A centenary celebration should include The Formula to instruct these times.
American character is mysterious, despite one’s place of birth and eventual social status. We are living in a moment when heroes and villains are either real or figments of media propaganda, and we can only determine what’s true by that gut instinct known as aesthetics.
That’s why Film Forum’s two-week program BRANDO 100, celebrating the iconic actor’s centennial year, demands attention. This salute to Marlon Brando (1924–2004) lets us know what our culture once had and has now lost: Brando, a formidable artist, citizen and key to the mystery of character.
It is Brando’s commitment to truth that comes to mind as we observe the examples of human behavior that dominate the public spectacle — especially in government and media. So many good folk get demeaned and so many scoundrels assault us on a daily basis that, when sorting out who is duplicitous or is disrespected, we end up wondering, Where did they come from?
Brando’s arrival in world consciousness as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire — a sensual ethnic American brute who was also sensitive — transformed movie-watching. His characterization allowed us to imagine (and that’s what makes acting a great art) what these horrible men were like at home, with their families, their mates, even as children. Brando revealed the personal qualities defining behavior that would otherwise be unfathomable in today’s terms, when so much works against the Constitution, against the trust of the voting public, often in corroboration with corrupt institutions of power such as the media that always maneuver to sway thought and opinion, thereby reshaping, warping principle and morality. Who, today, brings clarity? Not wishy-washy George Clooney, not low-life Mark Ruffalo, not obnoxious Edward Norton, not freaky boho Johnny Depp, not wimpy Ryan Gosling or nondescript Glen Powell. Hollywood no longer provides admirable masculine ideals; the country’s most recognizable male figure is the one who’s always wildly, unreasonably the focus of controversy.
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The most significant Brando landmark missing from the features that Film Forum selected is The Formula, from 1980 and directed by John Avildsen from a script by Steve Shagan. The Formula is key to Brando’s genius, and it makes him relevant to this millennium’s trouble with identifying morality. He plays Adam Steiffel, a contractor who is involved with the global oil trade and careless about forfeiting lives; he’s a hidden presence in America’s sinister doings (assassinations, secret orgies, public proclamations). Working in “conspiracy theory” territory let Brando do his most daring work — not as the misunderstood outsider, sentimental monster, or lone empathizer, but as a bad guy, an average man of the American community. He epitomizes the banality of evil on home soil.
Steiffel is not the protagonist (powerhouse George C. Scott takes the lead role of WWII vet and L.A. cop Barney Caine), but his brief appearances, comparable to Don Vito Corleone’s in The Godfather, are fascinating. He’s a figure drawn from Brando’s authentic origins in Omaha, Neb., the Midwest region of working- to middle-class men (often self-made) who serve as identifiable, almost neutral American archetypes. Steiffel resembles those men, usually of European extraction, who provided the model for businessmen and politicians throughout most of the 20th century. Their agreeable confidence allowed them to smile and lie prodigiously while casually giving the shiv to the American people — the Christopher Wray, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden types. Steiffel is one of those bold, uniquely Brando performances that presents us with the mystery of character: Treacherous Adam Steiffel always has a twinkle in his eye.
In the absence of journalistic and governmental integrity, we long for Brando’s genius. Our intuitive bent toward honesty and justice has been destroyed by partisan antics and foul play. Craven Hollywood content now floods our media, and the pandering to attention-challenged viewers encourages cynicism, not comprehension. In the era of Bill Maher, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Julia Roberts, and the Obamas, celebrity figures come from the nine circles of hell.
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Referring to Brando as a liar is, of course, a joke (like Shakespeare’s truth-telling Fool). As an actor, he never lied, In his craft — not his well-meaning social stances — he used pretense and artifice to reveal the truth. The beauty of Brando’s performances comes from their truthful revelations, which few contemporary artists still dare.
Snarky satire isn’t the answer. Millennial comedians let rotten bureaucrats go unprotested. Yet Brando confronted us with the normalcy of such villains; he could have played them all and he would have — in my dreams.
A Brando Dozen to start with: Last Tango in Paris, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Fugitive Kind, Burn!, Viva Zapata!, The Wild One, The Formula, The Godfather, The Men, The Young Lions.