(Actor, film maker, activist: 3/4/1924-1/7/2004) It’s around noon on a Sunday in outside Libertyville, Illinois. We are in a pickup truck. The figure in the driving seat, after a night of anguish and then a call from the police, is heading into town. At the police station, the driver of the pickup is shown through to the cells, where a second figure is sleeping on a bench, wrapped in a blanket. Why do they keep doing this? Underneath the blanket, they are naked, having been found like this in a drunken state sometime during the night. Together, the two figures make their way to the truck and head back home. This scene, above all in the biographies of Marlon Brando, says most about the challenges he faced...
it is so refreshing to see a professional take on these issues. I really appreciate it. Of the many years that I have been obsessed with Brando, this is the first time that I have come across an explanation that actually makes sense of his contradictory behaviour.
This was a fascinating read. He was damaged and this was simultaneously what made him great and terrible. Very observant. He was a fascinating artist. Can you tell why Last Tango , his most autobiographical movie, had such a negative impact on him?
Thanks Sarah. Yes exactly - Im finding that narcissism theory and the trauma that lies behind it can explain these contradictions. With Last Tango in Paris two things seem to have been different that meant that Brando found it painful (and didn't speak to the director again for a long time). The first is that he was to some extent playing his real vulnerable self - under pressure from a director rather than on his own terms. We might compare this with the Godfather, where he played what psychologists might call his 'ideal self' - specifically the 'strong' father he wished he had been able to be. He really seems to have enjoyed this experience and his performance won him an Oscar.
The second is linked to this almost life-long wish to be a strong father which he felt he had failed at. During the shooting of the Godfather, his own son Christian - in the care of his mother - was basically kidnapped and taken to Mexico. In the middle of the discomfort of being pressed to show his vulnerability, he was effected deeply by his son's own helplessness (and maybe his part in it) and flew back rom Paris to get him (with the help of a PI). He then skipped the star-studded premier of The Godfather (his Oscar winning come back movie) to look after his son. Maybe both of these things meant he couldn't himself face the Godfather premier - or that he was protecting his son from the experience - Im not sure.
it is so refreshing to see a professional take on these issues. I really appreciate it. Of the many years that I have been obsessed with Brando, this is the first time that I have come across an explanation that actually makes sense of his contradictory behaviour.
Thanks Sarah, much appreciated
This was a fascinating read. He was damaged and this was simultaneously what made him great and terrible. Very observant. He was a fascinating artist. Can you tell why Last Tango , his most autobiographical movie, had such a negative impact on him?
Thanks Sarah. Yes exactly - Im finding that narcissism theory and the trauma that lies behind it can explain these contradictions. With Last Tango in Paris two things seem to have been different that meant that Brando found it painful (and didn't speak to the director again for a long time). The first is that he was to some extent playing his real vulnerable self - under pressure from a director rather than on his own terms. We might compare this with the Godfather, where he played what psychologists might call his 'ideal self' - specifically the 'strong' father he wished he had been able to be. He really seems to have enjoyed this experience and his performance won him an Oscar.
The second is linked to this almost life-long wish to be a strong father which he felt he had failed at. During the shooting of the Godfather, his own son Christian - in the care of his mother - was basically kidnapped and taken to Mexico. In the middle of the discomfort of being pressed to show his vulnerability, he was effected deeply by his son's own helplessness (and maybe his part in it) and flew back rom Paris to get him (with the help of a PI). He then skipped the star-studded premier of The Godfather (his Oscar winning come back movie) to look after his son. Maybe both of these things meant he couldn't himself face the Godfather premier - or that he was protecting his son from the experience - Im not sure.