Fan-o of Brando

It is impossible-simply impossible-to discuss the Hollywood Golden Age of cinema and not mention the man labeled as the greatest actor of all-time. Marlon Brando, an American Icon, is known as the Godfather to most, but his earlier work, circa the late 1940's throughout the 1950's, is what those attributions garner life from.
If one was forced to pin-point the power of Marlon stemming from a single picture, the task of choosing would be no easy one at that. His filmography, although not an extensive one, boast more than 30 feature films, ten during the 40's and 50's. Performances from A Streetcar Named Desire(1951), Julius Caesar(1953), Guys and Dolls(1955) and Sayonara(1957) marked his brilliance throughout his early career. But his genius is never clearer than when he's on screen in Elia Kazan's 1954 crime-drama masterpiece On the Waterfront.
Marlon plays Terry Malloy a former heavyweight prize-fighter who is unwillingly involved-through family and friendship-in a crime ring that controls everything and, to an extent, everyone, on the waterfront. When young Joey Doyle is murdered because of his courage to testify against Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb, a series of reactions led by Joey's sister Edie's(Eva Marie Saint in her Oscar winning film debut) inability to give up looking for answers to what happened to her brother, forces Terry to make his own choices regarding morality, loyalty and love.
Describing Marlon's performance in On the Waterfront is unimaginably trying. All that is required is too watch his emotion and his feeling, but when it comes to analyzing and seperating the phenomena of his acting, it grows increasingly difficult. Marlon paints arguably the most genuine portrait of any character ever on film. But simultaneously when one is watching Terry, it is never forgotten that one is watching Marlon Brando. He throws himself completely into the role but never loses his persona nor his presence. In my opinion, a feat never matched; and that is what makes it incomprable.
The beautiful and talented Marlon Brando may have been rivaled by Lawrence Olivier for the title of greatest classic actor, and by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for modern, but no matter who he's compared to he surpasses them unabashedly without contest-and will continue to unless we're blessed with someone greater who has yet to come along.