Originally Posted by the truth
yes agree about Bale and Norton , theyve produce a plethora of legendary characters, american psycho and american history x where truly epic movies...theyre pretty much the closest guys to carrying on deniros torch, I guess you could also point to hilary swank whos shown a lot of versatilty, not quite at that level but shes pretty good too. matt damon is also up there, heath ledger showed enormous promise too
I disagree abiut Brando was a genius imo. Absolute complete and utter genius. He could play a boxer, a docker, a lowlife, a romantic, a nazi, a disabled soldier, sheakespears julius caesar, a british naval captain, a mexican revolutionary, supermans dad, a cowboy, an irish thief, a philosopher, a politician, an army generel, a wild one,all with equal charm and grace.. heck he even did some musicals.
Brando was a profoundly learned intelligent man, with enormous sincerity, also with a wicked sense of humour, phenomenal charisma and talent. He changed acting more than anyone in history (cagney and bogart too) by making is real, natural and authentic. he brought in method acting and he deliberately didnt want to learn his lines often as he argued, who the heck always knows what theyre going to say next? he liked to take risks and be in the moment and keep it natural....before this giant, all we had was stiff english stage actors as wooden as a plank...I wasnt a fan of all that stick upper lip old boy. It had no heart and turned my blood cold..
The main criticism justifiably aimed at brando was he didnt always fulfill his monumental talent...he got a bit complacent and maybe a tad lazy....hes argue it was because the movie business had became to false too fake too money driven. he even sent a barefoot red indian to reject his oscar one year because of the way the movie business and the government had treated red indians.....what a move? he put his whole life and career in jeapardy for their cause....unbelievable.. In the end he didnt star in as many movies as the mighty deniro, deniro was clearly far far harder working than brando or pretty much anyone else, but maybe it was too easy for brando, they said soemthing similar about richard burton, it came to him too easily too, but when brando was great he was absolutely sensational imho
a few classics id suggest , viva zapata, the men, apocalypse now, the wild ones, julius caesar, the fugitive kind, streetcar named desire, the chase, on the waterfront, young lions, guys and dolls, last tango in paris, the score,missouri breaks, godfather, superman, mutiny on the county,etc Ive watched them all countless times and I always get lost in his magic
One fave line in the fugitive kind where hes a total unknown nobody from nowhere, yet everyone wants to lynch him and the french flower shop owner is intrigued by him, she asks him to explain himself and his philosophy, he answers slowly and deliberately, "lady I want to be like a bird with no feet, I dont wanna land nowhere, I just want to fly." in many other mouths that may sound corny , but from brando it sounded utterly profound
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