Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Rating:
Summary: Every line filled with tension, and the acting is wondeful!
Review: This adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play was nominated for six academy awards in 1959. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie, rejected over and over by her alcoholic husband, Brick, played by Paul Newman. His father, Big Daddy, played by Burl Ives, has just returned to his Mississippi mansion after exploratory surgery. There's bitter rivalry in the family as they speculate about his death. Jack Carson plays the older son, who, with his pregnant wife, played by Madeline Sherwood and their five obnoxious children are determined to inherit Big Daddy's fortune. But Big Daddy despises him, as he does his own wife of 40 years, Big Mama, played by Judith Anderson.

As this film was originally a play, most of it is sharp and cutting dialogue, every line filled with tension and double meanings. Close-ups reveal the artistry of the actors, all of whom are excellent. I especially liked Burl Ives, whose performance called for a wide range of emotions, showing his vulnerability as well as his strength. And as the characters battled with each other, the story, which I understand was rewritten to fall within the guidelines of 1950s censors, slowly revealed itself. Some critics say this ruined this movie adaptation. I can't comment on that because I though the story was great. Most of the film takes place inside a house and there's almost no physical action. Not necessary. The dialog does it all. And it does it well. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: "You know what I'm contemplatin'? Pleasure."
Review: This is a powerful film full of great acting, built on the play of one of our greatest writers: Tennessee Williams. Even if you're not from the South and it's long past the 50's, the territory he covers is still relevant: old resentments between parent and child, between husband and wife, a woman's role, the feelings that surface when someone close is about to die, insecurity, feelings of worthlessness, greed, failed dreams, new understandings.

Yet we're not that far from the 50's when patriarchy was stronger, where there was a distinct double standard and only the men in the family were privy to important decisions--where women were sometimes measured by their ability to produce children, and where so many feelings were repressed and left unsaid.

This film works despite its apparent diversion from Williams' original play in avoiding certain sexual taboos. When watching it I could not understand the problem between Maggie and Brick and Skipper, a plot twist that takes a while to surface and isn't quite resolved, but now that I've read a few reviews here the meaning is plain. It's just another element of depth in an already deep story.

Burl Ives as Big Daddy puts on a fabulous performance as does Judith Anderson as Big Momma and Elizabeth Taylor as a beautiful Maggie. The names, like the characters, are slightly exaggerated for effect--an effect that works.

The film has so many wonderful lines, it's a pleasure just listening to the words--especially when delivered by such fine actors. A small sampling:

Big Daddy to alcoholic son Brick: "Truth is dreams that don't come true and nobody prints your name in the paper 'til you die."

Brick to Big Daddy (talking about Big Momma in a basement full of European artifacts): "You gave her things, Papa, not love."

Maggie (who's scared of losing Big Daddy's inheritance): "Outside of hunger, the first thing I remember is shame."

Big Daddy: "We're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door!"

And so some understandings some to pass. The film starts slowly but crescendos into a powerful ending. I recommend this film with great pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: My absolute favorite
Review: This is my absolute most favorite movie. The dialogue between characters is awesome and the emotions displayed are so tangible you can almost reach out and touch them. No movie made today gives you the same range of emotions. I like the movie much better than the actual play. Sorry Tennesee Williams but Newman and Taylor did it better.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful Acting.
Review: This is true drama as opposed to melodrama. The Tennessee Williams play releases its plot slowly and builds tension until the climax in the last 15 minutes. I've seen it a few times but the unbelievable talent of Paul Newman never stops amazing me; although, one would be hard pressed to say that Burl Ives along with Elizabeth Taylor are not every bit of Newman's equal. This is one of my favorite films and it will soon be one of yours.

Rating:
Summary: It is the best movie that I have ever seen.
Review: This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made. I especially like the acting. Burl Ives (Big Daddy) and Paul Newman (Brick) could not have been better. Movies today sometimes seem to forget about that. They are usually preocuppied with how good the special effects are. This movie was very intense from the beginning to the end. My favorite subplot (there were several!) was the conflict between Brick and Big Daddy, which would have kept me watching by itself. But there were several intense plots. Brick and Maggies marital situation, which related to the Skipper story, Big Daddy and Mommas marriage, and obviously Gooper and Sisterwomans desire to inherit the estate. Although my favorite part was the intensity, I also thought that this was a hilarious movie. Big Daddys obvious dislike for Mays kids, even though Big Momma says he loves kids, and Goopers constant insistance that May shut up. This movie has it all. Excellent acting, awesome plots, and just enough comedy to keep it from being too heavy without turning it into a comedy. It has everything that a great movie needs to make it a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Maggie the Cat
Review: This movie is wonderful! Elizabeth Taylor is stunning as Maggie, the cat, and Paul Newman as Brick is great. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a great movie that at times will leave you laughing. Maggie loves Brick, but Brick cant forgive Maggie for something that happened in the past. Brick confines himself to the bedroom in his pajamas and always with booze in his glass. He's cold to the loving and sexy Maggie but she wont give up on them. Meanwhile Brick's father Big Daddy comes home from the hospital with a new leash on life so he thinks, and Brick's brother and his family are itching to get their hands on Big Daddy's fortune. This movie is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Maggie the Cat
Review: Usually when you read the book (or in this case, play) before you watch the movie, you are sorely disappointed in the movie. But, in this case, I thought the movie outshown the play by a long shot. The play leaves the reader at a loss. It almost seemed like the play did not have a complete thought. But when viewing the movie, it is almost as if the movie filled in the missing parts of the book. The movie was extremely good and it is one of those movies you will watch again and again. Although the movie started off a little slow, it ended superbly. Tennesee Williams had a very truthful view of the disfunctional family in a time when the perfect family was the only thing seen on television. He was honest and open. Although the movie leaves out a few things Tennessee Williams probably thought was important to the play, the movie really complimented the play. I recommend you read the play first and then see the movie.

Rating:
Summary: -
Review: Whatever Williams might have said in his Memoirs (which manage to be both revealing and unreliable at the same time), it is fairly well-known that he pretty well hated this popular film version of what is arguably his most perfect masterpiece - and with some justification. There's very little of his play left in Richard Brooks' slick adaptation. This is certainly partly a result of the puritanism of the era - the cinema of the Fifties was in no way as liberal as the stage when it came to matters of the flesh. But that doesn't necessarily account for the changes in plot and particularly character that Brooks made - changes that amount almost to emasculation. Paul Newman is eminently believable as Brick; it's not his fault that the character as conceived for the screen lacks the conflicted depth and complexity of his theatrical counterpart. Elizabeth Taylor is certainly fierce and sexy as Maggie, but what she - like the whole film - lacks is an understanding of the sensual rhythms of the dialogue; hardly surprising, I suppose, when there is so little of Williams' actual dialogue left. The elusive richness and tantalizing ambiguity of the play have been abandoned in favor of a more straightforward, simplified, and significantly altered reading of the plot - one that transforms Williams' savage and ironic and mysterious exploration of truth and mendacity into a more conventional postwar domestic drama that may actually have more affinites with the very different work of Arthur Miller. As it is, Brooks' version stands as a good movie in its own right. It just also happens to be a bad adaptation of a very great play.

Rating:
Summary: Dysfunctionalism before it was in vogue
Review: When the familial vultures hear that Big Daddy Burl Ives is dying of cancer, they flock to his southern Gothic spread for a supposed 65th birthday, and the Pollitt brood brings with it about every type of dysfunction that hadn't even been named when this scorching film version of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize play got the big screen treatment. Alcoholism, suppressed sexual yearnings, latent homosexuality, greed, "mendacity" and children who could be poster kids for the pro-choice lobby are all here, and a riveting cast combine to make this triumphant film a classic. Headed by a sultry Elizabeth Taylor as the sexually frustrated and angry Maggie the Cat and Paul Newman as her alcoholic and closeted gay husband, Brick, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" explores the interpersonal traumas among husband and wife and a former acquaintance, Skipper, a washed up football player who throws himself out of a window in a Chicago hotel, and the impact his suicide has on Maggie and Brick's marriage. The hint of a gay atrraction between Brick and Skipper is obvious, and Maggie's anger at the physical and emotional distance imposed by her husband is magnificently projected. At the same time, in an overpowering performance by Ives, Big Daddy has to come to terms with his own mortality while baiting the wolves with his decision about who'll get what of his filthy rich estate. In the end, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is less a snapshot of a seriously dysfunctional family at a major crossroad and more an affirmation of life, the passion for it and coming to terms with the sometimes vicious pitches life can throw. As Maggie, Elizabeth Taylor is spellbinding, and her performance is all the more credible considering the filming of the movie was interrupted by the death in a plan crash of her third husband, Mike Todd. Paul Newman, as the cynical, alcoholic and sexually ashamed Brick, unleashes a performance worthy of an Oscar, and Burl Ives is no less than commanding with an awesome screen presence. Though more than 40 years old now, this film remains a classic and deserves a spot on virtually every "best of" list that can be developed.