TS: Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" vs Marlon Brando in "The Freshman"

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Obviously Brando's gentle mugging in the latter depends on audience familiarity with the former, but in every way his Carmine Sabatini is a subtler and funnier performance. It's as if he got another chance to play Vito Corleone and added nearly 20 years of experience (and weight).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 4 August 2006 22:49 (seventeen years ago) link

well that kind of is what happened right?

i gotta see the freshman again, i literally haven't seen it since it came out!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 5 August 2006 06:25 (seventeen years ago) link

i ought to actually see the freshman, pretty much everything i've ever read about brando has noted it as being his last good performance.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 5 August 2006 06:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Andrew Bergman could write terrific off-kilter dialogue.

Brando responding to Broderick's mild surprise at seeing a photo of Mussolini in his club:

"Some of the other members of the club keep it up, you know, for sentiment. For the old days, for good or for bad. It'd be like for you a picture of the Beatles."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 5 August 2006 12:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait - the problem with Don Corleone is he wasn't funny enough?

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Saturday, 5 August 2006 12:53 (seventeen years ago) link

no, the problem was he was unintentionally funny. (Shakes Al Martino) "YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN!!!!"

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:47 (seventeen years ago) link

also the Mussolini line I recall is "It ain't Tony Bennett."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:48 (seventeen years ago) link

The Freshman was the movie that first introduced me to espresso. I was like "Wow, that must be some pretty hard shit."

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

what's wrong with being unintenionally funny?

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

for an allegedly great dramatic cinema landmark, not a usual attribute.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

except for intolerance, gone with the wind, citizen kane, duel in the sun, vertigo, 2001, taxi driver, apocalypse now, ...

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 5 August 2006 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

sounds like a Film Forum yuppie dumbass def of "unintentionally funny" (and in the case of Duel in the Sun, GWTW and ANow, dramatic landmarks yeahright).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 5 August 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

i'll take two of those three over 2001 any day

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 5 August 2006 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

and over the godfather probably at least half the time (and over any penelope ann miller flick EVERY TIME)

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 5 August 2006 17:23 (seventeen years ago) link

sorry but if you think brando wasn't totally conscious of how his godfather played you don't know what you're talking about

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 5 August 2006 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

ts: better bruno kirby opposite someone impersonating brando's vito corleone movie - the freshman vs. godfather ii (i'll take the one with john cazale and robert duvall over the one w/ frank whaley and penelope ann miller but i'm a dumbass that way)(imagine jon polito as frank pentangeli though!)

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 5 August 2006 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link

vertigo is unintentionally funny?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 5 August 2006 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link

and over the godfather probably at least half the time (and over any penelope ann miller flick EVERY TIME)

I'm not sure this film was promoted as a "Penelope Ann Miller flick." Besides, she more than holds her own against Broderick and Brando.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 5 August 2006 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link

this movie is pretty great!

― gear (gear), Saturday, 5 August 2006 23:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I even like the guy who played Mr. Bentley on The Jeffersons as the film professor who mouths the dialogue along with movies he's projecting and knows all the nicknames: "Jimmy the Toucan?!?"

― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Sunday, 6 August 2006 00:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I have this morbid curiosity about The Island of Dr Moreau - was it as awful as people said?

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 6 August 2006 01:41 (seventeen years ago) link

There's people out there who don't think Brando's Corleone
was a majestic performance? I never knew they existed.
I guess it takes all kinds.

I rather liked _The Island Of Dr. Moreau_. It wasn't great but
it wasn't awful. Although I admit I'm a sucker for old-fashioned
pulpy SF. I'd say I enjoyed it more for the story and the spectacle
of it all - none of the characters are remotely sympathetic.
If you don't have a tolerance for overblown man vs. monster
movies, stay away (Brando was great in it, though).

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Sunday, 6 August 2006 01:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Brando is easily the finest thing in The Freshman and just not very good in The Godfather (and I really don't find what he was conscious of remotely relevant -- he was already reading his lines off cards for chrissakes). I prefer Andrew Bergman's comedies when he just wrote, ie The In-Laws. "Serpentine!"

Harold Lloyd's is still the best comedy titled The Freshman.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 August 2006 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

The scene in Broderick's dorm room, in which they discuss Curious George, is very touching.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link

two years pass...

"Just like the cereal. Like the breakfast cereal."

― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 July 2009 19:00 (fourteen years ago) link

brando is one of the only things i like about the godfather!

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 4 July 2009 20:06 (fourteen years ago) link

Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police)

― am0n, Saturday, 4 July 2009 20:40 (fourteen years ago) link

I guess it takes all kinds.

― Michael tapeworm much talent for the future (s1ocki), Saturday, 4 July 2009 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link

thirteen years pass...

"Just like the cereal. Like the breakfast cerew

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 00:14 (one year ago) link

Cereal."

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 00:14 (one year ago) link

That’s the only line I remember from that film. Clark Kellogg.

― Josefa, Friday, 16 December 2022 03:45 (one year ago) link

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