Marlon Brando: Views vii

Technically, castration should be the punishment of the Italian-American girl. Instead, Don Carleone orders his men to beat the shit of the WASPS who raped the Italian-American's daughter. He knows the power structure. He knows what would happen if he castrated the boys.

With the Hollywood mogul who took the young girl from Frank Sinatra, he severs off his favorite horse's head. This is an acceptable way of expressing castration which has never been expressed directly on film.

The Scream in the scene is expressed again and again with different shots. This will remind viewers of Psycho in which the knife wounds on the female protoganist is expressed over and over again with different camera angles. It is a powerful scene of castration.

The Don (Marlon) dies during the film, but he plays the part of the antithetical hero who expresses anti-establishment values.

Marlon's next role would be his greatest role as Paul in Last Tango in Paris, a role about an aging American man in Paris. The Lights are erotic yet dark, inviting yet spiderly. You see Paul screaming in the beginning of the film as a train passes by. Again, a citation of the Godfather... Michael hearing the train of time as he is about to shoot the police officer and the Turk. The sound of the train is ominous and dark, foreboding. I believe Paul says the word, "cunt." He has had a bad experience with a controlling, manipulative woman?

He follows a young woman into a decaying apartment and tries to fuck her like the old days, but all his old energy is gone. Paul is lonely, estranged from Anglo-American culture but unsure of where he is to go. All he knows is that he getting old and his youth is just not coming back.

Many Asians find nenewal through constantly integrating the unconscious into their psyche. They listen to themselves and know what they are saying. Many Americans expect artists to renew their unconscious. They read books, they listen to music, and they listen to the web, but they really don't listen to themselves. They really don't know themselves and are afraid of actually listening to themselves. I really don't know how Europeans find renewal. It's often in their sense of superiority, but nothing really holds up their sense of superiority.