Marlon Brando Books

This could have earned five stars. The beginning is a page-turner, a passionate tribute and introduction to one of the most magnetic screen personalities ever. The subject is a show-stopper, and the voluminous detail is of the kind that only a wife could relate and only an ex-wife would want to.

Unfortunately, the book's assets also create its problems. The story flow constantly stops dead in its tracks like a cross-country local train, side-tracking with minutiae such as movie credits and peripheral details that should have been put into footnotes, and eventually by particularly arcane foreign phrases and literary allusions that would need a scholar to decipher, where plain English would have been appreciated; her intelligence came through without the intrusive affectations. After the whirlwind start I ended up forcing myself to finish the book, hoping for just one more outrageous anecdote or thoughtful opinion, and yes these materialized, but then the story stopped dead yet again. Anna Brando was so caught up in the emotions of their relationship that she kept forgetting to tell a coherent story. There is no comparison with "Mommie Dearest." Christina Crawford remembers to tell her story. Anna Kashfi Brando's "Brando for Breakfast" sounds more like a divorce lawyer's case notes, full of meat but, in the end, not a tale. This is a book that should have had an index. I will keep my copy just for the very personal anecdotes with the ring of truth in how she remembers them but never, ever to read cover-to-cover again.

I love the movie "One Eyed Jacks." I've seen it a dozen or more times, and had the good fortune to attend a screening in 1972 with the composer, who provided a lot of insight into the film's making, post production and history (none of his stories or anecdotes are included here). I therefore had great anticipation for this book. It turns out, the book is basically a padded-out excuse for the author to include a portion of his own unfinished western screenplay, as if anyone would care, and to vent about the critics that gave the film bad reviews. The amount of information actually about the film would fill less than a chapter of a normal sized book, and this is NOT a normal sized book -- it's a slight whisp of a book, with double spaced type and lots of blank space. There's not much new or unique in here about "One Eyed Jacks" that you haven't seen in a decent biography of Brando, Peckinpah or Kubrick. So save your money and save your time -- this book is a waste of both.

This review refers to "Brando Rides Alone - A Reconsideration of the Film One-Eyed Jacks" by Barry Gifford

This is my 620th review. Of those 620 reviews, I believe I have only ever given a 1 star rating 3 other times. Two were for household products that didn't work as claimed, the other a classic film(that I loved) on a DVD transfer that was so bad, it ruined the film. Now here I am giving 1 star to a book, which I have never done, as I feel the Author's work and love of their story is always worth something. But to quote the author, who quotes Brando.."The Horror, The Horror!" Barry Gifford, uses this book to get fans of Brando's "One Eyed Jacks" to read his own mediocre screenplay("Black Sun Rising")..."THE HORROR!"

'A Reconsideration of the film One Eyed Jacks'..I don't THINK so Mr. Gifford. First we have some very short biographical info on the key players of OEJ. Anyone could have found this info at the Internet Movie Data Base. Finally we get to Part 2 titled "Brando Rides Alone". This is all of about 9 pages where Mr. Gifford, mostly talks about what other critics thought of the film when it first came out. The only statement Gifford makes that is remotely a consideration or response to the critics of the film is that(in speaking to finding art, even in a violent film), "In OEJ the violence is seldom sudden;neither is it inexplicable" DUH! I think anyone who is a fan of this film has probably viewed it many times... are you telling us something new Mr Gifford?

And so goes the first 37 pages of the book. The rest of the book, which is an "Epilogue" is Gifford's Western screenplay that he wrote with James Hamilton. The "epilogue" is 45 pages. More time then he gives to Brando or the one film that Brando fans can savour as his only directoral effort.

The reason I am going only one star, is because I felt duped into reading this. I am a big fan of the film. Brando does a wonderful directing job, and uses the beautiful California coastline as a character in the film(Gifford does make mention of this).I really thought I would read more on the filming of OEJ. I don't think Mr. Gifford told me any more then I would have learned by simply watching Robert Osborne's(who is always informative and entertaining) intro to the film on TCM.

A little more effort on the author's part, to actually discuss this film with it's fans, and MAYBE it 'coulda been a contendah!'

Laurie