On the Waterfront
WOW!! That was an amazing movie! I was so riveted, there were moments when I stopped breathing. On the Waterfront is one of the most relevant modern tragedies I've seen; who knew that unions can be such a timeless symbol for the universal struggle of the little man? When I read the summary, I was expecting to be bored. But no, this is SO much better than your average American dream story (Gatsby, Citizen Kane, etc.); only people don't realize it because most of us have delusions of grandeur, so that we think we're the Gatsbys and Kanes of the world. A very small margin of us actually fulfill those delusions, but what about the rest? What is the fabric of our dreams of happiness? Again, wow.
The movie also made me reflect some more on the talents of Marlon Brando. I'm 100% skeptical when people talk about an actor's "artistry" in general, and I was about 20-50% skeptical when people talked about Brando's magnetism, mostly because I adore Tennessee Williams and was inclined to think that whatever magnetism that Brando came to own was already written in the character of Stanley Kowalski, Brando's break-through role. Watching Brando in Waterfront made me realize that he does bring something to the written character, but it's something that doesn't always belong there: his own personal depth, sensitivity, and intelligence. In the case of Waterfront, it served him well because Terry isn't supposed to have depth in the beginning, but he develops it later; thus the Brando touch is like a foreshadowing. In the case of A Streetcare Named Desire, I think it was less essential, because Stanley is just a sensuous brute, period. However, Brando's sensitivity probably makes us more sympathetic to his character - he seems both saner and sexier - so that by contrast Blanche DuBois looks like a crazy woman, the last envoy from a truly dying/dead civilization...which I don't think was the playwright's original point, but it's an interesting story anyways. (The original point, I think, is that whatever civilization Blanche was clinging to was a desperate survival mechanism, and at heart she was just as animalistic as Stanley.)
I guess there's something to be said about Brando's power of improv, such as that really, really wonderful "I could have been somebody" scene in Waterfront that takes one's breath away. But I maintain that at that point, the actor ceases to be an actor, and becomes something more along the lines of a writer or director. In fact, I'm not even sure if Brando had a knack for the essentials of acting; I swear he mumbles too much. Nevertheless I can accept that he was a great artist.
But I degress. The point I was getting at is that Brando found his success and acclaim in making the most counterintuive of choices: he picked roles that clashed with his personality, he consistently tried to typecast himself as himbos (he + bimbo), and he deliberately played those typecast parts wrong, ie as himself. The result: a rebel without a cause, but with a cause. Himbo with a brain. Sexy meets romantic. Bingo! We're all mesmerized.
One last comment, since I mentioned the rebel without a cause. It must have been Yeah I Can Ride a Horse who decided that James Dean is a poor man's Marlon Brando. So true!
The movie also made me reflect some more on the talents of Marlon Brando. I'm 100% skeptical when people talk about an actor's "artistry" in general, and I was about 20-50% skeptical when people talked about Brando's magnetism, mostly because I adore Tennessee Williams and was inclined to think that whatever magnetism that Brando came to own was already written in the character of Stanley Kowalski, Brando's break-through role. Watching Brando in Waterfront made me realize that he does bring something to the written character, but it's something that doesn't always belong there: his own personal depth, sensitivity, and intelligence. In the case of Waterfront, it served him well because Terry isn't supposed to have depth in the beginning, but he develops it later; thus the Brando touch is like a foreshadowing. In the case of A Streetcare Named Desire, I think it was less essential, because Stanley is just a sensuous brute, period. However, Brando's sensitivity probably makes us more sympathetic to his character - he seems both saner and sexier - so that by contrast Blanche DuBois looks like a crazy woman, the last envoy from a truly dying/dead civilization...which I don't think was the playwright's original point, but it's an interesting story anyways. (The original point, I think, is that whatever civilization Blanche was clinging to was a desperate survival mechanism, and at heart she was just as animalistic as Stanley.)
I guess there's something to be said about Brando's power of improv, such as that really, really wonderful "I could have been somebody" scene in Waterfront that takes one's breath away. But I maintain that at that point, the actor ceases to be an actor, and becomes something more along the lines of a writer or director. In fact, I'm not even sure if Brando had a knack for the essentials of acting; I swear he mumbles too much. Nevertheless I can accept that he was a great artist.
But I degress. The point I was getting at is that Brando found his success and acclaim in making the most counterintuive of choices: he picked roles that clashed with his personality, he consistently tried to typecast himself as himbos (he + bimbo), and he deliberately played those typecast parts wrong, ie as himself. The result: a rebel without a cause, but with a cause. Himbo with a brain. Sexy meets romantic. Bingo! We're all mesmerized.
One last comment, since I mentioned the rebel without a cause. It must have been Yeah I Can Ride a Horse who decided that James Dean is a poor man's Marlon Brando. So true!
posted by Rex at 2:56 PM
1 Comments:
simply wonderful, rex.
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