Mora Like the Book?
to play the lead in the picture and that he wanted me to
come to Tahiti, where he was doing another movie at the
time. I assumed it was to talk about the filming of The
Ugly American. But in two weeks, we explicitly discussed
the book for only five minutes.
Some sort of an eerie exchange was going on, however.
At dinner we might start off by talking about a pro
gressive school in England. Gradually we might slide into
the differences between American and English character,
and then things would get to a hard point: do English
diplomats perform better than Americans?
The arguments often got heated, but they always were
over by midnight. Despite stories 1 have read, Brando
never drank after dinner and was almost morbidly sensi
tive to his "call" the next morning.
I USUALLY walked out into the mild Tahitian night with
the sensation of being "had." Brando slides into one's
mind, pulls out a bit of knowledge, clutches it, and runs.
He does it with a gentle skill which must be inherited;
no man could live long enough to learn it
He struck me as a man picking up fragments with the
hope of putting them into something recognizable. An
example: once he asked me about latah, a curious hyster
ical state which is easily induced in Malays. As I finished,
I looked up and he was latah : eyes glazed, mouth slightly
open, breathing very rapid, movements jerky and me
chanical. He winked, recomposed his face. It was only a
rehearsal, but it was terrifyingly like the real thing.
Back on the mainland, I saw Englund and Stern at
work. By now they had crept inside the characters whom
Lederer and I had invented characters I knew only as
deeply as ink prints on paper. They argued ferociously
and actually seemed to be living the characters.
Part of their work was pure, hilarious fantasy. Sark
han, the country in which the book's action takes place,
is wholly fiction. But they had invented a Sarkhanese
dialect, designed a flag for the country, and drew up a
map of Southeast Asia on which they had hacked out a
place for their new nation. They even took sides in do
mestic Sarkhanese politics.
Occasionally I would comment. They didn't hear; they
were off in a visionary world, living it completely. And
they worked much harder than had Lederer and I.
Three years, seven months, and 15 days after we
closed the deal, Lederer and I saw the movie in Holly
wood. The screen came alive with a hot shimmering scene
of Asia. For several moments, I sat with stomach muscles
as tense as a washboard. Then for two hours and three
minutes, I watched the film unfold. It has only the most
passing resemblance to a novel called The Vgly American.
Some names were the same, a few situations seemed
familiar. But it was like trying to remember a dream.
We had given the characters names; now they walked
and talked, but they were strangers.
Five minutes later I had forgotten that the picture
was partly mine and also that Brando was a friend. I
remembered only the tiny snips and bits he had picked
up for now they came back at me from the screen.
I think the picture is better than the book; more
integrated, more skillful, and more dramatic. It is a hard
thing to acknowledge. It is even harder to concede that,
in between the brilliant colors and the savage acting, the
political impact is still there. It is slipped into speeches,
implied by the ferocious lowing of a mob moving in
to kill Brando. But it is there.
When the screening was over, we walked out into the
empty alleys of the Universal lot. "When do we eat?"
Lederer asked. Then, turning to Englund, he added: "A
good flick. Where did you get the idea for it?" We all
laughed. Not an easy laugh, but an understanding one.
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