Brando

Brando was no saint (though he liked to stylise himself into a Jesus-like character), a fact that this extensive commemorative documentary does not try to hide. As expected, the greatest amount of spaced is dedicated to his key performances as an actor (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now) and the films in which he actually acted and wasn’t just THE Marlon Brando. With respect to the predominantly non-analytical concept, however, I found the tabloidish information about Brando, which I didn’t know from films, to be more enriching, particularly the information about Brando’s fight for the rights of indigenous Americans, fathering of children and development of islands in the Pacific Ocean. I take the last fifteen minutes, which could be called “Brando the Joker”, as the inevitable toll for the attempt to show truly every side of the famous actor (whose method was, in my opinion, too distinctive for younger actors to employ, as the documentary tries to suggest). (14.10.2011)