Brando Leading -- and Disappointing -- a New Generation of Stars

The Chase is one of those movies from Marlon Brando's period of decline, but while he was still a legend from the fifties. The film had the same producer as On the Waterfront, but 12 years had past, a new decade was well underway, and Brando -- despite his name all alone on the poster and his legend hovering over everything -- was already getting pretty bored with his profession.

Brando was positioned as THE star of The Chase, but look at those players "behind him": Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall. Redford and Fonda were destined to be as big at the box office as Brando, and ready for their superstardom come the 70's. Duvall -- after a supporting stint to Brando in The Godfather, would become a "character star" of great prestige and some box office power, himself.

But not yet. In 1966, Brando was the reason for people to see The Chase. And Brando was evidently the reason that Redford and Fonda took the picture.

And Redford -- the only one I've seen on record about this -- was sorely disappointed by Brando's comportment behind the scenes: disconnected from the rest of the cast, bored with everything, condescending, but most of all, not really committed to the work. Redford was looking for "Brando the star" to be "Brando the leader" -- and they are not necessarily one and the same.

And the thing of it is: you can FEEL it in the movie itself. Brando is there...but he's not totally there. Perhaps not until he is beaten bloody at the climax.

So, The Chase is interesting perhaps for the wrong reasons. Given where everybody ended up, it has at least four major stars in it now: Brando, Redford, Fonda, Duvall. But THEN, it was Marlon Brando halfheartedly interacting with some hungry young actors and disappointing us and the other actors.