Rating: 
Summary: Humanity at it's best...
Review: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a spectacular visual masterpiece about the human spirit.
Every character has three dimensions, and every line is perfectly written and delivered. Credit is needed for the original playright(although I am aware the plot was altered to please the strict critics of the time), who along with the screenplay writers are as important as the actors.
Speaking of actors, Liz Taylor, Burl Ives and Paul Newman were all flawless in their roles. They were human, and as a painting they were more real than reality. My opinions of the characters changed continually throughout the film. It was as if you were peeling away the skin layer by layer to find the truth. Annoyance turned into hate, hate turned into compassion.
The most important element of this film was feelings;emotions the players have, and have to deal with. As well as how you feel about them, and their situations.
Rating:
Summary: Misogyny and Pain Run Deep
Review: If anyone is curious as to why women were desperately in need of liberation, look no further than "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," the magnificently-acted 1958 film that not only drips with Southern heat and repressed desire, but also with misogyny. The original script from Tennessee Williams was evidently toned down, although the steaminess is intact (largely due to the presence of the gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie the Cat). It is a dynamic film with a superb cast, a portrait of a dying wealthy plantation owner, Big Daddy (a commanding and superb Burl Ives), and his troubled greedy family, all coming together in dysfunctional glory for Big Daddy's 65th birthday.
If ever there were male characters who treated their wives contemptuously and made them into scapegoats, these are it. Taylor is in the absurd position (given her ripe sexuality and looks) of being sexually rejected by her surly husband, aptly named "Brick" (Paul Newman), an ex-football hero whose leg is in a cast; he also repeatedly berates and verbally abuses her ostensibly because he blames her for a rumored affair with and the subsequent suicide of his friend Skipper. The latent homosexuality in regard to Brick's relationship with Skipper remains unexpressed subtext. With or without that insight into his character, he remains, to my mind, a loathsome, raging alcoholic, incapable of even speaking with Maggie about what actually happened and using her as the repository of his own self-loathing. Although she continues to scratch at him, trying to break beneath his stone and comports herself with fiery tenacity, she also remains sexually and emotionally tied to him. When in one scene, she tries to force him to listen to the truth and he threatens to hit her with his crutch, I longed for her to send him packing to Boots and Saddles and make room for any number of other ostensible admirers who would be happy to acquiesce to her demands. Although Paul Newman performs admirably as Brick, his character repulsed me; moreover, I've never been enamored with Newman's looks. But whether or not one finds Newman gorgeous is besides the point. In the 1950's, women had few opportunities to escape loveless marriages; they were encouraged to long for marriage as part of their identity as men were invited to scorn wives and settling down as "nooses" around their necks. Economic autonomy was not readily available for them. Brick, moreover, seems like a more handsome yet equally brutish version of Stanley from "Streetcar."
Aside from Brick there is Big Daddy who professes to be living with a woman for over forty years that he doesn't love. Big Daddy wants to get to the bottom of why Brick and Maggie have no children, whereas brother Gooper (Jack Carter) has sired five "no necks," as Maggie terms them, with his wife. In the high voltage scenes, Big Daddy cuts through the "mendacity" crippling Newman and the family. In spite of verbally insulting and maltreating their wives, said wives remain doggedly loyal and ready to return to Big Husband at the snap of his fingers.
Performances here are multi-layered, powerful and superb, particularly Taylor as Maggie the Cat. A must-see for movie lovers, but also reminder of why women needed to claw out of the cage.
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: Rich Characterizations Do Justice to Williams
Review: No, this isn't quite the play, but I didn't have any trouble picking up on the theme of Brick's (Paul Newman's) struggle with homosexuality. In fact, I was surprised at the sensitivity with which the script and the actors treated the issue, considering it was 1958. More importantly (at least to me), I thought that the rich characters were true to the essence of what Williams wanted to do. Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), has some of the "mendacity" of which Brick is so contemptuous, but has a great capacity for love, too; Big Daddy (Burl Ives) wields his wealth like a tyrant, but what he really wants (unbeknownst to him) is the connection with his family that his single-minded ambition has destroyed.
Of note: Elizabeth Taylor would appear in so many not-so-great films later in life that it's sometimes easy to forget how good she used to be. This film is a happy reminder: her performance is luminous.
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: Mendacity
Review: The 1958 Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, an MGM production, directed by Richard Brooks and starring Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Burl Ives and nominated for six academy awards, was a movie based upon a dysfunctional family in the south and dealing with each other's mendacity. Brick (Newman), a sports announcer living in the past of his famous football career; an alleged infidelity by his wife with his best friend Skipper; and the mendacity of his whole life, hides his true love and hatred for his sex-crazed wife Maggie (Taylor). Maggie loves Brick deeply and won't give up on him as he has given up on himself. She fights to the bitter end of the entangled mendacities of the whole family. Big Daddy (Ives) owns a 28,000 acre ranch and lives with his wife Big Mama, his other son Gooper, Gooper's wife Sue, and their four children, and has returned to the ranch to celebrate his 65th birthday with the news that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, it is not revealed to Big Daddy of his future until a confrontation with Brick occurs. The technicolor film will leave you wondering if it was all a mendacity or just a cat on a hot tin roof that won't get off. At the time this movie was released in 1958, it would have received a five star rating. However, in today's society and the treatment of the ladies in the the film, I rated it three stars. This film received six academy award nominations for Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Picture; Best Director; Screenplay Adaption; and Cinematography.
Rating: 
Summary: Hot - Really Hot!
Review: The dynamic relationship of Brick (Newman) as a has-been athlete now a drunk who suspects his wife Maggie played by the beautiful and incredibly sexy Elizabeth Taylor of infidelity is believable as a sex-starved wife.
As the family comes together to celebrate Brick's father's 65th birthday only to learn the rich "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) is dying. Which sets the stage for Brick's brother Goober (Jack Carson) and his wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) to flock like buzzards to collect the fortune once Big Daddy dies.
The lies, power, money and sibling rivalry heats up to blow the roof off.
This 1958 release of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, starring Paul Newman, Burl Ives and Elizabeth Taylor with a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes received 6 Academy Awards nominations. This dramtic film set in the South depicts a dysfunctional family that is ready to explode.
Rating:
Summary: Humanity at it's best...
Review: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a spectacular visual masterpiece about the human spirit.
Every character has three dimensions, and every line is perfectly written and delivered. Credit is needed for the original playright(although I am aware the plot was altered to please the strict critics of the time), who along with the screenplay writers are as important as the actors.
Speaking of actors, Liz Taylor, Burl Ives and Paul Newman were all flawless in their roles. They were human, and as a painting they were more real than reality. My opinions of the characters changed continually throughout the film. It was as if you were peeling away the skin layer by layer to find the truth. Annoyance turned into hate, hate turned into compassion.
The most important element of this film was feelings;emotions the players have, and have to deal with. As well as how you feel about them, and their situations.
Rating:
Summary: Strong stuff for its day. Children by Diane Arbus
Review: Tennesee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a powerful play and here has been made into a powerful film. Family ties, lies, power, money, death, sexual troubles and even sibling rivalry coalesce as the troubled Pollitt family deals with the terminal illness of its patriarch. Although the gay subtext has been muted to fit 1950's sensitibilities, it's still there, adding resonance to the film. There's a bit of the mannered approach common to movies of the period, which gives the film a more theatrical feel than many movie adaptations of plays. In some ways, "Cat" comes across as an early, Southern version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf."The acting in this film is superb, if a little over-the-top at times. "Maggie the Cat" is a plum dramatic role, and Elizabeth Taylor more than does it justice. In her hands, Maggie's basic humanity alternates with her greed to eventually define her. Paul Newman likewise turns in an excellent performance as the troubled Brick. Burl Ives steals the show as Big Daddy, the larger-than-life dying patriarch. Jack Carson and Madelaine Sherwood play the elder, less-favored son and his fecund wife, Mae. Mae and her brood are played as wonderfully grotesque charicatures, greatly enhancing the oppressive atmosphere of the film. If you think of Diane Arbus shooting a movie, you'll get an excellent idea of what Mae and her little "no-neck monsters" are like.
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