Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Listen to Me Marlon is a fantastic documentary about one of the best actors in the history of film. A treat for every film lover and everyone who enjoy learning and getting to know about genius people who changed and revived things in their field of work and were never afraid to be themselves. The narrator of this film is Marlon Brando himself. The audio material was taken from hundreds of hours of private recordings that he made and were never released to the public before. It was wonderful listening to some of the things he said about acting, life itself, his views on Native and African Americans, film business, success, his troubled youth and many more. I believe thet every person who is thinking of trying to get into acting should see this. Grat film about a great man.

Marlon Brando was one of the cultural icons of the Forties and Fifties, who became more and more of a recluse as he got older. He purchased an island near Tahiti and retired there, making occasional reappearances in movies in return for huge fees. In the end he became fatter and fatter, and when he died at the age of eighty in 2004, he was a mere husk of the superstar who had wowed audiences fifty years previously.LISTEN TO ME MARLON tells his life-story in his own words. Entirely composed of extracts from tape-recordings he made himself and stored in his private collections, it tells the tale of a lonely boy from Omaha with an alcoholic mother and a violent father who learned how to make his way in life through a combination of sheer guile and strength. He made his way into the theater, and was quite literally plucked from obscurity to become one of Broadway's biggest stars, with iconic roles such as Stanley Kowalski in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.We learn a lot about Brando's meticulous approach to preparation for a role; rather than seeing it as a combination of gestures and vocal tricks, he quite literally inhabited his parts. At his best he exuded a danger that made him at once attractive yet frightening to audiences of stage and screen.Yet beneath that confident exterior lurked a fundamentally insecure person, or so the tapes suggest. Brando's turbulent family upbringing left him with little or no moral pointers to guide him; he had to devise them for himself. Sometimes this need for self- reliance went too far; he became violent, almost obsessive in his behavior, especially towards women. He reveled in his ability to conquer them; we have no indication of a softer side to his nature.And it is this reluctance to reveal much about himself that constitutes the film's principal shortcoming. Although the tapes were never intended for public airing, we get the sense that Brando is still giving a performance; leaving a legacy for posterity that portrays him as a passionate actor concerned to maintain a tough-guy image. Even when we see him breaking down in court at his son's trial, we feel that it is no more than a performance designed to curry favor from the jury.LISTEN TO ME MARLON could have benefited from a more dispassionate directorial perspective - perhaps through inclusion of reminiscences from some his friends, colleagues and family, or through a script that invites us to reflect on what we hear from him.

Greetings again from the darkness. Was he greatest actor of all-time? Or was he a lazy actor only in it for the payday? Was he a defender of Civil Rights and Native American rights? Or was he as disturbed as his Colonel Kurtz? This film from director Stevan Riley addresses all of these questions and more, but what makes it fascinating to watch, is that the only talking head here is that of its subject … Marlon Brando.Utilizing a treasure trove of Brando's private audio recordings, and blending those words with some rare photographs and clips, Mr. Riley delivers one of the most unusual posthumous autobiographical documentaries ever released. Bookended by a tragic shooting at Brando's Mulholland Drive house, the film explores his Omaha childhood with a mother who taught him about nature and music, and a father who was abusive and not a loving man. Both parents were alcoholics, and seemed to set Marlon up for a lifetime of family issues.Brando's movie career can be divided into two different chapters. He burst onto the scene in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire, and maintained the rebellious sex-symbol status through The Wild One (1953) and On The Waterfront (1954) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Ten years later, a career resurgence brought The Godfather (1972), Last Tango in Paris (1972), Superman (1978), and Apocalypse Now (1978). This second phase solidified his reputation as difficult to work with and as a man with questionable mental stability. Listening to Brando's self-analysis during these eras provides insight into the enigma … we learn some of what was going on with the troubled genius.Some of the film's best segments: learning about his acting (and life) mentor Stella Adler, hearing Brando discuss his "I coulda been a contender" speech and why the masses so closely related, an explanation of his love/fascination with Tahiti (started in Military School and continued while filming Mutiny on the Bounty), and especially a glimpse into his pain-gone-public during the ordeals with his divorce, and his son and daughter (Christian and Cheyenne).These audio tapes are more intimate and revealing than diaries would be, as we hear Brando's unbridled emotions in his voice. He was internationally famous for playing roles, but perhaps no role was harder for him than that of being Marlon Brando. A reclusive man who values his privacy does not easily transition to 40 foot silver screen, and his own words let us in on just how difficult this was for him.

Marlon Brando, more than just an actor. In Listen To Me Marlon, many of Brando's personal recordings are explored. The documentary delves deep inside the recordings throughout the duration of the documentary. We are given private information regarding Brando's personal life on and off the screen. Many of Brando's earliest interviews are shown as well, with Brando giving us his own perspective on his performances in his films. His love for Tahiti is explored as well, and we are given an in depth explanation as to why he refused to respect the 1973 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The entire documentary, in Brando's own words. Very worth a watch.Overall: 10/10