Listen to Me Marlon Page #5

against you,

and then there's the roles

like the rebel leader in Viva Zapata!

where you are for the poor.

Do you deliberately choose these roles?

Over your career you've deliberately

chosen roles that have

gone along with your political beliefs?

Yes, I think so.

On December 23rd, 1787,

His Majesty's ship, Bounty,

sailed from England

bound for the South Seas,

culminating in the most famous mutiny

in history.

You can put it in one word. Fear.

Fear of punishment so vivid in his mind

that he fears it even more

than certain death.

In my years of service,

I have never met an officer

who inflicted punishment upon men

with such incredible relish.

It's sickening.

Then go and be sick in your cabin,

Mr Christian.

Human hatred.

What is the answer?

Is there any answer to injustice?

I wanted to make pictures

that are meaningful to me.

You'd best join my war, Mr Christian,

for if I don't start winning soon,

the casualty list will be real enough.

You bring part of yourself

to every character,

but some parts

are closer to us than others.

Is the story true about

you going to school in Minneapolis?

I went to a military academy called...

Well, I won't tell you the name.

I had a terrible time there.

My father sent me

to military school, away from home,

the one he had attended.

It was a cruel and unusual punishment.

The mind of the military has one aim:

to be as mechanical as possible.

To function like a human machine.

Individuality simply did not exist.

I had a lot of loneliness.

I spent most of the time

up in the library

reading the National Geographic

magazine about Tahiti.

I was entranced

by the expressions on their faces.

They had unmanaged faces,

no manicured expressions.

A kindness.

That's where I want to go,

that's where I want to be.

When I made Mutiny on the Bounty,

finally I got a chance to go to Tahiti.

I'd fallen in love with Tahiti.

It was everything I longed for,

everything I hoped it would be.

As soon as they'd say cut,

I'd take off my jacket,

dive into the water

and swim under the boats

and play on the beach.

The sky... I've never see a sky like it.

And the sunsets defy words.

My God.

I've only been here a short time.

I have been puzzled

every time I see Tahitians,

because I can't figure out

what they're thinking.

When you watch Tahitians,

it's like watching a wave,

or the wind in the palm tree,

or the palm tree itself.

They'll bring their drums

and their skirts,

and they'll laugh and dance

and drink and make love.

Full of laughter.

Mr Christian.

Kindly satisfy your lust elsewhere.

Quite actually, sir,

we were simply discussing...

Acknowledge the order.

Lust to be satisfied elsewhere, sir.

Report on board immediately.

You bloody fool.

Mutiny on the Bounty

was perhaps my very worst experience

in making a motion picture.

I never want to do that kind of picture

again as long as I live.

Nobody was agreed when we went in.

We all knew that it was impossible

to shoot that story.

It won't work. That will never work.

You can't have Christian standing aside

not doing anything.

Keep him alive in the story.

I was never consulted

before the writing was done.

And I cared a great deal

about this picture.

You put your life in the hands

of the director,

because the director can screw you up.

You're going too lightly, Quintal.

Lay on with a will

or you'll take his place.

They can't direct actors,

they don't know what the process is.

How delicate it is

to create an emotional impression.

They cover up their sense of inadequacy

by being very authoritative,

commanding things.

Didn't he say he wanted

to talk to you and explain it to you?

He wanted to give me

a long "no", and I favor short "noes".

No, I did...

You can't argue with somebody

who's made up their mind.

Don't ever be intimidated by directors.

You bloody bastard.

You'll not put your foot on me again.

There was a great deal of friction,

confusion and desperation,

disappointment and disgust,

there were fist fights.

Ship's company!

I'm taking command of this ship.

Mr Friar, I'll have the keys

to the arms chest.

You'll give him nothing!

Hey! I'm not your f***ing stamp licker.

You're making a huge error.

Don't make it again.

I don't care if it costs me my job.

Marlon, talk about rage.

Talk about your own rage.

All my life I've questioned

why I should do something.

I had contempt for authority.

I would resist it, I would trick it,

I would outmaneuver it, I would do anything

rather than be treated like a cipher.

Marlon Brando has been the subject

of a good deal

of controversial publicity.

He's been called a supreme egotist,

uncooperative, temperamental.

I've rarely seen

such a range of vicious critiques.

They were blaming me

for all the delays and everything.

They had to blame it on somebody,

so they blamed it on me.

Well, everybody has to have

a whipping boy and certainly the studio.

They have to find a scapegoat,

they have to find somebody.

I was the most logical person.

The sickening and endless variety

of lies.

They can hit you every day

and you have no way of fighting back.

I was very convincing

in my pose of indifference.

But I was very sensitive

and it hurt a lot.

There are times when you think,

"What the f*** is all this for?"

"Christ, nobody's listening."

There's an old adage in Hollywood,

they say "If you have a message,

go to Western Union."

I didn't make any great movies.

There's no such thing as a great movie.

In the kingdom of the blind,

the man with one eye is the king.

There are no artists.

We are businessmen, we're merchants.

And there is no art.

Agents, lawyers, publicity people...

It's all bullshit.

Money, money, money.

If you think it's about something else,

you're going to be bruised.

I do want to ask you one thing

before we run out of time, Marlon.

You've been quoted

in the papers as saying

that you are going to abandon acting.

Are you really going to do that?

I feel that I'd like to pursue some

other interests that I have long had.

And within two or three years,

I will have come to the end

of my career.

We're all gonna talk about civil rights,

we're all gonna go on the television

and say what we know,

because the country is ignorant.

I am really moved and motivated

by things that occur that are unjust.

I've always hated

people trampling on other people.

I was in a quandary,

a philosophical quandary,

because I thought

if I am not my brother's keeper,

who am I?

Where does my life end and my sense

of responsibility for other lives begin?

Black bodies swinging

in the summer breeze,

and the smell of burning death.

You could stand so much of it

and to see these people

being beaten and kicked and spit on.

That could've been my son lying there.

And I'm going to do as much as I can.

I'm going to start right now

to inform white people

of what they don't know.

The white man can't cool it

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