Marlon Brando’s 10 Greatest Film Roles
BRANDO’S 100th BIRTHDAY
MARLON BRANDO’S TEN BEST MOVIES AND FILM ROLES
This week, Marlon Brando would have turned 100.
Born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando became one of the most influential screen actors of all time. He redefined the image and demeanor of what Hollywood “stardom” meant, and then came to despise celebrity culture and Hollywood practices.
Now, twenty years after his death, Brando remains an intriguing voice worth listening to. Alas, Brando’s most interesting role may have been — himself. For a man filled with complexity and even contradiction, that was the most challenging part to play.
Here’s my list of Brando’s very best movies (and roles).
1. The Godfather (1972)
Perfection on film. When we factor in behind-the-scenes drama, and the toxic uncooperative real-life uncastable Brando making his career comeback, followed by his shocking middle finger to the Hollywood establishment live at the ’73 Academy Awards ceremony, this was the performance of a lifetime that was just as intriguing offscreen as onscreen. At the end of this column, watch the linked clip of a rare Brando interview on the Dick Cavett Show, his first and only on the subject of refusing the Oscar to get a scope of what happened, as well as an understanding of the man navigating a narrow emotional and professional tightrope.
2. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Many rank Francis Ford Coppola’s flawed 1979 epic on the Vietnam War as one of the greatest movies of all time, praiseworthy not so much for what it is, but for the preposterously lofty but impossible aspirations it attempts that remind us of the power and ultimate possibilities of the film craft. Brando playing the crazed Special Forces cult leader hidden deep in the jungle is both a ridiculous embarrassment (he arrived on set 50 pounds overweight and constantly forgot his lines during filming), yet also comes across with unmatchable authenticity. Apocalypse Now, the Vietnam War, Marlon Brando — some things in life are as complex as they are impossible to understand.
3. On the Waterfront (1953)
This was Brando’s first of two “Best Actor” Oscar wins. Cast as the consummate tough guy who actually walked and talked like real people back then, director Elia Kazan’s film elucidates the systematic victimization of working-class people perpetually caught up in a hopeless, corrupt, economic system based on exploitation. No actor aside from Brando could have pulled off the frustration and regret percolating inside dockworker Terry Malloy (“I coulda’ been a contender….”) with such empathetic conviction.
4. The Young Lions (1958)
Extraordinarily underrated film co-starring Brando as a German Wermacht officer in WWII, who ultimately confronts two American GIs played by Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin in combat. Three soldier stories funnel into one final showdown. Brando’s mental transformation from a loyal soldier to a disillusioned but lost anarchist who comes utterly horrified by the crimes his country has committed is superb. I’m not sure why this film isn’t ranked among the greatest war movies of all time. It belongs.
5. A Streetcar Name Desire (1951)
Brando’s portrayal of brutish Stanley Kowalski electrified movie and stage audiences alike. No one had ever seen an actor perform anything like Kowalski before. Even when watching it today, one can appreciate why the violent rage of a vulgarian caught between two women trapped in the New Orleans French Quarter was a major turning point in cinema. Years ago, I read playwright Tennessee Williams’ autobiography (Memoirs, 1975). I remember him stating that when he first saw Brando’s raging portrayal onscreen, he thought that was the only occasion where an actor EXCEEDED the fictional character and the way it was written. High praise, indeed.
6. The Freshman (1990)
No one thinks of Marlon Brando as a comedy actor. But this is great fun to watch, perhaps because it’s so out of character for Brando — who by this point in his life had become something of a recluse — to accept a role like this. He essentially reprises his “Godfather” (Don Corleone) persona in a light comedy with Matthew Broderick. This is a movie that doesn’t have lots of laughs out loud, but the audience is grinning from start to finish. A joyous surprise.
7. Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
The story of sailors led by second-in-command Fletcher Christian taking control of an 18th Century British warship in the South Pacific has been told and made into film many times. This 1962 remake was widely panned by critics, but I think that’s a bit harsh and it stands up well over time. This is mostly due to Brando’s performance contrasted against the increasing tension with the Bounty ship’s captain (played by the great Trevor Howard). The movie remains a solid period piece due to its filming on-location in Tahiti (which wasn’t common then — adding significantly to the production cost), Interesting little known fact: Brando was offered the lead in Lawrence of Arabia (which instead when to Peter O’Toole) at the time but chose Mutiny on the Bounty because he preferred to go to Tahiti, a place that had long fascinated him, rather than film for six months in the desert. That ended up being a terrible decision, because not only did Brando miss out on one of the most epic roles in movie history. The financial losses and disastrous on-set problems tarnished Brando’s reputation. Over the next decade, he slid into near oblivion and was widely considered “box office poison” until The Godfather.
8. The Formula (1980)
This is a flawed but nonetheless intriguing conspiracy thriller that just as timely today about big oil essentially controlling world economies. The primary draw was Brando cast as the corrupt oil company fat cat jousting for the truth against George C. Scott. The duo of film icons makes for an interesting pairing, especially given that Scott was just as unconventional an actor much like Brando who openly despised Hollywood and celebrity culture. There are some great moments and dialogue between the two rivals, but The Formula ultimately misses that final Paddy Chayefsky touch. Brando appears in only three scenes (for a reported $3 million — a tidy sum at the time). Like many Brando movies, this is a bit of a mess and it even lost money, but the actor was often attracted to these roles and anti-establishment messages and that vested emotional commitment comes through in the performance.
9. Morituri (1965)
Fearing being typecast as another John Wayne or Charlton Heston, Brando typically shied away from accepting cookie-cutter military heroes. When he took these kinds of parts, it was usually on the enemy side (The Young Lions playing a German officer)…or the crazed loose-canon military officer (Apocalypse Now)….or an Army Major masking some deeply-hidden insecurities (Reflections in a Golden Eye in which Brando plays a closeted homosexual). In this mostly-forgotten mid-60s thriller, Brando plays an undercover spy who works for the allies, but he must secretly pretend to be a vile Gestapo operative while aboard a military cargo ship. At times overly melodramatic, and filmed in black and white, the movie remains very watchable, though today it’s rarely shown.
10. Last Tango in Paris (1973)
How does the preeminent rebel actor of his time pull off the ultimate shocker? How about this for an idea: Win the “Best Oscar” Oscar and then immediately agree to star in an X-rated movie shot in France. What a career move. Of course, this scandal only added to the public’s fascination with Brando. Last Tango is Paris is an unwatchable movie, not because of the sexual content and erotic subject matter, but because it just seems so hedonistic and pointless. The rape scene between Brando, then in his late-40s with a 19-year-old triggered censors, and later even resulted in lawsuits. We’re left wondering — why are we sitting here watching this rubbish? The answer was simple: Because Brando was in it at the very height of his popularity. It’s conflicted judgement. But you’ve got to admire an actor who would do something like this, essentially deconstructing his own celebrity in order to take such a scandalously artsy role. I only saw Last Tango in Paris one time –in the 1980s at a film festival– which played to a packed audience (this was in Dallas). I was surprised the reaction was so positive. I haven’t seen it, or cared to since then, but this film probably deserves placement among the “must see” Brando movies just because of its nonconformity and related controversies.
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This 6-minute clip is an interesting exchange and revelation of reality in which Brando diminishes acting as a craft, insisting that we all “act” throughout life:
