Listen to Me Marlon (2015)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A fascinating look into the life of Marlon Brando, made all the more compelling and unique through its use of Brando's own private audio and rare video recordings. If you're put off early on because it seems to be jumping around and/or it's hard to hear, stick with it. Aside from seeing many examples of Brando's absolutely brilliant acting, we see a complete view of his life, with all of its triumphs and difficulties.Brando had problems with relationships, children, poor part selections, and was often a pain in the behind to his directors. That may also put people off, but I have to say, this documentary also shows just how laser sharp the man was. The same blistering honesty he brought to his acting roles, he also brought to life. He saw that acting was a means to an end – that time was the true currency of man – and after he had 'made it', he made sure to enjoy his life. He was a pillar of moral rectitude during the Civil Rights movement, standing up for African-Americans and later also for Native Americans. He saw through the phoniness and profiteering in the world, and sought to live his life simply in Tahiti and elsewhere. He had a difficult childhood and relationship with his father, and yet reached a point of forgiveness, understanding that his dad was a product of his own upbringing, and so on, and so on.Despite the maelstrom of chaos and occasional controversy in his life, what emerges is the coherence of Brando's honesty and his moral code. He humiliated himself by taking parts that were ridiculous and which he later regretted, but if you put that into the context of his life and his priorities, you'll empathize with him, and will be far less prone to laughing at him. I was aware of all the elements of his story, but this documentary really brought it all together for me, and left me admiring the man even more. He was a true hero, a brilliant actor with a social conscience and an intellect that should is under-appreciated.In terms of the documentary, there are some elements that are less effective. The scenes showing his crude digitized likeness. The audio when it's hard to understand, and which would have been helped with subtitles (turning on close caption helps, even if you're not hearing impaired). The less than even storytelling, though it's always the case that a biographer must choose what to leave in, and what to leave out. With all of that said, director Stevan Riley delivers, and there will be things in this documentary for everyone, regardless of how much you come in knowing about Brando. Strong film.

Marlon Brando was never the kind of person who courted much in the way of publicity or granting interviews. He was well known for being fiercely protective of his own privacy and seldom allowed anyone into his own inner sanctum in any way. As an actor, Brando refused to pursue the long held Hollywood tradition of being marketed as another matinée idol and to cash in on his good looks. He was determined to channel his acting training into a wide variety of roles in film. To a large extent, Brando succeeded. In other ways, his choice of films left a bit to be desired and his career suffered as a result. All of this and much more is covered in this Award winning feature length documentary. The man as well as the actor is covered, we get the best of both worlds. The makers of the documentary had access to volumes of written notes and authentic recordings of Marlon Brando himself. Such recordings are nothing short of being a revelation as the man wasn't known for being particularly forthcoming or intimate in talking about himself. Thanks to "Listen to Me Marlon," these recordings of him offer an insight that had only previously been hinted at. After watching this documentary, Brando comes across as someone who had his own Demons to contend with (as most of us do) and a lot of this is down to his rather troubled and disrupted childhood. His relationship with his father was often strained and they had little to do with each other later on. I was fascinated with the section of Brando's time in New York when people like Elia Kazan and Stella Adler changed his life forever. You really feel as though you gain a real and unflinching impression of what made Brando tick as a person as well as an actor. Most of Brando's films are mentioned and detailed. This is the only documentary you will need on Marlon Brando.

I am a big fan of Marlon Brando, one of our finest actors, and a man whose accomplishments spanned two decades, from to 1952 ("Streetcar Named Desire") to 1972 ("The Godfather"), My personal favorite was "On the Waterfront" (1954) though I took some guilty pleasures in "Viva Zapata" (1952) and "The Wild One" (1953).Leaving aside his marvelous acting abilities, I never had much respect or admiration for what I knew of his personal life. A few early TV appearances and the subsequent drama with his family were not indications of a model citizen, and the fact that he was a major star during the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam era but only occasionally used his celebrity in the pursuit of higher goals was a mark against him. He and I did cross paths in 1963 during the "March on Washington", so at least he was more involved than most. In addition he did the incredible refusal to accept his Oscar by protesting the treatment of the American Indians. But there is so much more he could have done.In his acting, the things I admired most were his physicality and his ability to project emotions. His voice, I believe, was his weakest asset. He did have some "message" films ("The Men", "The Ugly American") but many of his films were throwaways ("Desiree", "Guys and Dolls", "One-Eyed Jacks"), and some were downright racist in his ethnic portrayals ("Teahouse of the August Moon", "Viva Zapata"). He made some 40 films, of which 5 are truly exceptional, so that's not a bad record, but it's not outstanding either. And the last 25 years of his life were unremarkable.This documentary about Brando has a lot of voice overs and a few videos along with some clips from many of his films. Given that I believe his voice was his weakest asset, Brando voice-overs are not to my liking.There's lots of personal stuff. Funny to hear his father say about him that he was "not too proud of him as an actor, but very proud as a man". Funny to hear him say "The penis has its own mind". Etc. But I'm not sure there's anything enlightening here. Honestly I don't care about Marlon Brando the person and I certainly don't want to know about his philosophy of life or his theories about psychotherapy. I would be interested in how he was able to do the marvelous acting he did. I'd like to know how he dealt with the notoriety and why he did so many worthless films when his star power could have dictated any film he wanted to do. This documentary gives me what I don't care about and little of what interests me.

Creating a documentary around a person's audio recordings must not be an easy task. You have to find the narrative, after all, and you have to specifically choose such a limited amount of recordings that you think could work well in telling that person's life story. But what is more important than that, is giving a glimpse into that person's essence, and that is exactly what I think this film does. There are a lot of things in Brando's life not covered, but then no documentary could do that. What's more interesting than facts is being able to get inside a person's psyche and this very much accomplishes that and to a great, powerful extent. It's simply sublime in its filmmaking aspects as well, definitely a documentary that should stand the test of time (if seen by a wide audience).