In films like The Wild One and On The Waterfront Marlon Brando redefined the nature of screen heroism, redefined the standards of screen acting and helped the entire postwar generation to define itself. He became something more than a star; he became a cultural icon, one of those rare figures whose public life permanently invades, and in some measure, shapes our private reveries. Richard Schickel is a member of the generation that came of age as Marlon Brando entered his first claims on the world's attention. In this book, he recreates the excitement, the danger, the controversy of the years when Brando challenged everyone's ideas of how a movie star's life should be lived, and provides the first serious analysis of all Marlon Brando's movies, offering fresh and often surprising judgements on his work and the conditions under which it was performed.