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Summary: Really Marrrthaa...
Review: What a movie! Martha and George--what a couple. Taylor really puts it out. Perhaps they aren't quite sane but what does that word mean? The dark, clever games their minds play evolve with the movie. They seem to thrive on a comic form of cruelty. Dennis is wonderful as the naive young woman who just doesn't get much of anything.
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Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: One late night about 20 years ago, I was flipping through the channels. I luckily happened upon this movie, which I couldn't stop watching. So powerful. Elizabeth Taylor's talents are stunning. It's both sad and hilarious at the same time. I love this movie. A true classic.
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Summary: One of my all-time favorites
Review: Edward Albee's plays often include long monologues that can either make or break a performance depending on the skills of the actors in question. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf features only four actors, and all four are in fine form as they tear each other apart. The film is too fast-paced to be called minimalist. Claustrophobic is more like it, oscillating wildly between absurd and tragic. Riveting performances by everyone -- the two Oscars, to Liz Taylor and Sandy Dennis, really should have been four. It's especially satisfying to see glam queen Liz Taylor let rip with Albee's earthy, 100% real dialogue. Try it. You'll like it.
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Summary: Put current film-acting to shame
Review: This is an original, timeless masterpiece of theatrical acting put on film. You'll understand when you see it. I can't believe it wasn't one of the Top 100 Movies by the AFI, but then again, I can believe it, considering what made that infamous list. You'll be amazed at Taylor and Burton's performances, and see why they were sought after in Hollywood: hardly any American actors could put on such an act. You'll see why most of today's blockbuster-actors are sad in comparison, thanks to commercialism, and why they have to do indy films to be taken seriously. "WAOVW?" is a harbinger of indy films' necessity. BUY IT!
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Summary: Alex North Scores Big Time With Woolf's Incredible Score
Review: The amazingly talented Alex North has effectively scored this Mike Nichol's film with the right mood and emotion. The music enhances the black and white cinematography and majestically serves as a couterpart that adheres to the wonderful performances of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. North was obviously keen on the vision that Nichols wanted to create in that the score leaves a feeling of despair with soft undertones of hope that illustrate the character's misery. The soundtrack will definitely be one of my favorites for years to come.
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Summary: The Atomic Bomb in Your Living Room
Review: The title of this film is derived from the classic childhood rhyme, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and is used to illustrate the immaturity of the characters and the fright of confrontation. The addition of "Virginia Woolf" into the title is not only a play on words, but a reference to the author's suicide - basically, the question asked is: who's afraid of going insane?Apparently everybody. "Woolf" is an emotional roller-coaster of a film. The premise is simple: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are husband and wife. Burton is a somewhat washed up University professor, and Taylor is the University president's daughter. They invite the new math professor and his squeaky, drunkard wife over for a few glasses, which quickly turns into a few bottles, which leads to an escalated, violent verbal assault on everything the four characters hold dear. Egos are shattered. Relationships are ruined. Children are murdered. By the end of the film, the actors sulk away to their dark corners, exhausted and fragile. The same happens to the audience. If there ever was a "draining" film, this one is it. You feel like you just watched your parents fight for a whole evening. You physically feel tired, upset, angry, sad ... just about every emotion exercised in the film is exercised on your well-being. "Woolf" is based on a play by Edward Albee, which takes place in the living room. Mike Nichols, in his stunning directorial debut, ventures only a few places other than the living room, knowing full-well that the powerhouse performances by Taylor and Burton especially (as well as the most convincing drunk ever played by Sandy Dennis) will keep the audience captivated. All dialogue in this film, save for two or three lines, are directly taken from the play. Albee said the added lines were "all garbage" - but you won't notice. This is arguably Nichols best film, and yes, I am including "The Graduate." The cinematography (glorious black & white by Haskell Wexler, who provides commentary on the DVD), the performances, the violence, the suspense, the mind-bender at the end ... everything about this film is absolutely perfect. Note that this isn't just a marriage disaster film, and there's a great deal of intelligent humor involved. This film also broke censorship standards, with the passionate involvement of the then-married Taylor and Burton, and featured the very first "goddamn" every uttered. Without "Woolf," the perfect TV sitcom family would still exist today. Now deviant relationships in shaky households has become the norm for modern films. Burton was shafted again by the Academy for this film, but Taylor won a much-deserved statuette, in what is called her best performance. Check it out. You will not forget it.
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Summary: THE BEST OF TAYLOR & BURTON
Review: With A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, this may be the hardest American mainstream film to sit through - made before 1970.
The langauage, the respectable(but really lowlife)but pathetic protagonists could make you uncomfortable. But it`s worth it. You`ll see four actors at the peak of their form and powers; Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis and George Segal all excell in this brilliant adaption of a famous stage play. Enough said...
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Summary: Truth or Illusion
Review: Though "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" as brilliantly directed by Mike Nichols, is almost 40 years old it still has real impact on anyone lucky enough to see this new DVD transfer.
This play and film will most likely be the zenith, the Signature Play of Edward Albee's tremendous career, though he has written much since the Broadway production of this play in the early 1960's.
Though, at the time it was thought of as mostly a way to cash in on their major stardom, the casting of Taylor and Burton is perfect: as each of them reaches way above and sometimes below the surface of the written page to come up with the truth and heart of Albee's words (though Nichols and Ernest Lehman adapted the screenplay).
Albee is concerned here with the little and big lies we tell ourselves and others in order to keep going: "Truth or Illusion," George and Martha intone several times during this film ("Truth or Illusion, George, doesn't it matter to you...at all?"). And only when George "kills" the Illusion of an imaginary son do we feel that there is any chance for George and Martha to continue:
Martha..."before I'm through with you you'll wish you'd died in that automobile
accident, you bastard!"
George:..."and you'll wish you'd never mentioned our son!"
Albee has set "WAOVW" in New Carthage, which was founded in the 9th Century B.C. And the Romans razed it to the ground in 146 A.D. By the 5th Century it had again become a power, which St Augustine, in his "Confessions" called a "Cauldron of Unholy Loves."
Amen, Brother, Amen.
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Summary: Amazing... by florian n.
Review: When i first thought of watching the movie, I was afraid of maybe being disappointed, but it turned out to be amazing. The actors have done a very good job. They are the perfectly incarnations of the characters Albee thought up. This movie shows the stunning truth of the illusion of happy marriage "for as long as we both shall live". The only thing I don't like is the scene where the location changes. It's not in the book.
The story is about two couples having a little party in the middle of the night. Having drunken much alcohol terrible things happen and illusions break up. An astonishing film. An absolutely must!
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Summary: Excellent Actors!
Review: The movie "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is about two couples, George & Martha and Honey & Nick, who meet at the house of George & Martha after a party, drink alcohol and talk about their lives. They have quarrels about nearly every theme which is mentioned.
After I read the book "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by Edward Albee i was very anxious for seeing the adaption.
When i saw that Elizabeth Taylor an Richard Burton play the parts of the protagonists Martha and George i expected a great movie and i havn't been disappointed.
The dialogues, music and facial expressions make the film a special one, which i can recommend to everyone!
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