his life: the hatred toward his
hard-to-please, womanizing father and the sadness for his alcoholic
mother; the repeating pattern of determined pursuit of a woman who
interested him and, once he captured her heart, the inexplicable distance
and rejection that always followed; the disagreeable on-set behavior in
the 1960s that led almost every major studio and prominent filmmaker to
reject him until he staged a comeback with The Godfather (1972);
and the rift he caused with the Academy when he sent a representative to
reject his Best Actor win at the annual awards ceremony because of what
he considered Hollywood's persecution of Native Americans.

But even when controversy reigned, through it all, Brando's outstanding
talent and ability to mesmerize an audience was never questioned.
"Before Brando, actors acted. After Brando, they behaved," Michael
Winner, who directed him in The Nightcomers (1972)says in the
film. "That is the difference  an extraordinary effect on the history
of drama and the history of movies."

BRANDO highlights his performance in Broadway's Truckline Café,
which first gained him major recognition, and the phenomenon he later
created with A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) that put him over the
top. The film also explores the classical acting in Julius Caesar
(1953) that silenced his critics who labeled him a "mumbler," his
awe-inspiring work in The Godfather and what was arguably his most
intimate effort on screen in Last Tango in Paris (1972).

BRANDO, in addition to documenting his efforts on behalf of
Native-American causes, also studies his contributions to the Civil
Rights Movement and support for the Black Panthers. In his later years,
as he further lost interest in acting, his curiosity about other aspects
of life only