Montgomery Clift: A Career Appreciation

Montgomery Clift is my favorite performer to ever appear in film. He had a magnetism to him, a pain and vulnerability that still pours out of the screen. In 1948, most all American leading men were stuck in the alpha-male, tough guy persona. They delivered their lines stoically, they slapped their women, they robbed, they killed, they were “men.” And then a quiet, assertive young man from Omaha, Nebraska graced the screen for the first time, and film acting was never the same.

That year, Montgomery Clift appeared in Fred Zinnemann’s The Search, and Clift was simply... human. He played his character as kind, supportive, mildly sarcastic, and vulnerable. With this performance and subsequent roles, Clift pioneered the “method” style of acting, which completely changed the art form. It was an acting style that let men be real people, in all their flaws and sadness. Clift’s acting style helped inform Marlon Brando’s craft, which helped inform James Dean, then Paul Newman, Pacino, De Niro, Keitel, Nicholson, and on and on. Because of this, I’ve always considered Montgomery Clift one of the most important figures in cinema history. His acting influence is damn near without equal.