Rating: 
Summary: HEY MARLOOOOOOON!
Review: "Every man's a king and I'm the king around here, and don't you forget it". How could we forget? Marlon Brando was unbelievably great in this film! Even as a violent, mean spirited brute, you can't take your eyes off of him, and you can't help but love him ( By the way, the man looks amazing in a ripped wet t-shirt, wow!). Adding to the greatness of marlon, is the fact that Streetcar is one of the best plays ever written, and the rest of the cast is perfect. Highly recommended to anyone! Brando fans, if you haven't seen this one, "Whassa matter with you??"
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Summary: Brando
Review: If you are a lover of great performances or just great drama in general, this is the movie for you.
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Summary: Possibly the best American play ever written.
Review: A film without acting flaws, this "Streetcar" rattles through the steamy French quarter and takes you on an emothional roller-coaster -- at times gentle, brutal, sensual, quiet, loud -- and ultimately leaves you in "Elysian Fields" (Symbol of heaven). Unfortunately, Kazan had to alter and thus soften the ending so that we are left not fully feeling the tragedy that has befallen Blanche AND her sister.
The transfer, I feel, could have used some beefing in the sound department, but otherwise, I am quite contented with the result.
Vivien Leigh gives a well-orchestrated performance as the last of the Southern Belles who has lost all shreds of sanity. Brando is a powerhouse who leaves the viewer as frightened as Blanche, and the rest of the ensemble are equally suited to the task. Tenessee Williams only wrote a few really fine plays, and I suppose this is his finest moment.
If you saw the film and did not care for it, I suggest another visit. You might change your mind.
So many unforgettable truths in the picture: "Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable," is unforgettable.
I notice that some reviewers complain of the format. The film was shot prior to cinemascope. Wide-screen was not around. To present the film in this fashion would distort the actors.
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Summary: Uhm, not everything was filmed 'widescreen'
Review: 'Streetcar' was not filmed in Cinemascope or any other larger screen format, hence there is no widesceen version on DVD.
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Summary: Non-Letterbox Director's Version
Review: It's hard to believe that in this day and age, a DVD company can release a "pan and scan" version of the Director's cut of a classic vintage film. But, they did! Although the restored footage fills in many details that were left out of the original release, and is truer to the original Tennessee Williams play, I couldn't help but feel disapointed and cheated that I could not watch the original full screen version. In addition to the screen format, this DVD also lacks additional special features that could have made it superb.
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Summary: AFI's Great Love Stories: #67 A Streetcar Named Desire
Review: In "A Streetcar Named Desire" Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski gives what is clearly the best acting performance not to win an Academy Award (he lost to Humphrey Bogart in "The African Queen"). Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois, Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski, and Karl Malden as Mitch all won in their respective acting categories. Years later, with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" this same thing happened, with both of the ladies winning that time around. Tennessee Williams' play is one of the major works in American drama, especially after the Second World War, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1947 (with Jessica Tandy as Blanche the only cast change from the film; although I should point out Leigh opened the play in England on stage). Although Brando's performance is riveting, representing the new "modern" method of acting at its best, the play is really about the mental and moral disintegration of Blanche, a neurotic former Southern belle whose genteel illusions are no match for the brutish realities of her brother-in-law, Stanley. The fact that Hollywood changed the ending to reflect conventional morality remains one of the great sins in movie history, but I have always thought the fact Brando's legendary stage performance was essentially preserved on film offsets that in the final judgment. Leigh's performance is often seen as an extension of the Scarlett O'Hara role that made her famous, but of course now we know her personal life was as tortured as the character she was playing. I heard an argument once that "A Streetcar Named Desire" was, at least on some level, a reponsible by Tennessee Williams to Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh" (then again, I have heard the same argument made, more forcefully to be sure, regarding Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). O'Neill's classic play deals with the human need for illusion and hope as necessary weapons against despair. If you are teaching American drama in the 20th century, then using these plays in any combination you might like could be quite provocative for your students. Personal aside: I was in New Orleans once and actually saw the bus named "Desire," which had replaced the city streetcars. There was certainly an odd little moment. Most significant line: It does not seem right to talk about romantic lines with any of these characters, but there is a line that is one of the greatest character epitaphs ever. Of course, this is at the end where Blanches says to the doctor, "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." I have usually found that at some point in a play there is a line that defines the character so well it could serve as their epitaph. This line is as clear an example of what I am talking about as you could ever hope to find. If you like "A Streetcar Named Desire," then check out these other films on the AFI's list of 100 Greatest Love Stories: #48 "Last Tango in Paris" and #89 "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Why? The former give you Brando in another sick love relationship and the latter is the other great American drama on this list.
Rating: 
Summary: One Quick Question......... (3.5 stars)
Review: I'm curious to know if anyone has read the play. Because, I want to know what they think of the ending in the movie version. It completly changes the tone and subject of the movie! Let me tell you something: this play was supposed to be about Blanche's tragedy. Changing the ending takes that element away. You can no longer call it a tragedy, and all of the sudden now the movie is about Stella. Coming from someone who absolutely LOVED reading the play, I think this new ending is a complete cop out. Well, it is. I know it was forced on the studio from people who didn't think the original ending was "appropriate." My advice: read the play. It's better. Actually, the movie is also really good as well....except when it gets to the ending. All in all, I was really disappointed with how it ended. Should've stuck to the original ending that was in the play. I would've given it 5 stars had it not been for the ridiculous "forced" ending. But that's just one man's opinion.
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Summary: Dearest Blanche....
Review: I think this is my favorite film, so I have to add my impressions, even tho everything that could be said about it has already been said. A wonderful film, filled with incredible performances. Vivien Leighs "Blanche" is as fragile as that glass in Tennesse's Menagerie. She won the best actress Oscar for her interpretation of Tennessee Williams alter-ego, Blanche DuBois, the Southern belle on her last stop. She takes the role that Jessica Tandy famously originated in the stage production, and makes it her own. Her performance would have been enough to make this movie a milestone, but the fact there's two groundbreaking performances in it only adds to it's power and legend. Marlon Brandos "Stanley Kowalski", which he originated on stage, was a revelation, then and now. A new kind of acting was brought to the general public. Cast with top New York "method" actors,(Kim Hunter & Karl Malden received best-supporting actor Oscars)it was a once in a lifetime production. That Brando did not receive the award, (I believe Humphrey Bogart won that year, for "The African Queen"), does not take away the lasting effect Brandos role had on cinema. It has been said that Tennessee Williams found much humor in Blanche, his most famous creation, and, often during the stage performances, would cackle maniacally at her (his) remarks, and her final line... one of the most famous lines in entertainment history, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers", always struck him as incredibly funny, to the annoyance of many.(He wrote her, I guess he's entitled.) Maybe his own proximity to madness was a little too close to Blanche's. All said, from the moment she enters the movie, emerging from the steam of the dark New Orleans train station, to her final, lost exit, it is the beautiful and tragic Vivien Leighs Blanche who pervades this film. She and Tennessee were just too gentle for this world.
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Summary: A small work of art that has stood the test of time
Review: This 1951 award-winning film was directed by Elia Kazan and based on a play by Tennessee Williams. Set in New Orleans shortly after WWII, it starred Marlon Brando, then just 27 years old, in the performance that set his career in motion. Cast as Stanley Kowalski, the rough loudmouthed husband of Stella, played by Kim Hunter, he struts around in a torn tee shirt, his body all muscle and sweat, and there's a raw animal magnetism to his performance. When Stella's sister, the tragic fading beauty Blanche Dubois, played by Vivian Leigh, suddenly comes to live with them, the tension mounts. Filmed in black and white, most of the action takes place in a cramped two-room apartment, and in the street directly outside. The dialogue leads the viewer to understand the characters on an ever-deepening level, and the facial expressions and physical actions heightened the emotional realism. Brando smashed dishes and threw a radio out a window and often acted like a caged animal. The screen sizzled with raw passion during the romantic scenes between him and Hunter, where he reveals just enough tenderness to give him added appeal. I understand that a few minutes of footage in the scenes between them were added to the video, which had previously been censored out, and I could see the difference this made. All the casting was excellent, and Karl Malden, in a supporting role as Brando's buddy who courts Blanche was great. I couldn't help thinking about Vivian Leigh in "Gone With The Wind", which had been made a dozen years before, and felt the role of Blanche was just perfect for her. In "Streetcar" she's actually 38 years old with lines beginning around her eyes and slightly loosened skin. Even though some of the dialog was a bit mumbled, and some of the scenes just a little more talky than they would be today, I loved the fact that the action came from the internal conflicts and acting abilities of the characters, and didn't need any modern special effects to add to the realism. "Streetcar" is a small work of art and has certainly stood the test of time. Highly recommended.
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Summary: jump aboard a streetcar named review
Review: I cannot express how happy I was when I discovered this cinematic slice of tenessee flavoured pie. Streetcar is my bestest play and I was like a pig in muck when I found that Elia Kazan had directed it, then like a pig in a sewage works when I found that Brando and Leigh were portraying my most loved characters and then when I finally watched it and loved it the pig had died and left behind precious bacon for all.
Never has so much inspired and inspiring acting been placed together, expert casting creates streetcars characters closer to the text than i ever could have hoped. Brando is pure masculinity, but manages to show that persicuted little bunny hiding below as only he knows how. Our Viv manages to make Blanche as mad as trimmed pig while still creating the utmost sympathy from the audience, the rest of the cast are also jolly fine and not pig like at all.
The set is just magic, it looks just like a house occupied by our local witch, dingy, dirty and foul beyond belief but with that hint of something that makes you think someone has tried to make the best of a bad job, just how it should look. Kazan makes the New Orleans setting perfectly dank whilst retaining that exciting naughiness, the sounds that resonate continually throughout are expertly placed and really give great atmosphere and are like a symbiot to the poetic dialogue. And oh mother that dialogue, poetry thy name is Tennessee Williams, never have I left a film spouting so many of the lines, i assure you i was 'hey stella'ring for days after, and await the day i am given the oppertunity to express ' i have always depended on the kindness of strangers ', that day will come if i have to succumb to madness to achieve it.
Do you get the feeling i like this film, my only problem is with the DVD thingy, its not a superb picture considering other Kazan and Brando classics have had good restorations, and the sound isnt put to effect ( I could think of several places where a good remix could have added tp the experience, blanches funny turns to name a few ) extras could fill a baby pigs stomach. But we have to remember this is from Warner bros and they arent renound for quality DVDs ( although they did a stonking job on rebel without a cause, so why not this)
bye stella
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