God Made Him An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse

Marlon Brando died today. I suppose, like all celebrity deaths, some mean more to us than others. This one means something to me.

It’s not that I have any particular feeling for Brando as an individual. He was only mildly interesting as a person. Perhaps the most interesting thing he ever said (and it revealed a lot about his acting) was “The more sensitive you are, the more likely you are to be brutalised, develop scabs and never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything because you always feel too much.” Perhaps his great talent was to be able to channel that enormous sensitivity into his characters.

I have long thought that he was the greatest American film actor ever. There was a time in my life when such a thing seemed very important and I spent long hours watching and studying film. In my view, nobody could touch him at his best. I still think so.

He is now thought of as The Godfather, which isn’t a bad role to have as your enduring image. It’s the most memorable role in one of the most iconic movies ever made. (In my view, the best movie ever made.) But, Brando’s filmography actually contains a handful of the best performances ever captured on film.

In the 50’s he epitomized “the method” the natural acting style popularized by the Actor’s Studio. But, Lee Strasbourg said that he didn’t teach Brando a thing. He showed up fully formed as an actor — he just had it. For those of you who are too young to have paid any attention to him as anything beyond Don Vito, you really should take a look at A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront, Viva Zapata and The Wild One.

As great an actor as he was, he wasn’t the smartest guy on the block. He got himself caught up in the 60’s and did almost nothing of note. And then along came The Godfather. But, that same year he made another movie which I think may be his greatest performance ever — Last Tango in Paris. Most people remember it for it’s explicit sexuality, which was groundbreaking at the time. But, Brando delivers a performance so complex, so intimate, so amazingly sensitive yet brutal that when I was a freshman in college and saw it the first time it went so far over my head that I hated it. Ten years later I saw it again and it left me speechless with wonder. Still does.

Brando reached his peak with those two incredible performances, I think, although Apocalypse Now has stood the test of time much better than I thought when I first saw it. I was caught up in the process of filmmaking in those days and appalled to read that Brando had so compromised Coppolla’s vision of Col. Kurtz by showing up on the set overweight and unprepared that I overlooked how remarkable his large, bald shadowed head and hypnotic voice really was. His performances were often like that for me. I’d see the film and get a certain impression. Then I’d see it again later and the brilliance of the performance would just wash over me like a warm wave and I’d get it.

In later years, he was this overpaid character actor with bad celebrity kids.(And sometimes he was just beyond weird as in The Island of Doctor Moreaux.) But, there were flashes of his brilliance from time to time as when he sent up his Godfather role in The Freshman or when he somehow managed to make himself charming and sexually attractive in Don Juan DeMarco despite being an elderly man who weighed 350 pounds. (Now that’s acting!)

I’m sure there will be much finer eulogies and obituaries than this one over the next few days. But, this one’s from the heart. His legacy is a precious gift to the art of film and acting. RIP Marlon Brando. Thanks.