The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando

Description

Entertainment Weekly’s BIG FALL BOOKS PREVIEW Selection

Best E-book of 2019 — Publisher’s Weekly

Based on new and revelatory subject material from Brando’s personal non-public data, an award-successful film biographer gifts a deeply-textured, bold, and definitive portrait of the best film actor of the 20th century, the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extremely complicated existence into view as by no means earlier than.

The such a lot influential film actor of his generation, Marlon Brando modified the best way different actors perceived their craft. His method used to be herbal, fair, and deeply private, leading to performances―such a lot significantly in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront―which are with out parallel. Brando used to be heralded because the American Hamlet―the Yank who exceeded British degree royalty Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson as the usual of greatness within the mid-20th century.

Brando’s affect on American tradition suits his skilled importance; he each challenged and codified our concepts of masculinity and sexuality. Brando used to be additionally one of the crucial first stars to make use of his reputation as a platform to deal with social, political, and ethical problems, courageously calling out The usa’s deeply rooted racism.

William Mann’s good biography of the Hollywood legend illuminates this tradition icon for a brand new age. Mann astutely argues that Brando used to be now not most effective a really perfect actor but additionally a cultural soothsayer, a Cassandra caution us in regards to the demanding situations to come back. Brando’s admonitions towards the monetization of just about each facet of the tradition have been prescient. His public protests towards racial segregation and discrimination on the peak of the Civil Rights motion―getting himself arrested once or more―have been criticized as being needlessly provocative. But the ones movements of 50 years in the past have change into a fashion many actors observe these days.

Psychologically astute and masterfully researched, in accordance with new and revelatory subject material, The Contender explores the megastar and the person in complete, together with the formative years traumas that reverberated thru his skilled and private existence. This can be a miraculous biography of our country’s largest actor that may be certain to change into an wireless vintage.

The Contender comprises 16 pages of pictures.