Listen to Me Marlon

This documentary is full of many bits and pieces from Brando's life and career. I found it all most fascinating, and agree it's a good documentary.

What I found less fulfilling was the choice to use a patchwork approach to its formal structure It jumped around quite a bit, skimming over surfaces; I would have preferred a more chronological, in-depth approach--but that's my own opinion.

For instance, Brando got a lot of "bad press flack" for his so-called "erratic behavior" in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Apacolypse Now." This documentary had an opportunity to clarify the controversy, but didn't.

What was a treat, though, was viewing live footage of Stellar Adler at work in the formative U.S. stages of teaching the "Method," along with samplings of Stanislavsky's initial philosophy on acting technique.

The inclusion of scene clips from Brando's various films were also engaging, though a number of his films were omitted (perhaps by not having the studios' approval). The reported clash between Brando's training and Chaplin's directing style was also not covered, only snippets from "A Countess from Hong Kong" were shown.

Finally, Brando's having a 3D image of his likeness was shown, but it wasn't made too clear exactly what he envisioned the final utilized product would be. Again, this documentary brought up many fascinating topics and then didn't really demonstrate their significance.

On leaving this film, I thought, "here's a topic that could be made into a larger, three-part work and probably still have much footage to spare."

Not just a bio-documentary. Far beyond that... Listen to Me Marlon is the presentation of a legend... AS A MAN... By the own legend...

To younger people, such as myself, Marlon Brando was Don Vito Corleone (The Godfather), Colonel Kurtz (Apocalypse Now), Stanley (A Streetcar Named Desire), among many other great performances. But who was the man behind those iconic characters?

In Listen to Me Marlon, is delivered a compilation of many recordings by the actor to the actor himself. I don't think that he would be very pleased to have such tapes out there!

Troubled, charming, talented, politically engaged, passionate... The many faces of the man. Of the liar. When would I imagine that the man who played Don Vito Corleone and Colonel Kurtz, had problems with Francis Ford Coppola? And the tragedies of his personal life? How could I think about Brando as a ordinary guy?

He was no ordinary. And his tapes show it very clearly. Marlon was one unique human being. NO! Not one, two or even more... Marlon talks to himself. But himself is not Marlon... He was no ordinary...

As an art, the movie is beautiful. Not a typical boring documentary, with some footage, a couple interviews, and so and so. The director Stevan Riley was able to capture so many beautiful shots alongside with the music and the very voice of the actor. Flawless...

I know now many more than I ever imagined about Marlon Brando. And now it's like the experience of watching his work means to open so many other doors... Flawless bio-doc. It's a must see if you are interest in the motion picture industry as a whole.

Greetings from Lithuania.

I was dying to see "Listen to Me Marlon" (2015) from the first moment i heard about it. I won't lie - i'm a huge Marlon Brando fan so i was really looking forward to see a good documentary about the man himself. "Listen to Me Marlon" is a superb experience. Experience, because it is not a traditional straightforward biopic documentary. It is told by Brando himself, using audiotapes that he was recording during his life. We do get so see glimpses and most important aspects from his life from a childhood till the end. It shows a bit about the infamous movies he made. But more it is about listening to his thoughts, and they are haunting. It is like listening to extended version of Kurtz himself.

Overall, i highly enjoyed "Listen to Me Marlon". It is informative, superbly paced and very self confident and fascinating documentary. It is a haunting experience, not for everyone i guess, but if you liked the acting of this screen legend and would like to go a bit beyond the face of a man, "Listen to Me Marlon" is a must see.

We've been extremely lucky over recent years with a plethora of fantastic and visionary documentaries on a range of different subject matters. From Man on Wire, The Act of Killing through to last year's Virunga and Amy, documentary craftsmanship has really gone from strength to strength as filmmakers look at ways to tell stories and shine a light on their subjects in all new ways and Stevan Riley's Listen to Me Marlon is quite possibly the first documentary of its kind.

An unquestionably fascinating look into not only the life but the very mind of legendary screen actor Marlon Brando, Riley and his crew had the rare opportunity to unearth boxes upon boxes of recordings that Brando himself had made through his entire career. These tapes range from confessionals through to self-hypnosis works but no matter what they're labelled as there all an insight into the inner workings of a man that dealt from a very young age with inner demons and wants that Hollywood could not heal.

For any fan of Brando or really any fan of movie history, Listen to Me Marlon offers a once in a lifetime like chance to hear the game changing method actor speak openly about his life as a kid, as a budding star, as a reclusive island wanderer and later in life a man that held many regrets and unfortunately found himself apart of a number of tragedies that clearly affected his life unmeasurably. Some of the most fascinating and open revelations we hear from Brando include his thoughts on acting as merely a means to be able to live his life and his deep love for the island of Tahiti and how he saw that as a place that showcased the best of humanity.

Listen to Me Marlon is a fabulously constructed documentary and while it would've been nice in a way to hear from others involved in Brando's life what better way to hear about his story is there than hearing from the man himself? An historic figure of depth and emotional nuances, Listen to Me Marlon is a must watch for any fan of cinema and easily one 2015's best documentary features.

4 scanned talking heads out of 5

I am not the first to suggest that Marlon Brando was more interesting than the characters he played, including Stanley Kowalski and Terry Malloy. The new documentary, Listen to Me Marlon, takes three directors to do the acting legend justice. They do it well by searching hundreds of Brando's recordings and interviews to piece together a fascinating, unbiased look at his life.

They even have digitized versions of his head that they fit his voice to in a novel and slightly creepy fashion. The suggestion that he has come back from the grave is not far-fetched as the voice is authentic and the verbals those of a consummate actor who morphs into different voices given the circumstance.

Beyond Brando's observations about his roles such as in Lady from Shanghai, which he is ashamed of, are painful recounting about his daughter and son. His son murders her husband, serves 10 years while she subsequently commits suicide after several attempts. Brando's public reactions are sincerely remorseful that he couldn't have done more, especially for his troubled son.

But then, who's to know if the great actor is not acting? Such is the magic of his art that I would even suggest the artifice of his public persona. One thing is for certain, the great method acting teacher, Stella Adler, foresaw a world-class actor in her young student.

The glory and gloom of this famous man are all there. The clips from his performances are as fresh and exciting as ever. Those from his later successes such as Last Tango, Godfather, and Apocalypse Now are testimony to his inherent genius that as a fat man (think Orson Welles) he still leads the field (a comfort, no doubt, to such current geniuses as Daniel Day-Lewis).

Listen to Me Marlon is a seamless song to arguably the greatest actor who ever lived. He paid dearly for his successes and profligacies in equal measure.

Regardless of its occasionally tawdry subjects, this doc is for anyone interested in one of the few titans of the stage and screen.