The Men written by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, with Marlon Brando in the leading role was the 1951 Nominee for Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, and it is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – if interested, you find many notes on films from this NYT and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

The Men written by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, with Marlon Brando in the leading role was the 1951 Nominee for Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, and it is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – if interested, you find many notes on films from this NYT and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

9 out of 10

 

The Men comes at the moment when I need it most: it is inspirational, and I hope I emulate Ken aka marvelous Marlon Brando, once considered the best thespian ever, and find the strength to get over this meniscus problem I have encountered today, as I was doing my Monday run of one hour, ten kilometers on the treadmill

 

Marlon Brando will always be remembered for his contribution to some of the Best Films of All Time, such as On The Waterfront https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/on-waterfront-screenplay-by-budd.html A Streetcar Named Desire (remember his screaming Stella?) and evidently The Godfather, long placed at number one

The divine Godfather is still one of the top five in my book, and on the lists of a myriad of other cinephiles, scenes and dialogue have become iconic, ‘the horse in the bed, making an offer he could not refuse, you broke my heart Fredo, I know it was you…’ except it was not a sure thing, on the contrary, it might have missed the target

 

The Kid Stays in The Picture https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-kid-stays-in-picture-by-robert-evans.html is a book by Robert Evans, who has started as an actor, he would become a producer and head of Paramount, he was involved (crucial, we understand) in the making of Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and…

The Godfather, he talks about how they may have passed on Brando, how he had that fantastic idea of putting something in his mouth, and talking like Don Corleone (as we know him now), only the executives could not understand him, they were reluctant, if not hostile to having him on board, because of his image

 

Indeed, Robert Duvall, James Caan and other fabulous colleagues on set talk about having to put the lines everywhere, so that Marlon Brando could read them, on the tree, on the body of Duvall – in The Men, he is playing the role of a man, Ken, who has been shot during World War II, and he loses the ability to walk, he is paraplegic

Hence, my thought of him, when I discovered that I run now, and then I could not, and walking is difficult: to put things in perspective, I am a lucky bastard, evidently, but there is this thing called Hedonic Adaptation, explained in the marvelous classic by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert Stumbling On Happiness

 

In his wonderful book https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/stumbling-on-happiness-by-david-gilbert.html the Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert (he might not be there now, but he was when I have read his work) looks at what happens when the things we think will make us ecstatic take place: we experience Hedonic Adaptation, the upside of this getting used with things is that we adapt to the negative- such as my troubling meniscus, Insha’Allah

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’