Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon's perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.
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Sadly Over-hyped
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Don't Believe the Hype
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
This insight into the life of Marlon Brando is a interesting yet nail biting one. I believe that this project aims to show people who Marlon the man was and just what he wanted in life and his success. A brilliant insight into his life from young to old, however, I still feel that nobody will ever fully understand and know who the man truly was. A title credited by many as one of the greatest actors ever to live, his style of acting brought method to characters and he did love performing on stage and in front of the camera. Marlon loved the camera like no other actor ever has, this is evident throughout. However, this was only to a certain limit. Marlon enjoyed his own company when it came to the end of his prestigious career. To enjoy this documentary, you do really need to have an interest in acting and Marlon Brando. However, if not and you sit down and watch this, I believe that 99% of people will grow an appetite into the mans life. He faced both success and adversity in his life, an for many during his life he was his own person who knew what he wanted. A womanizer, that doesn't shy away from beautiful women, Marlon shows traits what a smooth operating charmer in the 21st century should possess. If you have a love for acting, you need to watch this. However it can be tedious, Marlon lived a pretty hectic life and there is so much involved in his life, so for some it can drag. Although in my opinion I conclude that this was essential when talking about the life of Marlon Brando. A beautiful troublesome actor, both loved and hated by many, we paradoxically wouldn't have the actors we have today without the life and work of Marlon Brando. Marlon revolutionized the art of acting, this is evident to be shown in this documentary.
Listen to Me Marlon (2015)**** (out of 4) We are told that when Marlon Brando died in 2004 he left behind hundreds of hours worth of audio recordings that he made throughout his life. This rather unique documentary has Brando telling us his life story by using these audio recordings as well as some older interview footage.Writer, director and editor Stevan Riley really did an amazing job here because it couldn't have been easy to take all of these audio recordings and put them into a "story" that it's clear and makes sense. The documentary covers Brando's early years with his parents and then gets into his movie career where it's clear the actor wasn't his fondest fan. Films like ON THE WATERFRONT, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, THE GODFATHER and LAST TANGO IN Paris get some great talk but there's also some great audio footage dealing with Brando's "lost" period in the 60s when he was basically just doing films for the money.Brando's life had all sorts of bad things happen including the various issues with is son and daughter. Those sad topics are covered here as well as other issues including his battle over the treatment of Indians. If you're a fan of Brando then you're certainly going to love this documentary because, well, the actor was a rather private person and didn't give too many interviews so it was great getting to hear his thoughts on life, himself and of course the movies.
We've been extremely lucky over recent years with a plethora of fantastic and visionary documentaries on a range of different subject matters. From Man on Wire, The Act of Killing through to last year's Virunga and Amy, documentary craftsmanship has really gone from strength to strength as filmmakers look at ways to tell stories and shine a light on their subjects in all new ways and Stevan Riley's Listen to Me Marlon is quite possibly the first documentary of its kind.An unquestionably fascinating look into not only the life but the very mind of legendary screen actor Marlon Brando, Riley and his crew had the rare opportunity to unearth boxes upon boxes of recordings that Brando himself had made through his entire career. These tapes range from confessionals through to self-hypnosis works but no matter what they're labelled as there all an insight into the inner workings of a man that dealt from a very young age with inner demons and wants that Hollywood could not heal.For any fan of Brando or really any fan of movie history, Listen to Me Marlon offers a once in a lifetime like chance to hear the game changing method actor speak openly about his life as a kid, as a budding star, as a reclusive island wanderer and later in life a man that held many regrets and unfortunately found himself apart of a number of tragedies that clearly affected his life unmeasurably. Some of the most fascinating and open revelations we hear from Brando include his thoughts on acting as merely a means to be able to live his life and his deep love for the island of Tahiti and how he saw that as a place that showcased the best of humanity.Listen to Me Marlon is a fabulously constructed documentary and while it would've been nice in a way to hear from others involved in Brando's life what better way to hear about his story is there than hearing from the man himself? An historic figure of depth and emotional nuances, Listen to Me Marlon is a must watch for any fan of cinema and easily one 2015's best documentary features.4 scanned talking heads out of 5
Truly unique approach to creating a near autobiography on one of the best actors of all time. As other reviewers also highlight, the movie mostly consists of Brando's self audio-tapes that he recorded during his lifetime. This in itself is extremely impactful. He was keeping an audio journal of his life before any thought of the internet and blogging. He had the idea to record key memories, thoughts and self-reflections into audio and committed to it for a lifetime. Imagine. Since they are first hand audio tapes, many times they are extremely revealing of his persona. I didn't know much about Brando prior to this movie, just his major characters. As he so emphasizes too - everybody is an actor - you're always trying to put on a face or another during your interactions with people in society. He brought out the new method based way of acting, and we get a couple of footage of Stella Adler added in about it highlighting Brando's use and impact on the method. The Godfather only holds a few minutes of time out of the entire documentary. Not much mention into that role and how he got into character, etc. That would have been interesting to see and hear, especially following the discussion on his difficulties with Coppola. The key notes from the film are kept around his personal life. Wondering with him, what went wrong that his family and personal life turned out they way they did. What did he do? You live through the impact his father's absence and personality had over his entire life - even his thoughts while his son was going through the trial. A very different and powerful take on the stage idol's personal life tragedy. Well recommended.