This Is the Film Marlon Brando Once Called “the Best Acting I’ve Ever Done”

Marlon Brando once said that his best acting work came in a movie many people have never seen. In his 1994 autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, co-written with Robert Lindsey, Brando named the 1969 historical war drama Burn!, also known as Queimada!, as “the best acting I’ve ever done.”

Directed by Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, the film is set in the mid-1800s and stars Brando as Sir William Walker, a British agent provocateur. Walker is sent to a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean to stir up a slave revolt to benefit the sugar trade.

Brando said the role was challenging and meaningful, showing “all the evils perpetrated by the European powers on their colonies during the nineteenth century.” He also noted that the story had parallels to the Vietnam War and explored the idea of the strong exploiting the weak.

Brando reflected on his time working with Pontecorvo, praising the director despite their clashes. “Aside from Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci, the best director I worked with was Gillo Pontecorvo, even though we nearly killed each other,” he wrote. Brando described the filming in Colombia as grueling.

“We spent six months in Cartagena, a humid, tropical city about 11 degrees from the equator…Most days the temperature was over 103 degrees, and the humidity made the set a Turkish bath.”

Pontecorvo was already known for The Battle of Algiers, which Brando admired. He called him one of the “few great filmmakers” he had worked with.

Burn! was a co-production between Italy and France and was distributed internationally by United Artists. The screenplay, written by Franco Solinas and Giorgio Arlorio, was partly inspired by the life of American filibuster William Walker and his 1855 invasion of Nicaragua.

The story also drew on the experiences of intelligence agent Edward Lansdale and the Cuban Revolution. The musical score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Despite the film’s historical and political depth, Brando lamented that few people saw it. “I think I did the best acting I’ve ever done in that picture, but few people came to see it,” he wrote.

Brando’s praise for Burn! shows his dedication to roles with complexity and social relevance. It also highlights how even one of Hollywood’s most famous actors valued artistic challenge over box office success.

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