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Total Film: The Modern Guide to The Movies

Reviews

Jan 10th 2005 By Total Film

Having electrified Broadway in the late-'40s stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in 1950 Brando made this his screen debut because he admired Carl Foreman's sympathetic script. Even though it's a conventional movie very much of its time (a typical Stanley Kramer `message picture'), Brando's radical and unswerving application of The Method instantly began to revolutionise the nature of screen acting itself.

Even 54 years later, he's simply mesmerising as a World War Two vet left paralysed by a bullet in the back - struggling with his girlfriend (Teresa Wright), doctor and fellow paraplegics as they encourage him to overcome his self-pity, pain, rage and fear.