Movies - TV
Marlon Brando Butted Heads With Stanley Kubrick Over One-Eyed Jacks
By MIKE SHUTT
With Stanely Kubrick coming off his exquisite 1957 World War I film “Paths of Glory,” Marlon Brando brought him on to direct an adaptation of the Western novel “The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones,” which would become the film “One-Eyed Jacks.” Kubrick left the film after becoming frustrated with Brando, which may have been what the actor wanted all along.
In the book “Eyes Wide Open,” Kubrick recalled the script meeting that led to his departure: “[Marlon] put this stopwatch on the table [...] and said, 'Stanley, what are your problems?' And he pressed the button. 'You've got three minutes.' [...] I'd maybe got to page five when he said, 'That's it, you've had your three minutes.' So I said, 'Marlon, why don't you go f*** yourself?'”
Brando went on to direct “One-Eyed Jacks,” and Kubrick felt that Brando’s annoying tactics during pre-production were just a ploy to get what Brando really wanted. Kubrick said, “Truth was, it was all a setup. He wanted to direct the picture, which is what he did eventually. He wanted me out of there, and he couldn't figure how else to do it. That was Marlon.”