Even at the height of his stardom, Marlon Brando was prepared to take chances by accepting challenging roles.
Here, he plays Sir William Walker, a manipulative English secret agent and adventurer who is sent by his government to the Portuguese island of Quiemada in the Caribbean early in the 19th century.
His mission is to wreck the sugar trade monopoly, a duty that results in open warfare.
This attack on colonial manipulation is clumsily handled at times by Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, who made the remarkable documentary-style epic The Battle of Algiers, but it still has scenes of enormous visual power, and Brando is magnificent.
Although set in the Caribbean, the film was actually made in Italy.
Sir William Walker
Marlon Brando Jose Dolores
Evaristo Marquez Teddy Sanchez
Renato Salvatori Shelton
Norman Hill General Prada
Tom Lyons Guarina
Wanani Juanito
Joseph Persuad Henry
Giampiero Albertini
Director
Gillo Pontecorvo
You May Also Like
Boy Who Turned Yellow, The (1972) More directly educational than perhaps any other Children's Film Foundation (CFF) film, The Boy Who Turned…
Big Bad Mama II (1987) She tried to go straight, she really did, but they just won't let Wilma McClatchie be.…
Walkabout (1970) "In Australia, when an Aborigine man-child reaches sixteen, he is sent out into the land. For…
Brassed Off! (1996) Brassed Off - written and directed by Mark Herman - takes a look at the plight of…
Benji (1974) In 1974, amidst The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, another Godfather movie and two comedy classics from Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles and YoungFrankenstein), a little…
Egghead's Robot (1970) Even by the standards of the Children's Film Foundation (CFF), this 58-minute film is a painfully…
Body Double (1984) Craig Wasson plays Jake, a struggling actor in Hollywood who gets fired from his role as…
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Oliver Stone had already ploughed his own personal experiences into his Oscar-winning Platoon, a grunt's eye…
