Tuesday, March 13, 2007


Brando defined versatility and how - 1953, the year of the first cult bike movie and also the year of Marc Antony.

The same year Brando portrayed a rebel bike leader - Johnny Strabler in the Wild One and also Marc Antony in Julius Caesar. Which other actor - male female animal robot can boast of that. Not only was he brilliant in both, he created characters which have become synonymous with rebellion and as well for opening doors for American actors who want to tackle Shakespeare.

Who can forget - Brando's retort to the query - what you rebelling against? The rejoinder is a part of pop culture - Whattya Got!!

Who can forget a sexy Anotny who comes into his own and steals the movie from stalwarts like James Mason, john Gielgud when recites the famous - Friends Romans Countrymen. Never was Shakespeare more dynamic and vibrant.

That was the magic of Brando, the king of actors, no matter what the character was.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

well said. i do so wish he had done 'hamlet'. but then again, i wish he had done 'king lear' when he was older.

i guess i'll just take what he gave us, which was one helluva lot. especially for a guy who hated acting!

KBR said...

oh he wanted to do hamlet, but was scared to do it and then he just got too lazy and lifes misfortunes ganged up on him...

i wish he had done lawrence of arabia - but then there would be no Peter O toole...
brando did a lot of great stuff but everyone just picks up the big 5-6, they forget the not so famous gems and there are tons of them in the 40 times he has been before a camera...

Anonymous said...

kbr,

please check your imdb pm's

Anonymous said...

Just want to wish you good luckwith the site.
Peter O'Toole was magnificent in Lawrence of Arabia...but I can to this day picture Brando in the part and I believe he would have went beyond O Tools excellence.
It was a part he was made for.
Joanieh

Anonymous said...

Hey Brandofan, your blog's getting better all the time. Go pal!

By the way, and regarding your reminder that Brando's greatness shouldn't be summed up in just 5 or 6 (albeit glorious) titles, I'd like to say something about The Wild One. This movie shows the greatest acting job in any movie of the teenage gang/juvenile delinquency genre; it truly is one of the very best characters of all filmdom, rebel without a cause Johnny. So the smooth transition between this and Julius Caesar is all the more a true tour de force. For me, the most touching thing about The Wild One has always been the awareness of actually been looking through the leather-jacketed antihero into the soul of Marlon Brando.

KBR said...

sonny said - checked the PMs on imdb, im in.
joan - besides brando - lawrence of arabia (t. e. lawrence is one of my idols), so it owuld have been great, but alas...
christian - wild one, has not aged that well, but brando burns thru the screen, u empathise with him big time, a great character study which still has resonance today...and if for nothing else the impact that it had on world culture...tremendous

Anonymous said...

kbr,

please check your imdb pm again!

sonny

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon

FeedBurner FeedCount

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

About Me

anything which i can do by not getting up from my back side, is to my liking. hard work never killed anybody, but there is always a first time for everything. SO CHILL is my motto.