Burt Lancaster: An American Life

Burt Lancaster

Knopf, 447 pp., $27.50

In his description of Burt Lancaster's performance in The Train (1965), New Yorker film critic Brendan Gill distilled the star's signature screen presence down to its essence. "He is a contemporary Sisyphus," Gill wrote, "but he is not resigned, and in a contest between him and any boulder, we are encouraged to suspect that it is the boulder that would crumble first." "Mr. Muscles and Teeth," as he was known, was a former circus acrobat whose chopped East Harlem diction, unruly blond mane, and awe-inspiring physicality were trademarks that often overshadowed the earnest, human performances he delivered in such films as Elmer Gantry and The Birdman of Alcatraz. With the first full-scale Lancaster biography, NPR commentator Buford assumes the unenviable task of penetrating the star's iconic film status to piece together the complex and contradictory facets of his personality and career. Sadly, however, her Burt Lancaster never rises above the sum of its subject's parts. The beautiful, brutish bête du cinéma remained, by all accounts, a tacit and emotionally aloof figure throughout his lifetime, but Buford's compendium of factual tidbits and insider anecdotes somehow serve only to further mystify the man. Not that some of the tidbits aren't potentially fascinating. For instance, we learn all about Lancaster's independent production company, which was perhaps the most successful of its type in the Fifties. We read into his relationships with cinematic luminaries such as Kirk Douglas and Luchino Visconti, which were notably bittersweet. But the details are tedious because Buford never solves the riddle that was Lancaster's personality. Intellectual or strongman? Amiable or cruel? She never gives us the opportunity to look beyond those, and other, extremes for a clearer understanding of the individual. Many of her keenest insights, in fact, come when she forgoes the facts and studies the actor through his nuanced performances in so many classic films. My advice: Use the time you would have spent reading this book watching Lancaster's films.