Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thoughts on Brando in Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando, some hate him, some love him, all respect him. One of his most enduring and haunting performances was in Apocalypse Now, where he played a psychotic soldier in Vietnam. Martin Sheen's character is sent to terminate his command with "extreme prejudice". Although the movie is best known by the line "I love the smell of npalm in the morning" (spoken by Robert Duvall's character) the films most memorable line's are a Brando's final monologue of the film. Listening to him speak sends shivers down the spine, and although you know he is crazy it makes you wonder whether or not he is truly a villain. The way the scene is shot also adds to the eerieness of the monologue. When speaking only Brando's head is visible surrounded by darkness with flys buzzing aobut his head even landing on him (in a funny outtake he actually swallows one). While movie critics argue that this darkness is to depict his sole and how evil he has become, they fail to realise the reasoning behind it. The fact of the matter is that Brando showed up to film overweight and in bad health. His completely out of shape form had to be hidden. In fact very few scenes show him in the light, or not partially hidden. Regardless he manages to give what I believe to be the deepest performance of his entire career. Coppola's ingenutiy with the camera not onlyhid Brando, it heightened the sentiment of the scene.
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Once you have read "Heart of Darkness," the book that the film is based on, as well as "The Waste Land," the poem that Kurtz quotes from, you might feel differently about the film, though I enjoyed it also, and have showed it, and the documentary about its making, "Hearts of Darkness," in the film class.
ReplyDeleteI must warn you against hyperbole, though. I'm assuming that you have not watched Brando's entire ouevre, therefore you are not qualified to make the statement about this being his most powerful performance. The best you've seen, perhaps, but not the best of them all. And nobody is requiring you to take on such responsibility. In this kind of analysis, restraint it best. After all, there's always more for us to learn and see. Why should you lock yourself into a statement like that. It more than suffices simply to say that you disagree with many of his detractors, (of which there are not a few) and you really love his work in this film.
looks like i scared everyone else away. I was hoping to hear what others had to say here, Robert, but I guess I spoiled the party. In reading your post again, I found more to like. You appear to be imitating, in format, anyway, not in content, a standard and accepted paradigm for current film criticism, namely to compare everything to something else and to declare a winner.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was telling me earlier that that was a style of analysis she was taught up at Columbia, wherein they'd be given three poems by Richard Lovelace, say, and have to declare which was best and why. So, you're in good company. However, I still think it's not necessary. Simply saying that this was NOT a bad performance by Brando sort of puts you in a controversial minority anyway.
I hope others weigh in.