Marlon Brando: The Godfather of Method Acting

BiographyIn60

By: in60Learning

Narrated by: Harriet Seed

Length: 1 hr and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Smarter in 60 minutes.

Get smarter in just 60 minutes with in60Learning. Concise and elegantly written nonfiction books and audiobooks help you learn the core subject matter in 20 percent of the time that it takes to read a typical book. Life is short, so explore a multitude of fascinating historical, biographical, scientific, political, and financial topics in only an hour each.

Actor Marlon Brando, famous for his role in The Godfather, used his troubled childhood to fuel his work. Between two alcoholic parents, Brando grew up physically abused and emotionally underdeveloped. As an actor, he practiced the Stanislavski system, a kind of method acting where one draws emotions from past experiences to bring realism into a performance; Brando once stated, “If I have a scene to play and I have to be angry, I can remember my father hitting me." While this method made him a highly respected actor, he also developed a reputation for being hostile and hard to work with.

This biography delves into the complicated life and career of this actor, director, and activist who Time Magazine named one of their Top 100 Most Important People in the 20th Century.

©2018 in60Learning (P)2018 in60Learning

A difficult and brilliant actor.

As the King of Method acting this Actor is among an elite group that gave emotion and feeling to every role he chose..

With a quick taste the listener gains insight to a troubled man who was able to sublimate his various inner issues to memorable
moments in Film and the Stage.

He is an icon to all who dream of turning their troubled life into a storied career in show business.


The Narrator helped to take the listener on this interesting journey.




This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Interesting Listen

This book gives an insight into the late actor's triumphs and tragedies. It tells of Marlon Brando's life in a snapshot, hitting all the highlights. I have seen several of the actor's movies but never knew his road was so bumpy. If you're looking for an in-depth look at the actor's life this book isn't that but does give a nice summary of what it took to be Marlon Brando. I enjoyed listening to this book and think all fans should give it a try. The narration was well done and nicely paced.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Learned a lot from this book! What a life!

Marlon Brando: The Godfather of Method Acting
BiographyIn60
By: in60Learning
Narrated by: Harriet Seed
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
I learned so much from this book. What a traumatic childhood he had! This goes through his life, jobs, roles, movies, and more.
The narrator was good but had a very strong British accent and some words were hard to understand. Otherwise she was very good.

A complex man

in60 Learning is a great way to quickly learn something about a topic which you know very little. 60 minutes is not enough to give you an in depth look, but it's a cheap and quick way to get an overview and determine if you want to pick up that larger tome about the subject. They are well researched, and densely packed for such a small book. And for that alone, in60 learning books will likely always get my tick.

Marlon Brando tell the life of Marlond Brando in a more or less chronological order - from his early life, to his stage career (and getting noticed on streetcar Named Desire) through to his film acting and his eventual deterioration into an overweight 'phoning-it-in' actor. It is not all chronological, as takes some topics (such as his offspring) and pulls them out from chronology to tell them as a topic unto itself.

It gives an overview of his method acting, and how it was in many ways a burden to him, causing him to remember and draw on some of his more painful memories. It made him a great actor, but also burnt him out quickly.

Brando lived an interesting life, and this book is a great introduction and overview of that life.

Narration by Harriet Seed is good. Well paced, she is easy to listen to. short, non-fiction books like this don't give the narrator much to work with, but Seed's work is definitely good here.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Quick Summary

I really enjoy these books from in60Learning! They are normally about an hour long and gives a great synopsis into an individuals life.....the good, the bad and the ugly. I really did not know much about Brando prior to listening this this and not sure as a person that he and I would get along well together. But I do appreciate some of his performances in movies such as the Godfather, Last Tango in Paris and Streetcar Named Desire.

Brando's story

This is a good overview of Marlon Brando's life and career, and includes some of the noticeable legacies that the actor left behind.

**I was provided with a promotional copy, at my request, and have voluntarily left a fair and honest review**

Brilliant Actor, Troubled Man

Much of this book deals with the movies Brando made, providing a brief synopsis of the movies and discussing their successes and failures and his relationship with his directors and fellow actors which was often rocky. The last few chapters deal with his personal life and late life tragedies.
An interesting, if high level look at a brilliant star of screen and stage.

Great quick read

Marlon Brando: The Godfather of Method Acting by in60Learning was a good quick read. Marlon Brando was an actor famous for his role in The Godfather. This was a good read about Brando's life before and after his acting career.

Quick Listen

Honestly it is hard to review a book that is only 60 minutes long and isn’t really meant for serious fans of Marlon Brando but I shall give it my best. I was curious about how brando, as a person, could come up with the now infamous scene from Last Tango In Paris and so, when I was offered a choice of audiobooks to choose from, I picked this. Brando as an actor is a very interesting person. Brando as a person on the other hand is just horrifying. The audiobook, thankfully, didn’t linger too much on topics and was quick enough to get through. (Naturally).

Harriet Reed adopts a rather monotone way of narrating the story making it sound very news reader like. If you watched DD India as a child you will understand exactly what I mean. In a way this proves to be a better way to digest Brando’s various relationships and children. In a way I felt a little relieved that they didn’t touch on the Last tango In Paris. Maybe it was written earlier?


WHAT I LIKED

I really enjoyed the quickness of the narration. If I’m meeting someone who is interested in a topic that I’m unaware of and I want to make conversation with them I’ll just have to listen to this at 1.5x the speed (very doable) and voila, I have enough knowledge for surface conversation with said person. Perfect if you have someone you need to impress, a boss, a date, an annoying know it all friend. This is perfect for that.


WHAT I DISLIKED

I normally listen to an audiobook while working out or driving. Unfortunately while the rather bland narration helped get through some of the more shocking parts it also made it difficult to do something else while listening to this. I had to try really hard to keep my focus on the audiobook and found myself having to rewind a few times.

Weak story of Brando's life

I using an English person as the reader the book was weakened substantially by mispronunciation.

why the story of my Marlon Brando's life may be factually accurate well I wanted to hear about in his world of method acting was totally absent.