Customer Reviews

Brando Unzipped: A Revisionist and Very Private Look at America's Greatest Actor

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The book is filled with typos and very poorly laid out, which damages the credibility and visual appeal of the book. (My previous review pointing this out was deleted for some reason).

It's hard to know exactly who this book is meant for--and it's no wonder it wasn't picked up by a major publishing house. The stories, even if all of them are true, need an editor and are so poorly written that the book is often unreadable.

Mr Darwin Porter's account of the events of Marlon Brando's life may contain some inchoate truths, but the book reads more like a long tabloid paper than a true biography. I find many of the supposed dialogues between individuals as unbelievable. And since Porter never consistently references his sources, you never know which information is reliable and which is tabloid and gossips.

Disappointing as a biography, but great as gossip book.

Cannot imagine someone enjoying this book or believing 99% of it. It is not even speculative. It's lower. Suited for a person of very low intelligence, so please do not waste your money. Talentless author that published the book a year after Brando died. Truly the work of genuine scumbag. Have to say I did not read the description before I purchased it. My fault. It's somewhere in the county garbage dump.

A boring, poorly edited, repetitive book filled with unlikely dialogue and third hand gossip.There is no new insight into Brando's character to be found here.If you are a Brandophile and must read this book, my advice is to get it from the library.

It's hard to know what to make of this book. Over 600 pages of bedroom revelation covering a mere 15 year period, and make no mistake, each page contains multiple couplings with the famous and not-so-famous. If only a fraction are true, Brando qualifies as a world-class sexual athlete. And that's the trouble. The reader can't know how much to believe since the vignettes pass by rapidly and without attribution. There're some named sources cited at volume's end, but these remain vague and without specifics. Given Brando's proven allure and prodigious talent (at least, during the early years), it's a good bet many are true. But which ones and to what extent, we can only imagine. Author Darwin Porter's narrative resembles a scorecard more than a biography, zipped, unzipped or flagging in the wind. In fact, the narrative leaves much to be desired. The thread, such as it is, follows a rough time-line from about 1943 to 1960, though dates are rarely cited. Instead, the episodes unfold fluidly without framing, merging ultimately into a kind of orgiastic reverie. I hate to say so, but the piling-on becomes repetitive and eventually rather monotonous. Anyone looking to better understand Brando, the man or the artist, better look elsewhere. And in what may be the unkindest reaction of all-- the author manages to turn this legend's rich private life into what is finally a rather tiresome read.

If all of this novel is to be believed I am wondering where Mr. "I Can't Keep My Pants Up" Brando had time to make any movies at all. Marlon went to bed with half of the world according to this tale of unbridled sex with men and women. The loves of his life is said to be his mother, Dodie, and Wally Cox. There is a hint of incest with his mother in the book. He was bisexual to say the least and made no bones about it - early in life affairs with James Dean, Monty Clift, Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson and on and on. Too many men and women to name. It is a side of Brando that has not been written about. If you want to know every little detail of his sex life and who sampled his "noble tool" as he called his package, then read the book.

[...]

It is worth noting that except in the cases where people have already told all in their memoirs, or have made no secret of their proclivities, ALL the people referred to are dead. Because of a quirk in the law which says that the dead cannot be libeled, a muckraker can say anything he or she wants to without having to verify the facts. If we are to believe this writer, there is hardly a deceased actor or actress who was not gay or bisexual, on drugs and engaging in frenzied sexual activity, trolling the brothels or picking up rough trade.

Other than quotations from "tell all" memoirs, as there are very few references we have no way of knowing where the information came from and whether it was true. As other reviewers have noted, how did they find the time for all these liaisons? There is hardly a big star of the 40's and 50's who is not allegedly gay or lesbian. While we know that there have always been long-standing rumours about some stars, I for one refuse to believe that so many actors and actresses worked as prostitutes prior to stardom, or the A list female star who liked to go to brothels specialising in look-alikes, and pretend to be her own impersonator. As I said before, they are all dead, and cannot refute these claims.

Whether or not there is any truth in it, I would prefer to keep my illusions of handsome leading men intact.

The book contains inaccuracies that a good editor should have caught: e.g. Susan Cabot is reported to have married in 1968 and subsequently gave birth to a son, Tim, who allegedly killed her on December 10, 1986 when he was 22 years old; however, if he had been born in 1968 he would only have been 18 yrs. old! The book is also surprising for totally leaving out some people whose nefarious association with famous stars has long been known, such as Nick Adams and James Dean.

While Marlon Brando's many affairs and lack of parenting skills are well documented, this trashy Hollywood Babylon paints a picture of a voracious sex maniac willing to try anything and everything.

[...]

While reading this book, it made me want to shower after each chapter read. Salacious, depraved detail after detail with dubious posthumous dialogue between Brando, his conquests/"f**k buddies", and friends. I don't know what to believe after reading this mess. This book will definitely have you not like Marlon Brando, even to the point of disgustful hatred. With all the screwing around he did, it's a wonder his genitals didn't rot off. If he lived today he would surely be HIV positive. Having been sexually molested/abused by a nanny, and purportedly his own mother, I could think of no other reason for him to have lived so pathologically promiscuous. Brando was definitely a very "unwell", psychically damaged man; this was well-proven up into his last days. I can't really say if this book was exaggerated to say the least, but it sure left me feeling like I discovered something I wish I hadn't. I will never see or look at another Marlon Brando film or photo the same way again. If you want to know more about Marlon Brando, I suggest you read elsewhere, as I will. I gave it a chance, but came to the conclusion of it being cheap, exploitative tabloid [...] instead.

This book just had me shaking my head in disbelief exclaiming "NOT MY MAN!", rendering me mortified...and saying a prayer for his immortal soul.

The infamous "picture" half-way through had me petrified. Just proves the author was banking on sleazy shock value to generate interest and sales. Mr. Porter obviously got my attention, but I'm glad I kept the receipt.

I had read the serialised version of the book and thought that it was going to be a well written, racy, and meticulously researched biography of Marlon Brando. I was bitterly disappointed.

The structure of the book is very poor. The book seems to meander through Brando's early life at a very slow pace. The author fails to use endnotes and footnotes to help make the book more readable and instead chooses to be easily distracted by the interesting lives of Brando's acquaintances. For example Liz Renee a burlesque dancer with a fascinating life story of her own supposedly had a brief affair with Brando. Personally I believe her life story should have been in the footnotes and just the part about her affair with Brando belonged in the main text. Instead we were given a summary of her exploits, interesting as they were, when you consider how many people Brando knew you can imagine how distracting this is and how tedious it becomes when every other character receives this treatment. Concentrating heavily on Brando's early life and career the book seems to stop in the early to mid 1960s. After this point it descends in to boxes with a picture and a few paragraphs about later events in Brando's life. I expected there to be quite a lot of information about Brando's children especially Christian there wasn't. Even the death of Dag Drollet was reduced to just a brief outline of events that took place. It would have been better if the book only concentrated on his life up to the late 1950s because after this the book seems to be unfinished. Considering the author's determination to put all sorts of mini biographies of Brando's acquaintances in the main text it seemed to really jar that after the 1960's the detail becomes so scant. I was even left wondering who Brando's children were exactly and to whom? What became of his children, wives and lovers?

The content of the book varies greatly in detail and I was frequently unsure where the information was coming from. I was unhappy with the fact that there where not explicit references. I gather that the author got a lot of information from interviews but even then I was not always sure who the contributor was. Even written sources such as other biographies were not referenced within the text. The revelations made in the book are not for the faint hearted and are frequently cringe worthy and the lack of referencing only made me suspect their validity. Whole conversaions were remembered at times in the book which just didn't ring true to me, I imagine this was the result of using interviewees recollections but it simply didn't seem right. Although I would not doubt that many of the revelations were possibly true it made the book read like a fictionalised biography. By the time I had finished reading the book I felt as though I had waded through an uncorrected proof that was going to be subject to a major overhaul.

One good point about the book was that it did include lots of photographs that were useful for identifying people that were mentioned in the text. However the pictures themselves were only small and printed within the text itself so they were not really of great quality.

In short I found the book to be tedious and repetitive. It was long winded at the beginning and seemed to be extremely brief at the end. Ultimately I wondered how the author had made such a wild life such a chore to read about!

I read Darwin Porter's biographies of Olivier and Leigh before reading this one. Like the Olivier/Leigh book, lots of pages. Lots of quotes. Lots of research. Lots of work done on Mr. P's part. Like the first one, I had to read the chapters two at a time and take a rest. As someone who is a senior citizen (no age, please!) Marlon Brando is vivid in my memory bank. Lord Olivier and Lady Olivier not as much. Of course I remember her as Scarlett. I'm from Georgia, so I would naturally know that. Knew nothing of her life before I read the book. Now I know far more than I need to!

As for this bio of Mr. Brando, good lord! Where does one begin? As a Southern Belle educated in Catholic Convent schools, Marlon Brando along with James Dean was every sheltered girl's dream. None of the local boys looked anything like them! T-shirts (preferably ripped), dirty jeans and leather boots! I saw his early films and melted into the movie theatre seat. This book dashed any illusions I had about the real person.

No, this book could not have been written while Brando was alive for obvious reasons. Not only Brando, but the names of all the actors and actresses he slept with. They are all (with the exception of a First Lady)no longer with us. The list is endless. Writers, artists, actors, playwrights, directors, acting coaches, you name them and they've been had by Marlon Brando. Or so this book claims.

By the end of the book (I was exhausted)my dream version of him all these years disappeared. He allegedly raped many young girls (famous and not so famous) and walked away from them never to cross their paths again. Of course he couldn't have gotten away with this today in 2011. But in the 40s and 50s he could and did. He was a sad, tragic, mentally disturbed man who happened to be incredibly attractive to both sexes. The camera loved him! He had no 'bad side.' Except his personal life.

The book starts at the beginning of his career and goes to the end of his life. Each film and play is written about in-depth. While the book tends to depress in some areas, there are descriptions of famous personalities and quotes by them that are hysterically funny. Generally these quotes come from the ladies of the theater who were old enough to be his mother.

And speaking of mother...

There are current screen stars who remind me of my heroes back in the 50s. George Clooney/Rock Hudson. Daniel Craig/Montgomery Clift. The same type of actor. Handsome, talented, sensitive, larger-than-life. Hopefully they won't have the same sad endings those two had. I think actors today can handle stardom far better than the early stars. They still self-destruct, but not on such a grand scale. There were a lot of suicides back in the day. All listed in this book. Most of the people knew Marlon Brando. Many of them slept with him.

There is a reference that Marlon 'knew' Marilyn Monroe 'was murdered.' They allegedly met in NYC in the 40s when she was allegedly turning tricks in Times Square and other places. Their relationship takes up a large portion of the story. She supposedly confided in Marlon just before her 'murder' and told him things he never, ever shared with anyone. Wouldn't we love to know THAT story!

I hope that Mr. Porter writes many, many more biographies in the future. His research must take years! Read this book when you have time to sit down for a couple of hours and concentrate on the chapters. This isn't a summer at the beach read unless you rent a beachfront mansion in the Hamptons and have a month to do nothing. Make sure you surround yourself with snacks before reading. And fasten your seat belt, 'cause it's gonna be a bumpy read!