Marlon Brando: viiii

In his last great role, he is a cannibal leader of a Cambodian? tribe. He is overly surfeited, having felt all the pleasures and horrors the tribe can offer him. He has become a god in Asia.

Extraordinary Western men can often feel deified in Asia. Asia is a culture of reverence, not a culture of rebellion and deconstruction of traditions. However much Asia changes, this culture of reverence and hierarchy is what hold Asian traditions together. Of course, even Asia is being deconstructed in a sense, but there is always the reaction to deconstruction which leads to the deconstruction of individuals in general.

But a deification is also an invitation to a sacrifice. Marlon Brando is about to be sacrificed. He is waiting for his killer. He has deserted the West and become a god in Asia. He has hated the white man and blamed him for all of society's problems. Was he right? No, he was wrong.

All sacrifices are problematic. Are they really necessary? They only solve the problem in a temporary manner. Someone has to be blamed. The person who is most guilty needs to be blamed. But what does this mean for the rest of us? We just wash our hands of guilt?

The assassination of JFK reminds one of a bull being slaughtered. Marlon's sacrifice in Apocalypse now is just that, a bull being slaughtered. Why must he be slaughtered? He has broken a fundamental law that binds heaven and earth.

Technically, both Marlon's and Kennedy's hubris may be that they broke the balance of power between the establishment and the anti-establishment. They did and the world began to change, but how much did the world change? What did liberalism come to mean? Anything goes or a fundamental set of values seen as being "liberal?"