Marlon Brando: Views v

The worst thing that can happen to an actor is becoming the darling of the upperclass. The upperclass is bored. They love someone who is shocking, cynical, and condescending or sarcastic to a certain degree. Sarcasm expresses anger and a sense of superiority in a less threatening manner than condescension. Condescension is definitely a more European mode of stylizing anger, disappointment, and even cynicism.

Marlon speaks and expresses himself in a manner that is more elegant and natural than most artists of his time. Jackson Pollock expresses no content. Marlon does express content. It's not openly hostile and contemptuous of middle-class values, but it's obvious he has no love of the middle-class. He is certainly not as anarchic as Raymond Radiguay who openly attacked the avant-garde and tried to see what was beyond the avant-garde. Marlon is obviously very educated, but who is feeding him the words? Is it an upperclass woman whom he is dating during this time? Is it Stella Adler? Is it Stella's daughter?

This is when Truman Capote comes along and destroys Marlon's image. Truman portrays him as an ugly brute in his piece in some famous magazine, I believe. This is a character assassination of a supposedly Marxist actor by a homosexual who believes that he is destroying Marlon out of a sense of erotic irony. Marlon tried to escape from this image of himself as a emotional brute, blindly led by instincts he cannot control, destroying himself and others. He finds a political answer. He will become more political.

Marlon is not his father. He is going to kill his father. He hates his father. He hates all white fathers. The white man is whom must be killed. Marlon is going to do it. As soon as he realizes this, the more and more of his magical acting skills disappear. He has killed the white man, but he is the white man so he has killed himself. The tension in his acting has disappeared. He does his worst and his most interesting or indifferent acting. He has no idea who he is or what he is. Where is he going? He wants to quit acting. It all seems useless. The upperclass woman ditches him. She only wanted to put him in his place anyway.

Marlon cannot be everything and everyone. Everyone wants a piece of him. He is not an intellectual. He is just a man.

He is going to save the black man, the yellow man, and the Jewish man from the brutality of the white, alpha male. He doesn't realize that he is going to be torn apart. There is no escape.

It is possible that a great, existential director may have saved him at this point. Certainly, Francis Ford Coppola can be seen as an existentialist.

But for now, Brando is fucked. People are going to tear him apart like Dionysius.