Movies - TV
One-Eyed Jacks Put Marlon Brando Off Of Directing Permanently
By ANTHONY CRISLIP
The 1961 film “One-Eyed Jacks,” directed by Marlon Brando, destroyed the actor’s desire to direct again, due to a harrowing process of writing, shooting, and editing the movie.
In the 1950s, Brando led development on “One-Eyed Jacks” and rejected screenwriter Rod Serling's initial draft, as well as a then-green Sam Peckinpah’s attempt at the script.
After filmmaker Stanley Kubrick came on to direct the project, he lobbied for Calder Willingham to write the script, adding to the tangled group of artists working on “Jacks.”
Just before filming began, Kubrick tired of Brando’s behavior and left the project. Brando assumed directing duties and, despite 10 years on film sets, proved to be a novice.
Brando neglected production considerations like economics and efficiency, and in his autobiography, he admitted the film was “two weeks behind schedule five days into shooting.”
Brando let his actors experiment incessantly, and production ran much longer than expected. Brando’s cut of the film ran five hours and its $1.8 million budget rose to $6 million.
Paramount re-edited the film, but Brando felt the studio’s cut turned his complex characters into simple archetypes of good and evil. He then chose to never direct again.