It looks like he is at the dentist all the time. Why was this necessary? Couldn’t Brando have played Vito without this strange prosthetic?
shareIt looks like he is at the dentist all the time.
He looked ridiculous. I wasn't a fan of his performance in general. Too over the top and he did NOT sound like an Italian immigrant.
shareAnswer: Marlon Brando said the character of Don Vito should be that of a an old, experienced ‘bulldog’, born on rural Sicily and after spending years of gang-related wars and stress, the solid ‘farm boy’ should show sign of wear and tear.
So he stuffed his cheeks with cotton during rehearsal, however in the actual movie he wore special dentures.
It was part of the makeup used to make him look older. They also added a little gray to his hair, and used makeup to accentuate crows feet and other signs of age. Vito Corleone was around sixty at the start of the film, and Brando was still in his forties at the time. The dental prosthetic was meant to give the impression of sagging jowls and add to the aged appearance.
shareIt wasn’t the best make-up technique for that imo, but I guess prosthetics were still primitive in the 1970s. It just looked like he was at the dentist and had those cotton tubes in his mouth.
shareI beg to differ. The makeup was excellent in making Brando look the right age. Have a look at these before and after images:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zyGuAe8sf6c/XRwnVS8_j6I/AAAAAAADj5s/R4F4cgBocBs6QlmRRfD3NeSm9yw5SM4xQCLcBGAs/s1600/marlon-brando-the-godfather-makeup-1.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MaMPISyNESI/XRwnVURGezI/AAAAAAADj5k/MJa7Lb8LYvkDYDoTtJ4gPZcjXSxnikBQQCLcBGAs/s640/marlon-brando-the-godfather-makeup-2.jpg
Dick Smith, one of the all-time greats of Hollywood makeup (same guy who did the makeup for "An American Werewolf in London") really knocked it out of the park. It's not overdone, but he gets all the little details: he adds just a little gray to Brando's hair and mustache, deepens the lines of on his forehead and around his eyes, nose, and mouth, even makes his eyelids droop a little, and even makes his throat a little baggier. It genuinely works, and Brando really did look a good twenty years or so older than his actual age, and it looked so natural that you really wouldn't notice he's wearing makeup if you saw him on the street.
It's actually a lot more convincing than the makeup that George C. Scott wore in Patton -- another case of a fortysomething actor playing a man in his early sixties. All they did for Scott was shave the front of his head to give him Patton's receding hairline, and bleach the remaining hair white to resemble Patton's prematurely grayed hair. His face still looks fortyish. Patton looked good for his age, but he still looked a vigorous sixty, while Scott looks younger. Brando as Don Corleone really looks exactly like a man in his early sixties.
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I always thought there was something strange looking about his face but never thought it was a prosthetic.... hmmmm.. interesting.
The only issue I have with Vito is the way his voice sounds. It sounds like he's got laryngitis or something. Lol...