Marlon Brando Meets His Maker

[Elspode]

OK...so Brando, not unlike his predecessor Orson Welles, may have ended his career as a broad and self-parodying shadow of himself. Maybe his eccentricities were a bit above and beyond. Perhaps the fact that he had his dialogue read to him in an in-ear monitor in his final films showed a lack of dedication to his craft.

Maybe there were a lot of things that were irritating and creepy about Marlon Brando, but then that was always the point, wasn't it?

Brando died today at the age of 80, leaving behind him a legacy of some of the most powerful and important performances in American film. He played some of the most important roles in film history - Stanley Kowalski, Don Corleone, Terry Malloy...hell, even Jor-El, father of Kal-El, better known to us as Superman. Brando played his parts with seething anger and energy hitherto unknown to the American film audience that was far more used to seeing bliss and fantasy played out on their movie screens. In parallel with the efforts of his contemporary James Dean, Brando's most seminal roles showed the gritty and realistic side of life in America, the side that nice people just didn't care to see or know about. He uttered some of the most memorable lines in film - "I coulda been a contender"... "Stella!"... "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"...lines that have become a part of the English language vernacular, permanently embedded in our pop culture.

Youthful angst and rebellion roles segued into mature, commanding characters; people who demanded and received respect, either by dint of physical power, or through the force of sheer presence, sheer will. Indeed, so univerally known and recognized was the force of nature that was Brando, that he even managed to pull off a cunning, loving self-parody in "The Freshman", portraying a Mafioso with a weakness for endangered animals, and a likeness of Don Corleone.

Brando typified the love-hate relationship that we, the public, have with some of our actors. We admired his work, yet we made him the butt of "has-been" jokes. We quote his dialogue, yet we shun his foibles. Are we fickle? No...we simply are responding to the power and skill that some of our greatest are capable of displaying. We are always, for performers like Brando, a responsive audience, whether in the theater or while reading the latest scandal sheet.

Brando was one of a kind, and perhaps the finest actor of his generation. There is an empty pair of shoes somewhere in Hollywood that may never be filled again.