Few actors have ever been as “in-the-moment” as Marlon Brando. There are certain things that can’t be taught, and Brando’s incomparable instinct, his ability to completely consume himself in the scene, is something that not even $1,000,000 worth of acting lessons can buy.
Looking at Brando’s career, there were certainly a good deal of outright flops. Candy, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Last Tango in Paris, and Burn! belong on some kind of list at the Razzie Awards; but, for every clunker Brando left us, he also gave an indelible masterpiece, and his transcendent work in The Godfather (1972), On the Waterfront (1954), The Wild One (1953), Julius Caesar (1953), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) are enough to cement his place at the top of the canon of great actors.
Those films demand to be seen, for his acting and for their directorial and literary brilliance. Three scenes, in particular, from Brando’s great films, stand as screen-acting triumphs where Brando, genius that he was, worked on a level clearly distinct from other actors, even great ones. The first, taking it chronologically, is Streetcar. In a drunken rage, his Stanley Kowalski has beaten his simple but loyal wife Stella. She’s run upstairs, and suddenly it’s dawned on him that she may leave him forever. Brando, as Stanley, cries, ‘Stella!’. The mixture of pain, passion, and guilt is electric. Most actors would have only touched upon Stanley’s meanness; Brando found the entire gamut of emotions.
In On the Waterfront, two scenes come to mind. The first, referring to Brando’s instincts, is a scene with Eva Marie Saint, as Terry and Edie walk along the dock. Here’s a bit of cinematic platinum. While the scene was filming, Eva dropped her glove. This was unplanned. Rest assured, 999,999 out of 1,000,000 times, the actor in the scene stops, allows her to pick up the glove, waits for the director to call “cut!” and then go at it again. Not Marlon, however. With some kind of preternatural instinct, he picks up the glove, himself, and playfully puts it on, continuing the action and adding gentleness and palpable realism to Budd Schulberg’s already terrific writing. Elia Kazan, the director (who also directed Streetcar) had seen Brando work and new not to meddle. He kept filming, completely aware of what was happening. Eva Saint went right along with it, and it is perhaps the most touching scene ever filmed.
Also from Waterfront is a scene with Rod Steiger, where Brando chastises his brother for never giving him a title shot. Schulberg’s dialogue is o.k., but Brando put passion into the words. His character, Terry Maloy, has let his emotions pent up through the years, and now they flow out with regret and pain. “You don’t understand, Charlie, I coulda had class! I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody. Instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.”
And at last we come to The Godfather. He’s terrific all throughout the movie, creating a watershed character in American cinema. The death scene, however, is most memorable. Brando had been working for a long time, at that point, but again his instinct had not abandoned him. For Vito Corleone’s final moments, Brando decided on a sly bit of improvisation. The Godfather is spending time with his small grandson. He loves the kid, he wants to make him smile. He takes an orange and cuts out a piece, sticks it in his mouth, and makes a sort of “ooga-booga” face, with the orange sticking out, thinking the boy will find it amusing. Instead, the little kid is scared. Quickly, Brando removes the orange, laughing, and picks the boy up, placating him.
What a terrific bit of acting! So simple, so elegant, but completely true to the character and entirely honest. The gesture with the orange is exactly the sort of thing that a violent man, like Corleone, would assume the boy would find amusing. And yet, it is done with love. The young actor in the scene is terrific, playing off Brando who made all the right choices. Brando was 48 at the time, but his movements impeccably conveyed those of a much older man.
Following The Godfather, Brando never had as much success. He was nominated for an Oscar for Last Tango, but for no good reason since that film is simply dreadful. Eventually, he let himself go physically and that was the end to the genius. His best work, however, puts him on any sane person’s list of greatest actors.
