coppola was so angry with Brando's careless attitude that he eventually refused to be on the set with him, leaving Brando's scenes to be shot by the second unit director. Read a full review here.
Adam Steiffel (The Formula)The Formula (1980) Directed by John G. Avildsen
One role where Brando's increased size seemed to be an advantage was in portraying Adam in The Formula. His body shape, whilst a far cry from his Streetcar days, was perfect for a fatcat business tycoon. Brando suggested playing the role in a straw hat as a kind of desert-hippie but director Avildsen overruled him (he's still unsure to this day if Brando was joking or not). Brando's performance as Adam is actually an above-par characterisation in a very below-par film, with the actor dominating his three scenes completely despite only appearing in about half an hour's worth of the film. He adopts a slight Texan twang and looks like a frog-king with a silver comb-over, a man whose grasp of immense power is so self-assured that it bestows him with the kind of zen-like calm and casualness that rich and powerful men always seem to have. Brando evolved his usual cue card methods by taping a cassette player to his belly that had all his lines on it... he would flex his stomach to turn the cassette player on and off and listen to the lines through a hearing aid before speaking them in any scene. As he was contracted for a certain amount of time and managed to finish filming his scenes before the end of this time, Brando (in a rare move) offered to do some extra scenes to increase his screentime. This resulted in the scene where his character scoops a frog out of his pool and racistly berates his hispanic pool cleaner. Brando also adlibbed a few jokes, but most of these were cut out at the producer's insistence.
Ian McKenzie (A Dry White Season)A Dry White Season (1989) Directed by Euzhan Palcy
After Superman finally paid up Brando found himself not really needing to work as much, and so he didn't do any films at all between the years of 1980 and 1989. He was coaxed out of unofficial retirement after being sent the script for A Dry White Season, a film about the injustices of apartheid in modern day South Africa. As the film was being made on a fairly low budget and Brando believed in the message of the film, he decided to waive his usual mulit-million dollar fee and was paid to union scale instead. He plays Ian McKenzie, a British-South African lawyer who decides to help the good guys, and it's a pretty decent supporting part. Despite the mediocre script and direction, Brando treated the film seriously and gave a more refined performance than his last few films (the time off may have calmed him down a bit too), tapping into the spirit of Orson Welles to give a great, crusty, oratory performance that would earn him his 8th and final Oscar Nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor. Unfortunately Brando was less than happy with the final cut of the film as he felt his best scenes had been left on the cutting room floor (including a big scene where he is dragged kicking and screaming out of the court room) and he campaigned to be allowed to re-cut the film, writing letters to the studio and arranging for Connie Chung to interview him about it on TV. Suffice to say, the director was allowed final cut, and Brando remained disappointed with the end result.
Carmine Sabatini (The Freshman)The Freshman (1990) Directed by Andrew Bergman
Brando shocked his fans when he agreed to parody his famous Godfather role in this throwback to mid-80s teen comedies. Of course, to Brando The Godfather was just another role like any other, and he was the last person to treat films in such a sacred manner. Carmine, a slightly dodgy 'businessman' who deals in exotic and highly illegal meats, is revealed in The Freshman to be the apparent real-life basis for Don Corleone - allowing for a lot of post-modern jokes and references that poke gentle fun at the aspects of the iconic character that have now become cliches. Brando, now being somewhat older than his Bedtime Story days, wisely doesn't play it for laughs, instead opting to surprise the audience at every chance he gets by expertly dodging all our dramatic expectations. It's actually quite a moving performance, with Carmine every bit as much the sentimental sweetheart as he is the intimidating mobster figure. One scene features Carmine breaking walnuts with his bare hands and unnerving the teen protagonist (Matthew Broderick)... apparently Brando pre-cracked the walnuts and didn't tell Broderick so he could catch him by surprise when they filmed the scene, and the look of Broderick's face is priceless. Read a full film review here.
Torquemada (Christopher Columbus: The Discovery)Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) Directed by John Glen
Torquemada, the sadistic head of the Spanish Inquisition, is quite possibly the laziest and single-most boring performance that Brando has ever given. It amounts to little more than a cameo (Brando did 11 days work for a whopping $5 million) but is so devoid of enthusiasm or colour that it might as well be any actor in the role. Christopher Columbus: The Discovery was produced by the same shifty Italians who made Superman, with Brando (having won the money previously owed to him) agreeing to get back into bed with them because he was intrigued by the film's subject. The script clearly favoured Columbus as a hero, but Brando came up with his own draft of the script and tried to get the filmmakers to portray Columbus as the villain responsible for hundreds of years of atrocities committed against the Native Americans. Brando turned up for filming with false teeth, black-rimmed eyes and a big black hood - intending to make the role a memorable and colourful piece of supporting work for a serious historical epic. When he realised that all his suggestions had been ignored by the filmmakers he opted instead to give a mediocre walk-through and just thought of the money. His role doesn't amount to much screen time, and the film itself is incredibly poor regardless of Brando's lack of effort. Read a full review here.
Dr. Jack Mickler (Don Juan DeMarco)Don Juan DeMarco (1994) Directed by Jeremy Leven
This is pretty much the last proper leading role that Brando ever did, and his last lead before that was Last Tango in Paris way back in 1972. By now it was so hard to ignore how fat he had become that his character was introduced alongside an even fatter policeman, with the two joking about how fat they were. It's a jarring moment of obvious apology, and it did the film a small disservice, though Brando probably came up with the self-depreciating lines himself. It's an average movie elevated by three great talents coming together (Brando, Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway), with each taking advantage of the opportunity to give their best. Brando, looking slightly odd with his hair and eyebrows dyed to make him seem younger, is very likeable as the well-meaning psychiatrist trying to help Depp's deluded character, and his own emotional journey never feels false or contrived. Johnny Depp agreed to be in the film on the proviso that the studio agreed to cast Brando in the other lead role, and the two struck up a genuine on-screen rapport and off-screen friendship as a result.
Dr. Moreau (The Island of Dr. Moreau)The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) Directed by John Frankenheimer
Dr. Moreau is Brando's most derided performance, probably because it's most recent in the public's memory, but also most likely because Brando is clearly batshit insane. To be fair, the actor was under a lot of stress at the time - one of his daughters had just committed suicide, and the French were currently testing nuclear bombs in the vicinity of his Tahitian island. To make the film's production worse, the original director was fired by the studio after 4 days because they didn't like the direction the film was going in, and Val Kilmer tried to quit before filming but was forced to continue on due to contractual obligations. Kilmer had initially wanted to work with Brando, and the two went on holiday together before the film's production in order to get to know one another, but he wanted out when he realised that Brando despised the younger actor's hero-worship (Kilmer adlibs a less-than-affectionate Brando impersonation during the film as a kind of revenge). Brando's character appears in roughly half of the movie, bizarrely made-up in Japanese kabuki make-up for his outside scenes and playing the role as if it were a cross between Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Les Patterson. In one scene he even wears a flowerpot on his head and no explanation is given for it whatsoever. Due to the troubled production, the film around him is just as much of a mess as his performance, and Brando had all his lines fed to him via a small radio transmitter in his ear.
McCarthy (The Brave)The Brave (1997) Directed by Johnny Depp
A very dull, mediocre film and Johnny Depp's only outing as director, this movie was received so poorly by critics at the Cannes film festival that Depp has never allowed it a proper release in most English-speaking countries. European and Asian-market copies can be found on eBay or Amazon, but I'll tell you now - don't bother. It's a pointless movie that goes absolutely nowhere, even Depp is a complete non-entity in his lead role. Brando makes a six minute appearance as a wheelchair-bound director who makes snuff films. He appears dressed in a crumpled suit and his lank hair is loosely bunched into a ponytail, and it's hard to judge how big he is as he remains sitting down the whole time and is photographed mostly in the shadows. He plays a harmonica for a bit (most likely Brando's own idea) and has a long, rambling monologue where he speaks to Depp's character about the artistic value of death. It's not a great cameo, and Brando most likely made the whole thing up on the spot as Depp seems completely unresponsive. Brando did the film as a favour to Depp, as the two had remained friends after Don Juan DeMarco. Read a full review here.
The Swede (Free Money)Free Money (1998) Directed by Yves Simoneau
This is a French-Canadian 'comedy' that went straight to video. If the 90s proved anything, it was that Brando was willing to do just about any film role if the money was right. This is one of those roles, and his appearance guaranteed the presence of an all-star cast to humiliate themselves alongside him (including Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Mira Sorvino and Martin Sheen). Sven 'The Swede' Sorenson is the ball-busting warden of a small-town prison whose two daughters get knocked up the town idiots, and so he decides to make life hell for these two guys by presiding over a shotgun wedding and turning them into slave labour for his prison. I'm not sure if Brando designed the look of his character or not, but he's clearly been modelled as a comical character with orange hair, balding pate and droopy walrus moustache. The only problem is that it's not really all that funny as Brando plays the role completely seriously - the Swede is a hulking, intimidating apple-pie arsehole. In fact, despite the presence of other talented actors, the only redeeming feature of this whole movie is Brando's unpredictably good performance. He has a surprisingly moving penultimate scene where the Swede thinks he's going to die, and he adds some interesting shades of complexity to certain confrontations between characters, and generally gives a much better show than the film around him deserves. The freeze-frame ending is particularly cringe-worthy, though the most embarrassing scene would have to be the one where Brando is upside-down with his head stuck in a toilet.
Max (The Score)The Score (2001) Directed by Frank Oz (and Robert De Niro)
Well, we could've had a worse final film than this, so I guess it isn't all bad. The Score isn't a terrible film, but it's also not very original or particularly exciting. It's big selling point was putting Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton all on screen together. Brando's character is mainly a supporting part, and he disappears from the film roughly after the halfway mark. Max's relationship with De Niro's and Norton's characters might've been reflective of the way Brando saw his generational successors... there's an obvious degree of mutual respect and friendship between Brando and De Niro, and some amount of apathy towards Norton, with Brando playing the 'fence' character who instigates the heist his friends will be pulling off. The film is set in French-Canada and Brando has a slight Frenchness about him, playing his scenes with a mischievious twinkle in his eye. The film's mediocrity is in some part due to the usual behind-the-scenes dramas, with Brando taking an immense dislike to director Frank Oz and refusing to even communicate with him. Brando wanted to play his character as an old, flamboyant homosexual, but Oz wanted something a bit more villainous and traditional. Due to their inability to work together, Oz had to abandon direction for all of Brando's scenes and have De Niro do it for him by proxy. With no one really there to control him, Brando subsequently adlibbed all his scenes. You can tell he's having fun with it, though he does tone down the character's gayness as per Oz's insistence.
Club Boss (You Rock My World)You Rock My World (2002) Directed by Paul Hunter
Brando gets top billing in this extended Michael Jackson filmclip, with most of the clip's 14 minute run-time featuring Jackson in a latino-flavoured, old-time styled gangster bar. Brando is glimpsed partway through as the club owner in his room above the bar, whistling in a nonchalant way that's clearly mean to be menacing. He doesn't really appear properly until the very end, and seems like a fat, jolly version of Don Corleone when he and Jackson have their on-screen confrontation. He grins inanely as his club burns down around him and offers one or two lines of dialogue before dismissively wandering off. Brando and Jackson had been good friends for many years and Brando made his relaxed appearance as a favour, apparently the only times he would leave his house in his final years were to visit Jackson.
Jor-El (Superman Returns)Superman Returns (2006) Directed by Bryan Singer
I hesitate to include this because Brando had nothing to do with it, but the coupling of his voice with that inspiring and memorable music in the Superman Returns trailer packed such a powerful wallop of nostalgia that it convinced millions of fans (this one included) to see a Superman movie that really didn't deserve to be seen. Director Bryan Singer was given unprecedented access to all the footage Brando shot for the first two Superman films, including various out-takes of him goofing around and adlibbing off-subject, and gave it to his special effects crew so they could build a CGI model of Brando's head. The resulting effect isn't as convincing as you might hope, with Brando's face projected onto a crystalline surface that distorts his features, though I'm guessing this was a neccessary evil used to cover up any possible glitches in the newly-created footage.
Don Corleone (The Godfather videogame)The Godfather (2006) Directed by Peter Mitchell Ruben
Brando was sort of involved in this. I'm guessing he at least got paid for the use of his likeness (however poorly replicated), and the game features the voices of original cast members such as James Caan, Robert Duvall and Abe Vigoda. It was claimed at the time of the game's release that Brando recorded new dialogue for use in the game, but Electronic Arts later admitted that Brando's ill health at the time meant that the small amount of audio they did manage to record was ultimately unusuable. Electronic Arts had to get an imitator for sequences where archival sound from the original film couldn't be used, though they did manage to salvage and use one line of dialogue that Brando recorded for them specially. Francis Ford Coppola was reportedly unaware of the game whilst it was in production and was unhappy that Paramount Pictures even allowed it to happen.
Mrs. Sour (Big Bug Man)Big Bug Man (Unreleased) Directed by Bob Bendetson
Brando's absolute final acting was some voicework for the traditionally-animated kids film Big Bug Man in 2004. It was originally due to come out in 2006, but remains unseen and unreleased due to the fact that no distributor is interested in it. Brando was originally meant to play the grotesquely rotund character Nicholas Dunderbeck but asked to play Mrs. Sour instead, citing a longstanding dream of voicing a female character in a cartoon. The voice work was recorded in Brando's home and he actually dressed up as an old woman, complete with make-up and wig. He claimed it was in order to 'get in character', but it's more likely that he was having fun with the filmmakers, likewise with his comment that it was "the most fun he'd had since playing Julius Caesar" (not a role he particularly cherished). Brando's recording work took just one day, and he died less than a month later.
And, well, that's about it. I feel a bit sad finishing this list as there aren't any more 'new' Brando performances for me to see (unless Big Bug Man ever gets a release, which seems unlikely). Ultimately, Brando was an unparalleled talent who never truly reached his full potential due to participating in many sub-standard films. It's hard to tell if things might've been different if One-Eyed Jacks had been the film he'd wanted to make, but if anything had been different then it wouldn't have been the same Brando. The craziness and lack of respect towards filmmaking goes hand-in-hand with what made him such a special actor.
I'd like to say a special thanks to Doctor Macro, who let me use some of his pictures. Click his name to visit his site, it's got some great photos.
I used several sources in compiling this guide (aside from watching the films), so I thought I'd list them for any other Brando fans...
- Brando by Robert Tanitch. This is a good, no-nonsense guide to his filmography and includes some quotes (both good and bad) from various reviews contemporaneous to his films.
- Songs by Mother Taught Me by Marlon Brando. His autobiography, and it's hilarious. It goes up until Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, but features only a few cursory comments about his films (and more than a few amusing ancedotes about his irreverant behaviour and what motivated him in ruining several movies). It's worth reading for an insight into how he approached acting and why he all but abandoned it.
- Brando (Movie Icons series) from Taschen. A photo guide with a few comments.
- Marlon Brando by Patricia Bosworth. A rather slim and average biography, but a good place to start if you want a summation of his career.
- Brando Unzipped by Darwin Porter. The most recent Brando biography, and one that never could've been released while he was alive. Quite gossipy, but interesting.
- Marlon Brando: A Portrait by Paul Ryan. Another rather slim biography, I haven't completely finished this one yet.
- Youtube and Dailymotion. I'm not kidding, these are a good place to watch Brando curios - including his appearance in Roots and the Michael Jackson filmclip. You can also find his Connie Chung interview on Youtube where he talks about A Dry White Season.
- The documentaries on The Godfather DVDs are also quite good, and feature some interesting outtakes. Some of his lesser films are also a good, unexpected source of trivia - check out The Formula and The Night of the Following Day for interesting director commentaries.
