Brando (2007)
**** (out of 4)
Another masterpiece documentary from TCM. This documentary cover the life and films of Marlon Brando runs nearly three hours in length but it could have gone on for another three hours. Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, John Travolta, Jane Fonda, James Caan, Edward Norton, Dennis Hopper, Kevin McCarthy, Johnny Depp, Jon Voight, Harry Dean Stanton, Cloris Leachman, Karl Malden, Arthur Penn, Sean Penn and countless others are all interviewed and we get to hear stories about the early part of Marlon's career on the stage all the way up to his death. I personally consider him the greatest actor to ever live and this documentary does a great job at showing and telling people why he was so great. There's also some interesting stories told by some who went to high school with Brando as well as a few girls that he dated back in the day. It was also nice hearing from many of his children who hadn't been interviewed before and of course there's the new interview with the woman who accepted his Oscar for The Godfather. We also get to hear various interviews Brando gave throughout his life from the early days on radio to his Larry King interview. Brando's political views and his helping hand towards the Civil Rights are also discussed with never before seen footage and interviews. It was great seeing some of these great actors and directors talk about the man and how he influenced them before they even met or worked with him. There's also some very interesting story about Last Tango in Paris, which features interviews with Bernardo Bertolucci and co-star Maria Schneider. I wish the documentary had covered a few more things like Stanley Kubrick's brief direction of One Eyed Jacks and Brando's relationship with Charles Chaplin but even with these bits overlooked, this is still a defenitive documentary on the man.
