A Streetcar Named Desire: The Original Director's Version

Rating:
Summary: Neurotic and Sublime
Review: "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers," is a very difficult line to read convincingly. Recent years have brought us a plethora of *Blanches DuBois*. Just ask Jessica Lange or Ann-Margaret how hard that line is to read - neither of them came close to convincing us of it. But Vivien Leigh - the ethereally lovely and vastly skilled actress who brought us the immortal Scarlett O'Hara - utters the line in such a way that makes the heart ache. Leigh, who won Best Actress for her performance, plays the seminal Blanche. She is flighty, unstable and riddled with neuroses, and the very apex of Tennessee Williams' dysfunctional but immense creativity. Her character is strongly contrasted by that of Marlon Brando's crude, Neanderthal-like Stanley Kowalski, and both of them, perhaps because of their personal parallels to their characters, excel at these playing parts. This re-release restored several minutes of sexual tension to the film that had been hacked out by the censors, notably filling out Kim Hunter's Oscar-winning role as Blanche's beloved sister, Stella. Despite the stifling mores of the Fifties, the film also garnered awards for Karl Malden, and Best Art Direction.

Rating:
Summary: Torrid Summer at New Orleans.
Review: Director Elia Kazan has been criticized for his appearance on the Un-American Activities Committee that lead many people related to cinematography to be ostracized.
This been said, regardless of his political stand, he had directed many great Oscar winner films as: "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "East of Eden" (1955), "Splendor on the Grass" (1961) and the present "Streetcar Named Desire" (1951).
He had conducted two "Movie Icons" as Marlon Brando (more than once) and James Dean obtaining the best from them. All his films explored the inner depth of human soul with unflinching stare.

"Streetcar Named Desire" is not an easy play to film; Tennessee Williams touches many critical issues here, some are shown in the movie and some didn't cross the censor's barrier.
Nevertheless what is left is more than enough to shake the viewer.
This is the plot: a middle aged woman from a small Southern town arrives to New Orleans in search of her sister, which has married "a stranger from the big City".
She has an unstable personality and looks for some one to give refuge and sense to her life.
Different conflicts arises: she clashes with her brother-in-law on cultural and economic issues; she stresses her relation with her caring sister; finally try to engage into matrimony a friend of her in-law. All this happen while she is psychically deteriorating.

Actor's performances are really top-notch. Vivien Leigh is Blanche DuBois, the troubled fleeing sister and won the Oscar with her performance.
Marlon Brando is... just Marlon Brando... giving the first steps of his successful career: He fleshes the pedestrian Stanley Kowalski, which resent and despises her sister-in-law, with a feral untamed force.
Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski gives the best performance of her extended lifework, earning the Oscar to Best Actress in Supporting Role.
Last but not least Karl Malden also earned his Best Actor in Supporting Role Oscar with a sober but convincing characterization of Harold Mitchell, Stanley's friend.

Classic film for adult audiences.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.


Rating:
Summary: Even with the "morality" changes, a classic adaptation
Review: A film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' famous play Streetcar Named Desire inevitably ran into trouble with the Hollywood censors. After all, the play frankly portrayed many taboo subjects, such as mental illness, nymphomania, homosexuality, rape, and domestic violence. The director Elia Kazan (who directed the Broadway production) was forced to cut several scenes, and "tone down" other scenes. This dvd restores some 5 minutes missing from the original cinematic release, although we have is still considerably tamer than the original Williams play. The famous line that Stanley snarls to Blanche before raping her ("We've had this date from the beginning") is still missing, sadly. The tacked-on "moral" ending (which i won't give away) is also still here.
However, the strength of the 4 lead performances as well as Kazan's stylized-yet-realistic direction packs an incredible wallop, Legion of Decency be damned. Marlon Brando (Stanley), Kim Hunter (Stella), and Karl Malden (Mitch) reprised their Broadway performances. Hunter and Malden won Oscars, but of course it's Brando's performance that made the most impact. Sweaty, leering, sexy, violent, Brando's Stanley Kowalski is absolutely magnetizing. Everyone loves the big moments, like him screaming "STELLLLAAAAAA!!!" in front of the apartment complex, but Brando can also be quietly chilling. Watch the cold smirk he gives Blanche as Stella hugs him.
Jessica Tandy was the Broadway Blanche du Bois, but Vivien Leigh made the film. Leigh won an Oscar for her portrayal fo the troubled Blanche, and for once the Academy got it right. The British actress, who in real life suffered from bipolar disorder, makes Blanche a sympathetic person, despite her horrid affectations and manipulative personality. Leigh's Southern accent is still imperfect (although better than it was in Gone With the Wind) but I can't watch any other Blanche duBois without remembering Leigh;s shy smile as she sits with Mitch on the stairways, or the matter-of-fact way she puts on an ugly pair of glasses to read some papers. For those accustomed to seeing today's Botoxed actresses (thinking, uh, Nicole Kidman) that the closeups of Leigh's beautiful but wrinkled face seem poignantly realistic. If Brando represents the harsh brutality of Williams' play (the drunkeness, lust, and violence) than Leigh's performance emphasizes it's poetic, almost surreal side. The movie omits any mention of Blanche's husband's homosexuality, but the sad, nostalgic way Leigh mentions her marriage is still riveting -- she's opaque and matter-of-fact at the same time.
Kim Hunter as Blanche's sister Stella is a disturbing character -- so sexually attached to her husband that she'll betray her sister and tolerate violence and drunkenness. Hunter makes Stella wholesome, charmingly plainspoken, the perfectly nice lady you'd see on a bus. Karl Malden as Mitch is not nearly as preachy and overwrought as his performance as the Father in On the Waterfront.
Elia Kazan ended up a much-loathed man because of his decision to "name names" for the HUAC. But he was a skilled filmmaker. He wisely does not really "open up" the play except for a few scenes. The hub of the action still takes place in Stanley and Stella's squalid, cramped apartment in New Orleans. This gives the film a claustrophobic effect. Kazan likes to use harsh lighting during close-ups. We see Stanley's sweat and grease, Blanche's wrinkles. Since Kazan had the censors to worry about, he found clever ways to suggest the unspeakable. For instance we don't see Blanche's rape, but instead we see a mirror image of Blanche struggling with Stanley. The image of the shattered wine bottle and the frail Blanche might be more uncomfortable than a brutal more explicit scene.
Williams' play has held up remarkably well despite its age. The faded Southern belle may seem less recognizable to viewers today, but the sensitive issues that Williams tackled so fearlessly are still very relevant. This film deserves its classic status.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!!!
Review: THIS IS A GREAT FILM. MARLON BRANDO AND VIVEN LEIGH HAS SONES SOME SUPERB ACTING IN THIS FILM AND I THINK IT WAS WONDERFUL. THIS MOVIE IS JUST AS GOOD AS THE BOOK. WOW, MARLON WAS REALLY A CREEP IN THIS MOVIE. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY STELLA NEVER LEFT HER HUSBAND HE WAS A TERRIBLE PERSON. I ALSO CAN'T BELIEVE HOW HE HAD GAVE BLANCHE BUS TICKETS TO GO HOME FOR A BIRTHDAY PRESENT THAT WAS COLD BLOODED. BUT OVERALL THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE THESE PEOPLE PLAYED THESE ROLES WITH ALL OF THEIR HEARTS AND SOULS.

Rating:
Summary: Why does not Hollywood make mature films like this one?
Review: Superb and terrific film about the desperation , the disaffection and bitter loneliness of a disturbed woman with deep inner demons who wished to be loved for a man who never came to her life .
Tennesse Williams masterpiece was supported for a very fine cast where everybody were abosultely outstanding . Kim Hunter as the wife , Vivien Leigh as the disturbed woman and Marlon Brando as the macho man in a lonely home with the hopeless and disillusion crossing the emotional borders of their miserable souls . Every one of them hiddes something and nobody is really sure about nothing ; the future is just a sum of equal days where the time does not seem change anything .
The bitter metaphor is more than obvious . Brave and incisive film filmed with a resource economy but a powerful message to state . One of the superb masterpieces of the american cinema in that glorious and creative decade .
Stella ! is the last scream .

Rating:
Summary: One of America's Great Films!
Review: All the critics agree about one thing: there had never been a performance before in American movies like Marlon Brando gave in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. I have seen this movie many times and never tire of it. Although Brando would make other fine movies, he would never make one better. Vivien Leigh is also amazing as the fragile Blanche who is sinking into madness. Even with the stagey set, which looks like a set, the characters explode on the screen.

It seems to me that you do not compare Brando's performance and this movie to other films but rather to other great American artistic works: Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", Toni Morrison's BELOVED, ANGELS IN AMERICA, for example. A truly great movie.


Rating:
Summary: *Adorable* Stanley *Bipolar* Kowalski
Review: Ok, the acting doesn't get any better...undisputed fact. I find the BIOPOLAR Stanley hilarious, along with everything else people have said for over half a century. Brando even said in his autobio that Jessica Tandy would get mad at him during the play because audiences would laugh at him as he tormented her, diminishing her character, and she blamed him. Guess she had to blame somebody.

But Marlon Brando, in all his genius, depth, brilliance, talent, etc, etc, etc, just plain cracks me up, in his movies and to confirm his sense of humor, in his autobio. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even read the part in his autobio when he was talking about his visit on the set of "The Godfather" from a cocked eyed mob boss.

He said, "The first thing I noticed about him was that one of his eyes looked to the left and the other to the right. I didn't know which one to look at, so, trying not to offend him, I alternated between them." This simply cracked me completely up. But when he quoted the mob boss during a tour of the set as saying, "I don't know how you keep from goin' nuts Marlo, with all these people and all these wires and everything," Brando wrote, "I agree, the whole thing is really cockeyed, isn't it?" Then I looked into his cocked eyes and realized what I'd said. I spun around, trying to divert his attention to something on the set and to get a glimpse of his reaction peripherally. For a moment he blinked and I thought I saw a hurt look flash across his face, but the moment passed, and I babbled a mouthful of mush to fill the air with words, not knowing what in the world I was saying." I am still trying to imagine a big bad cocked eyed gangster with a hurt look on his face due to "Marlo's" slip of the tongue.

This was the funniest part of his autobio to me, although the man cracked me up through the entire reading as he does in his movies, serious or not, he makes me smile. He just has an amazing effect on me and I think it's deeper than just his unparalleled acting ability because I'm not all that impressed with actors. I'm gonna keep searching until I find out what it really and truly is about him that, as he says in his autobio about him almost getting strangled to death at the premier of Guys and Dolls, "turns crowds into mobs".

I know his courage has a lot to do with it and my attraction to strength and courage is an obvious connection, but I still think there is more and I'm gonna keep digging. His movies are revealing (he spilled his guts in Last Tango In Paris while playing the harmonica), as well as in his autobio, but there was more to this man than we will probably ever know, more than he probably ran out of time to find out. Head's up for us to forever examine our own lives because there is obviously more to us than meets the eye, as Eva Marie Saint said when Brando asked her in On The Waterfront, 'what more do you want?'...much more, much, much more!

Rating:
Summary: Still-compelling screen adaptation of a stage classic
Review: For its high-powered acting more than anything else, Elia Kazan's screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams' stage classic A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE has lived on in movie history. Though Marlon Brando, as Stanley Kowalski, didn't win an Academy Award for his breakthrough performance here, once again history tells a different story from what those old-fashioned geezers at AMPAS imply by their awards, and Brando's performance here has become something of a screen legend (as has the recently-deceased actor himself).

Brando is remarkable, to be sure. He goes down to pre-human levels and dredges up a performance that is terrifying as an unsparing portrait of male dominance and machismo. It certainly set a standard for screen acting (Robert De Niro, in his early years, did a similar kind of acting, to equally electrifying effect). But, for me, Vivien Leigh---who won a well-deserved Oscar for her performance here---really makes this movie as the protagonist of the film, Blanche DuBois. This character is one of the most fascinating and complex characters ever conceived for both stage and screen. How to describe or even interpret her? She is certainly the stark antithesis of the animalistic Stanley, being refined and proper (and a little pretentious) where Stanley is brutish and sloppy. She has had a difficult life in the past, especially regarding romance, and yet she retains her romantic ideals, seeking a tough yet kind man who will whisk her away from her troubles. She is, above all, a magnificently conceived and immensely compelling character, and Vivien Leigh---best known as Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND---brings all of her complexities and contradictions to seemingly effortless life. It's a truly great performance (Pauline Kael considered it one of the greatest filmed performances ever), and her tension-filled scenes with Brando are the high points of the film. Kim Hunter is no less impressive as Blanche's caring sister Stella, and Karl Malden matches up convincingly with Viven Leigh in their scenes together. (Both won Oscars too, in supporting performance categories.)

Elia Kazan and screenwriter Williams (adapted for the screen by Oscar Saul) haven't quite been able to shed the staginess that often mars many a screen adaptation of a stage work, but that hardly seems to work against this particular film. Besides, who will complain when a screen adaptation is so engrossing and has such classic performances? Blanche's final line will haunt you just as it must have haunted many a theatergoer when the play premiered onstage. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, to this day, remains a powerful study of shattered dreams and unspoken romantic and sexual desires, as well as a master class in great screen acting. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Brando at his finest
Review: With obvious rekindled interest because of the recent death of Marlon Brando, this "one of a kind" film is making a deserved comback. Always thought to be a classic, the comparisons to Brando's acting then, and what we get now from most stars makes this film even more intense. Vivien Leigh digs deep for her emotional performance, and she's miles ahead of anything she did in Gone With the Wind. The rest of the cast is superb also.