The movie Marlon Brando said was “the best acting I’ve ever done”
Regarding the all-time greats of cinema, the late Marlon Brando is undoubtedly one of the finest. A pop culture icon, Brando helped pull acting into the future, bringing the now-popular Stanislavski system and the notion of method acting into the mainstream, consequently imbuing the craft with greater authenticity than ever before. Whether it be his dramatic aptitude, which saw him in classics such as On the Waterfront, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, or timeless actions such as turning down an Academy Award and sending Sacheen Littlefeather to make a statement on his behalf, Brando’s life is a storied one.
Given that he starred in an extensive array of titles – which mostly saw him turn in excellent performances – the question of what Brando thought was his best has long been debated by his fans. As he was also well-known to be a rather self-critical figure, an extra level of excitement was added to the conversation. Unsurprisingly, when the traditional off-beat performer finally answered the question, the title was not one of his most famous.
Writing in his 1994 autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, which the actor co-authored with Robert Lindsey, Brando named 1969’s Burn!, also known as Queimada!, as “the best acting I’ve ever done”. Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo directed the historical war drama. Set in the mid-1800s, Brando stars as British agent provocateur Sir William Walker, sent to overthrow a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean by stoking a slave revolt in the interests of the sugar trade.
Brando wrote: “Aside from Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci, the best director I worked with was Gillo Pontecorvo, even though we nearly killed each other. He directed me in a 1968(9) film that practically no one saw. Originally called Queimada!, it was released as Burn! I played an English spy, Sir. William Walker, who symbolized all the evils perpetrated by the European powers on their colonies during the nineteenth century. There were a lot of parallels to Vietnam, and the movie portrayed the universal theme of the strong exploiting the weak. I think I did the best acting I’ve ever done in that picture, but few people came to see it.”
Reflecting on Pontecorvo, Brando described him as one of the “few great filmmakers” he knew and noted 1966’s The Battles of Algiers as an example. He continued: “Gillo had made a film I liked, The Battle of Algiers, and was one of the few great filmmakers I knew. He is an extraordinarily talented, gifted man, but during most of our time together we were at each other’s throats. We spent six months in Colombia, mostly in Cartagena, a humid, tropical city about 11 degrees from the equator and not far, I thought, from the gateway to Hades. Most days the temperature was over 103 degrees, and the humidity made the set a Turkish bath.”
