Marlon Brando was one of a kind. As an actor, no one else possessed the talent, charisma and sheer presence of the man. Along with James Dean and Montgomery Clift, he made up a posse of 1950s American actors who exuded a mix of sensitivity and raw violent emotion. His performances in On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Wild One are amongst the greatest in Hollywood history. However, he only ever directed one film, One-Eyed Jacks. Which he also produced and starred in.
After a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) and Rio (Brando) are cornered by government forces. Longworth goes off to get fresh horses but never returns, taking the gold with him. Rio spends the next five years in a prison camp. After escaping, he sets out with fellow escapee Chico Modesto (Larry Duran) to take his revenge. Longworth has settled down and become sheriff of Monterey. The plan becomes complicated when Rio falls for his former partner’s adopted daughter Louisa (Pina Pellicer).
One-Eyed Jacks is a fascinating Western which is stimmed by being overly long and tonally confusing. Brando eats up the screen, but narcissistic or not, the camera tends to linger too long on him. With several different competing story arcs, Brando seems to lose focus. Although, the story manages to hold you until the end. The best performances come from Pina Pellicer, and Katy Jurado as Longworth’s wife. One-Eyed Jacks is more of a curiosity than a necessity. Whilst it’s less than a sum of its parts, it’s still an intriguing western.
Special Edition Contents:
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- New 4K restoration by Universal Pictures and The Film Foundation, in consultation with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies, recorded exclusively for this release
- Introduction by Martin Scorsese
- Marlon Brando: The Wild One, Paul Joyce’s 1996 documentary on the actor, featuring interviews with Dennis Hopper, Shelley Winters, Martin Sheen and Anthony Hopkins
- Additional, previously unseen interview material from Marlon Brando: The Wild One with Francis Ford Coppola and Arthur Penn
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips
One-Eyed Jacks is released on Blu-ray and DVD by Arrow Academy on Monday 12 June 2017.
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