A fitting tribute to one of the screen’s greatest
One of the biggest crimes in all of film history has always been that actor Montgomery Clift never attained the type of status he deserved during his lifetime. Despite a collection of mesmerizing performances and multiple Oscar nominations, it was the actor’s personal life which many have since decided was worth commenting on more. Even amongst circles of cinephiles, the name Montgomery Clift draws remarks on his premature death as well as claims of self-medicating habits, depression and his homosexuality before eventually acknowledging the breathtaking and game-changing work he gave the world of film. Nominated four times for a body of work which consisted of less than 20 films, Clift was one of the screen’s most indelible figures with an emotional grasp on his craft that was considered revolutionary in the acting world. It’s a talent which has been short-changed by a personal life that has been ripe for speculation in the 50+ years since his death. The recent documentary, Making Montgomery Clift, looks to change the tragic image of a man possessed by his demons as filmmaker (and nephew) Robert Anderson Clift, along with co-director Hillary Demmon unearth heaps of recordings and personal letters from the former’s uncle in an effort to show the film world the real man known simply as Monty.
It’s no surprise that Montgomery Clift’s lasting legacy has been one defined by addiction and despair since that’s the one most biographers and filmmakers have chosen to go with, feeling there was enough material following Clift’s death to construct such an image. Somewhere along the way, the image became fact and the actor was branded the poster child for the tortured artist; a brilliant actor who struggled with, among other things, his own sexuality, before succumbing to his vices. The documentary looks at the differing slants the various biographies written about Clift took such, namely painting him as a sort of lost soul unable to cope with reality. Interviews are presented here from biographers and those who knew him, all of whom offer somewhat different accounts with the sole commonality being that everyone felt they had gotten to know the real Montgomery Clift. It’s no wonder the documentary has the title that it does since most, if not all, of the current images of the actor have been pieced together from various sources. Were the images conjured up in an effort to sell more books, were they constructs of the media who were retaliating against a press-shy Clift, or did it all stem from the private quality Clift gave off, which, coupled with his good looks, allowed him to slip into the role of the beautiful tortured artist? The answer may be all of the above, but if there’s one thing the film does better than anything else, it’s showing how the image, regardless of origin, couldn’t have been further from the real man himself.
Given that Making Montgomery Clift was co-directed by a close relative (the son of Clift’s brother, Brooks), the film is privy to many personal photographs and letters from the actor to his family. Most invaluable and informative however are the hours of recorded phone conversations made by both Clifts between themselves, their mother and others. It’s these recordings where the famous Clift comes off as his truest self. He’s witty, charming, caring, humble and incredibly self-aware. There’s very little of the darkness which plagued his image for decades, replaced instead with an unwavering focus and sense of integrity towards his work. When we hear Clift discuss anything related to acting and the business of making movies, we understand both his deep commitment to it and the frustrations it sometimes caused him. As it progresses, Making Montgomery Clift becomes a tale of two brothers, each with a great deal of love and respect for the other. The filmmakers show Clift’s struggle to get ahold on his deceased brother’s legacy by decrying one biography written about him and trying (mostly in vain) to get the publishers of another to correct the blatant inaccuracies within it. It’s through this element where we see the real struggle taking place as Making Montgomery Clift looks at the younger Clift exploring the toll his famous uncle’s legacy left on his father; one made all the more greater by his own disappointment at being able to protect it.
It’s hard to cite which performance of Clift’s could rightly be considered his best. Certainly there are the ones which made him a bankable name, such as From Here to Eternity and The Misfits, but every single one of his efforts remains memorable for the undeniable power he used to bring it to life. The emotional heartache he showed in The Search, the personal conflict he illustrated in I Confess, the guilt he portrayed in A Place in the Sun and the anguish he conveyed in Judgment at Nuremberg, were all acting masterclasses unto their own, all of which (with the exception of I, Confess) earned him Oscar noms while cementing his artistic prowess. Making Montgomery Clift acknowledges this side of the actor, even if it jumps around between biography, tribute and a story of family. Luckily for the filmmakers, there’s never a side of Clift’s life story that proves uninteresting in the slightest. Ultimately though, the film manages to do what almost no one was able to achieve before; take one of the most misunderstood film icons of all time and give him the acknowledgment he always deserved.
Making Montgomery Clift is now available on Digital and VOD from 1091 Media.