Marlon Brando on representation in Hollywood
The Marlon Brando made its biggest comeback in Hollywood in 1972 after playing the iconic role of Don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.The career of a venerable actor has been declining for years After a series of flops Behavior that is more and more uncontrollable in the set.
The brand won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1973, so the actor decided to take this opportunity to point out important points about Native American representatives in Hollywood.
Instead of attending the ceremony, he sent Yaqui and Apache actresses and activists Sacheen Littlefeather. Wearing traditional clothesTalk about the injustices that Native Americans are facing.
She said the brand “very unfortunately can’t accept this generous award because … today’s Native American film industry, reruns of movies on television, and recent events on the injured knee. It is due to. “
Unexpected surprises will be greeted by a mix of applause and boos from the audience and will be the butt of a joke told by the presenter, Including Clint Eastwood..Little feather Said later John Wayne tried to beat her behind the scenes.
“Many people were making money from racism in Hollywood Indians,” Little Feather said. I told KQED. “Of course, they will boo. They don’t want their night to be interrupted.”
Three months later, the brand explained his reasoning In an interview with late-night host Dick Cavet He also discussed how people of all colors are misrepresented in Hollywood.The interview was historic because there was a brand Known for avoiding the media.
“I felt like I had a chance,” the brand told Cavet about the award ceremony. “American Indians couldn’t hear him anywhere in American history, so I thought it was a great opportunity to express his opinion to 85 million people. I felt he had the right. . What Hollywood did to him. “
After reading John Collier’s novel “Indians of the Americas,” the brand’s eyes opened.
“After reading the book I noticed, I knew nothing about Native Americans, and everything we are taught about Native Americans is wrong,” Brand said. “It’s inaccurate. Our textbook is desperately lacking and criminally lacking in clarifying what our relationship with Indians was.”
“As we have heard throughout our lives, no matter how old we are, when we hear that we are a country of freedom, justice, and justice for all, it is not just white.” Said the brand. “That’s simply not the case. We are the most greedy, aggressive, destructive, tortured, huge, among the Indians, who killed from one coast to another and caused mayhem. It was people. “
Brando understood that booing from contemporary people was the sound of powerful people who couldn’t stand the challenge of industry and reality. It was a pure negative sound.
However, the brand did not apologize for bursting the collective bubble of the audience.
“They were booing because they thought,’This moment is sacred and you are ruining our fantasy with this invasion of reality.’ I think it was unfriendly to do that, but there’s a bigger problem that I’ve never tackled unless everyone in the film industry is forced to do it, “Brand said.
The “Godfather” star then expanded his thinking about expression to include people of all colors.
“I don’t think people are aware of what the film industry has done to Native Americans, and in fact, all ethnic groups. All minorities. All non-whites,” he said. “So when someone makes some kind of protest and says,’No, don’t present the Chinese this way.’ … In this network, you can see stupid expressions of human behavior. The arrogant Filipino protagonist, the wise Japanese, Cook, Gook. The ridiculous black, the stupid Indian. It’s repeated many times, and people see themselves being represented, these people. I don’t understand how deeply hurt I am. Children, not adults, who are already suffering from such pain and pressure. Indian children are the barbaric, ugly, and vicious Indians. Seems dangerous and drunk. They grow only with their own negative image and last a lifetime. “
Hollywood is still far from ideal when it comes to truly representing America as a whole. But it goes far beyond that of 1973, when the film industry, including some of its biggest stars, was seemingly hostile to the idea of expression.
In 1973, Marlon Brando was at the pinnacle of his power, which most would have been pleased with after a series of setbacks. But instead of taking advantage of the spotlight, he spent most of Starpower’s capital calling out to those who have been dehumanized by Hollywood for 70 years.
