Here's another one of those surprise films. Something that I was watching that I had no interest in initially.
I was expecting some cheap vacation themed 1960's film where Marlon Brando character goes to a Banana Republic country and then bombs around the place acting like a big jerk.
After all the films called 'The Ugly American' and that's kind of what the term initially meant. Those really obnoxious American tourists that would miss around areas getting drunk and causing Mischief wherever they could.
But that's not what the film is at all. Instead it's something of a high-stakes drama revolving around the conflicts of American expansionism, the threat of global war, ideological persecutions and miscommunication.
Marlon Brando plays a U.S. ambassador to a fictionalised country of Thailand. The film kind of implies that it could be anywhere in Southeast Asia and some people have used it as an allegory for Vietnam. But the film is very clearly aping on Taiwanese Imagery.
Especially when you have the introduction to the king or even just the styles of the general fictional flag.
It also helps that the prime minister in this movie was played by soon to be soon real prime minister
Kukrit Pramoj.
Which just furthers the Thailand connection.
Most of the film is based around Marlon Brando and Eiji Okada as they play two friendly, but opposing sides of an ideology.
That eventually leads to a boiling point where the two become so divided that the country ends up falling apart, because of external actions taken upon by both of them.
Ultimately the film seems to be a message of miscommunication and manipulation.
As Okada character is manipulated by slightly over the top cartoon Communists and Marlon Brando's character may have just been misinformed from the start.
Of course he was already working with a shortened hand given that the entire operation in this fictional country was so badly that upon his arrival into Sarkhan he was attacked by a flash mob of protesters who wanted to kill him due to events earlier and where a citizen of the nation had died. Do to a traffic accident involving an assassinated American was altered in such a way to appear drunken when operating a motor vehicle that crashed.
Overall I found it to be a fantastic film. With high-stakes drama and lots of interesting conversations. It even has a few action scenes sprinkle for out all the other engagements just to keep the entertainment value up. And it flows so very well. There's a little bit towards the beginning that feels a bit stilted but that's only because we're having a gradual set up to the rest of the film. About 40 minutes in it just picks up you forget that it's a two hour long film.
It's tackling every Cold War issue of the day. In where America's place is within the world. Presumably at the top as they're the ones that are really running everything. It brings up questions of morality, security and ones personal interests.
Some might argue in a kind of simplistic but I say it works best for the narrative. At the end of the day you don't want the message of a film overwhelming the film itself. And I think you get a good mix here.
I know there are people out there that complained about Marlon Brando's acting but I've come to expect over the years that everybody complains about Marlon Brando.
He seems to be a very divisive actor in The Cinematic World.
Some people love him, some people hate him. I personally enjoy his acting, I have no interest in him as an actual person. It turns out he might be something of a giant jerk, but I can't take away from his acting for Alice either way.
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