Marlon Brando, 1924-2004

Vito Corleone made his final offer, but death could – and did – refuse. And so Marlon Brando has died, at the age of 80 and far from the muscled presence who thrilled New York stage fans as the domineering Stanley Kowalski , who made Terry Malloy ’s plaintive cry “I coulda been a contender” a line for the ages, who crept from the dark and talked about the “horror” as Special Forces Col. Kurtz who had seen the apocalypse and seen it now.

Given his weight problems, which were of Orson Welles ian proportions, it’s amazing that Brando lived this long. But like Welles, Brando was enduring. And his work will no doubt endure, also. As long as there is a medium called film, Welles and Brando will be remembered as performer/creators who made the optical illusion of 35mm film seem as real as anyone ever has. They were forgotten long before deaths by an industry that didn’t know what to do with them. But those of us who care about film will always remember Rosebud . And the sight of a battered young man, cargo hook in hand, staggering along the docks toward a job that he refused to believe wasn’t his by right.

These, then, are one critic’s view of Brando’s greatest roles:

“A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951.
“The Wild One,” 1953.
“On the Waterfront,” 1954.
“The Young Lions,” 1958.
“One-Eyed Jacks,” 1961.
“The Apaloosa,” 1966.
“Reflections in a Golden Eye,” 1967.
“The Godfather,” 1972.
“Last Tango in Paris,” 1972.
“Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
“A Dry White Season,” 1989.