Stefan Kanfer's Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando.
Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando
Stefan Kanfer
Knopf; 350 pages
The Gist:
A film critic at TIME for decades, Kanfer delivers another in a long line
of Marlon Brando biographies (including 1999's Brando, by Richard
Schickel, another TIME critic). Looking particularly closely at the actor's
self-destructive tendencies, Somebody take the Brando myth up to his
2004 death and beyond.
Highlight Reel:
1. On Brando (known as Bud as a child) and his early desire to
prove everybody wrong: "Academically, he continued to lag, and various
members of the faculty implied—or said outright—that he would never
amount to anything. The athletic coaches disagreed: the following year Bud
won letters in track and football, finished first in the school decathalon,
and set a record by doing one thousand straight push-ups. He might have done
more, but a teacher, worried that the youth would strain his heart, ordered
him to stop.
2. On a missed opportunity: "For despite the recent box-office disappointment, Sam Spiegel believed that Marlon would be an ideal Lawrence of Arabia, made his an offer, and sent him Robert Bolt's vivid scenario. To Peter O'Toole's undying gratitude, Marlon responded: 'I'll be damned if I'll spend two years of my life out in the desert on some f-----g camel.'
3. On Brando at a White House dinner with President John F.
Kennedy: "As Marlon attacked the pasta, Kennedy challenged him: 'Marlon,
have you gained weight? Looks like you've put on a few.'
'Nary an ounce.'
'Kennedy grinned. "Then the CIA sent up some wrong information.'
Marlon bet the president that JFK weighed more than he did. A bathroom scale
was brought into the room. Brando checked in at 187 pounds. Kennedy was
eleven pounds lighter.
'Get some food into this man,' Marlon told the other guests. 'You can't lead
the country at a hundred seventy-six."
The Lowdown:
Why pen another bio of the much studied Marlon Brando? To take him
seriously. To get inside his head and then recreate him from the
inside out, much as Brando tried to do to the characters he played. The
prurient details of Brando's life (and there are many) are downplayed
here. Rather, Kanfer portrays Brando as a
man at war with himself: self-loathing, self-destructive and
self-sabotaging. Beautiful performances were often followed up by
several lazy ones. Brando would blatantly goof off like a petulant child if
he didn't get his way on set. And all the way, in his mind, Brando knew his
talent was going to waste. As he grew crazier, and bigger, his myth
grew bigger and crazier in kind. While Kanfer piles on the psychobabble
early on, he eventually settles down and delivers a respectful and
comprehensive, if not exactly groundbreaking, look at a truly mad
genius.
The Verdict: Skim
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