Marlon Brando

[Scott]

Marlon Brando is my all time favorite actor. He is a genre unto himself. His films come off as strange because of his talent. He's not great in every film he's done, but many of the roles he played are beyond discription. Was hoping that Marlon Brando would do more ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU type films at the end of his career. It was perfect for him after starring in so many classics. His weight wouldn't allow him to get the top roles anymore and I felt he could have done more in the "cult" film catagory in the end to complete his legendary status.


Marlon Brando in Superman

[RCMerchant]

the horror.....APOCALYOYSE NOW
the WILD ONE
ON the WATERFRONT....
incidently...I thought the GODFATHER series sucked.
Yet I love gangster pictures.Go figure.

[Scott]

The first time I ever saw a Brando film was when I was very young, but I didn't know it was him. The film is called THE MEN and it's about a soldier who becomes a quadriplegic during the war. You don't see it played on TV anymore. It's also his first film.

[peter johnson]

What I like best about Brando is his constant risk-taking --
Therefore, I voted for "Island/Moreau", his most hated film, not by him but by critics, "On The Waterfront", because that's one of the best performances ever by anyone ever on film . . . "Am I standing up? . . .", and "The Young Lions", because nobody outside of Germany had portrayed a sympathetic Wehrmacht officer/soldier up to that point.  That took guts.
And he had a BEEEEG gut!!
peter j./denny c.

[Scott]

YOUNG LIONS was an impressive role from Brando. The film itself wasn't as good as Brando was in it.

[BeyondTheGrave]

I went with Apocalypse Now, A Street Car Named Desire and one of my favorite films On the Waterfront.

[RCMerchant]

Wow! YOUNG LIONS didn't ring a bell,but the photo jogged my memory...yeah,that was a good one.

[trekgeezer]

Brando didn't even like acting. I've seen Robert Duvall making fun of him because in the Godfather they had his lines hanging from trees. Coppola almost had a cow when he showed up in the Phillipines for Apocalypse Now weighing in at over 300 lbs. They had to shoot all his scenes in shadow to try and hide how fat he was.

He did some good work, but the guy spent his later years just walking through parts.

[Yaddo 42]

Burn!, The Godfather, The Freshman.

The last film because he was having so much fun playing with the role he will always be identified with.

It was hard to narrow it down to just three, he had some great work mixed in with the paycheck stuff. Even his scenery chewing in The Missouri Breaks was fun to watch. To see someone that heavy and seeming so indifferent still come off as that dangerous was cool.

He said once that he thought The Young Lions was a near great film marred by Dean Martin's acting.

[Scott]

Picked up THE WILD ONE for $4.99 at my local grocery store. Would have cost me 15-20 dollars before. Always wanted this film in my collection.

[Yaddo 42]

I know that film helped make Brando an icon, but I always thought Lee Marvin was so much cooler in it. Came off like more of a real biker, and how laid back he was when he goaded Brando into knocking him off his bike.

[Scott]

Your correct Yaddo. Lee Marvin was very good in that film, but I liked the "cool" Brando rather than the striped shirted clownish Lee Marvin in that film.

[Yaddo 42]

See I took it like Marvin's character was so confident that his arrogance let him act clownish. Like I said look how easily he pushed Johnny's buttons; and with that leer. There was pure dangerous menace behind that smile.

[Scott]

Lee Marvin did upstage Brando a bit I must admit. The opening scene and narration is the best and Johnny's lingo in the soda shop.

[Scott]

May 1 & 2 Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will be premiering a two part special on the life of Marlon Brando. That's about 3 weeks from now.

http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=156086