The Godfather and Burn!
Many people have seen the movie The Godfather but did you know that Marlon Brando's interpretation of his character, the infamous Don Corleone, came from his loathing of capitalism? Brando hated capitalism, said so often and did not care what people thought of him. He saw the organized crime family in the Godfather as a model capitalist enterprise. Coppola, too, saw The Godfather movies as a bit of social history, acted out through fictitious characters. But some critics attack Coppola's "implications of analogy between the Mafia and corporate capitalism," by claiming that "the Mafia and its blood bonds of loyalty, ... have nothing to do with capitalism." Perhaps not in theory but in practice we need look no further than the repeated interventions by George H. W. Bush into George Jr.'s life illustrating the dynastic nature of wealth in the United States to see the role family plays in the economy. (Love Story, or Coppola vs. Coppola Bert Cardullo. The Hudson Review. New York: Autumn 2004. Vol. 57, Iss. 3; p. 463). Does the comparison between organized crime and corporate capitalism have intellectual and scholarly validity? See the Godfather again and judge for yourself.
Burn!
Marlon Brando was Born in Omaha Nebraska in 1924. The Great Depression punctuated Brando's childhood at just the right time for him to have fond memories of the pre-collapse days. Other factors likely shaped his perceptions of the world and capitalism's role in it. But whatever the origins of his views, he frequently spoke out against the excesses of his times and called into question the idea that free enterprise capitalism served the public good. His favorite of all his movies, the little known Burn! contains a monologue worth the price of the rental all by itself.
Brando portrays a mysterious Agent Provocateur who arrives at a small island nation at a time of economic and social unheaval. He maneuvers and manipulates members of all classes to incite an insurrection. He grooms a highly intelligent slave to lead the revolution. Then he must convince the bourgeoisie merchants to support it. That leads to the pivotal speech in which his character compares slavery and wage-earning to marriage and prostitution. Brando delivers the monologue nearly exactly in the middle of the movie. The director emphasizes its importance with deliberately slow pacing and an unsettling calm, creating a marked contrast to the faster-paced action in the rest of the film before and after. His reasoning convinces the middle class to support a revolution to abolish slavery. Unfortunately, as with other revolutions hijacked by the middle class, this one turns out badly for the former slaves. The film makers intended Burn! as an allegory for the Vietnam War and the rising backlash against popular revolutions. But sadly the movie stands the test of time and remains relevant today.
Keep in mind that Burn! has some imperfections. The story feels a little disjointed and contains a few extraneous scenes. Brando's method acting, which worked so well in his youth, goes astray this time leading to a rather uneven and at times overwrought performance. But the speech is the main event.
