Few movies have really stood a test of time but STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Elia Kazan, a socially conscious director, is, undeniably, one of them. Keeping that social consciousness in mind, what strikes me most about this movie is its daring subject that is so beautifully handled and adapted to the screen that hardly any directors can do nowadays. As nicely noted by Rudy Behlmer in a disc commentary on the movie, Elia Kazan's good relations with Tenessee Williams resulted in an almost flawless screen adaptation, very skillful direction and unique handling of the subject. "Elia Kazan approached the material" (Jeff Young)...but where do the strengths of the movie lie that, despite certain remakes, we still come back to its superior realism and magic?
Kazan's production is a movie of old/new Hollywoodat made at the turn of the periods, which Tom Nixon nicely develops in his review. And yet, it is being watched as a very modern approach to characters, to human personality, to its various torments and sophistication, to its complex nature. Rightly, therefore, Roger Ebert points out in his review (Nov. 1993) that "watching the film is like watching a Shakespearean tragedy." Consequently, it can be called "an old movie with a new subject." That universal and timeless nature of the content is achieved thanks to Method acting that makes the movie "a fascinating, wrenching character study" (Montreal Film Journal). Characters herein depicted are the true 'heroes' of the story and the ones that we try to understand, whose motives we try to analyze, whose past we try to uncover.
And with that point, the movie's exception evokes even stronger. I cannot think of any other film that, to such extent, manages to call viewers attention of a male and a female character alike (in case that this woman and man are not a couple of a love story). As a rather newcomer at the time, Marlon Brando (his second screen role) and already a great star Vivien Leigh appear to stand out among the best character portrayals ever. While quite opposite in their nature and the very fundamental features, they display deep affinity and deep discrepancy alike making their roles a psychological feast.
VIVIEN LEIGH whose face "almost blank with desire" (Ebert) arises from steam like Garbo in ANNA KARENINA, she embodies all contradictory motives that lie behind the haunting past of a "girlish lady". As desperately lonesome, and "a sexually hungry woman posing as a sad wilting flower" (Roger Ebert), Vivien Leigh perfectly manages to prompt certain empathy as well as keep viewers constantly alert. Meanwhile, she maintains 'healthy distance' towards anything she does and anything she says. Bosley Crowther memorably observes in his review that she is "a woman of even greater fullness, torment and tragedy" that the previous portrayals could ever accomplish. Sometimes, she is the one to be pitied, sometimes, the one to be criticized but never blamed. With her final line that has almost become the movie's symbolic impact "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" she portrays a character who belongs everywhere and, at the same time, nowhere. A sort of 'psychological harlot' but also an endless walker, in constant search of something. In a scene with Mitch (Karl Malden), she purely reveals the desire to love, to have someone close. In her instance, we might say that the Code did a better job because assuming slowly from her past, the viewing experience corresponds nicely to a depiction of human mystery.
On the verge of naturalism, MARLON BRANDO whose sticking shirt, brooding looks, embarrassing and an almost exhibitionist behavior is remembered as one of the most male - animal portrayals on the screen, the portrayal of "Tennessee Williams' rough, smelly, sexually charged hero" (Roger Ebert). No wonder he has been hailed by critics as the one who makes his character "a riveting, rough, sensual man's man" (Montreal Film Journal), "some bastard child of Achilles or King Kong...the crowning champion of the new era" (Nixon), "highly charged" (Crowther). It is funny in a way but he manages to combine disgust and awe. As if constantly in an 'erotic aura' he creates a savage picture of a man who relies primarily on muscles. In an implicit scene of raping Blanche, his animal drives reach the pinnacle of self admiration expressed in making a woman an object of his satisfaction. But, again, to the very last minute, we cannot say that he is 100% bad and that is the supreme human achievement of the movie. Sometimes, he is tough, very brutal, almost unendurable and a 'beast' reduced to the gutter hardly to be pitied; sometimes, he is weak as a child in cry for a person at his side. In an almost unforgettable scene at the staircase (mind you the purely Hollywood effect of staircase scene), in his despair, he calls for Stella, his wife. The growing claustrophobia of the scene along with the perfect camera work and closeups makes the scene almost to be emotionally and erotically experienced.
Just a note: famous actor Jack Palance here began his acting career as Brando's understudy.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS: Crowther rightly notes that others from the cast "fill out the human pattern within a sleazy environment that is so fitly and graphically created that you can almost sense its sweatiness and smells." A note, of course, must be made of Kim Hunter as Stella, Blanche's sister and Stanley's wife and Karl Malden as Mitch, "more of a sap" (Ebert), a typical mom's boy who seems to do anything for his mother and, yet, appears to hate her deep down. A theme that has come back at Hitchock's with a more psychological space given to the depiction.
Towering performances, flawless atmosphere and a highly respectful direction make it a milestone movie at multiple levels, a significant moment in movie history, and a movie that will fill you with a desire to see it again.
Kazan's production is a movie of old/new Hollywoodat made at the turn of the periods, which Tom Nixon nicely develops in his review. And yet, it is being watched as a very modern approach to characters, to human personality, to its various torments and sophistication, to its complex nature. Rightly, therefore, Roger Ebert points out in his review (Nov. 1993) that "watching the film is like watching a Shakespearean tragedy." Consequently, it can be called "an old movie with a new subject." That universal and timeless nature of the content is achieved thanks to Method acting that makes the movie "a fascinating, wrenching character study" (Montreal Film Journal). Characters herein depicted are the true 'heroes' of the story and the ones that we try to understand, whose motives we try to analyze, whose past we try to uncover.
And with that point, the movie's exception evokes even stronger. I cannot think of any other film that, to such extent, manages to call viewers attention of a male and a female character alike (in case that this woman and man are not a couple of a love story). As a rather newcomer at the time, Marlon Brando (his second screen role) and already a great star Vivien Leigh appear to stand out among the best character portrayals ever. While quite opposite in their nature and the very fundamental features, they display deep affinity and deep discrepancy alike making their roles a psychological feast.
VIVIEN LEIGH whose face "almost blank with desire" (Ebert) arises from steam like Garbo in ANNA KARENINA, she embodies all contradictory motives that lie behind the haunting past of a "girlish lady". As desperately lonesome, and "a sexually hungry woman posing as a sad wilting flower" (Roger Ebert), Vivien Leigh perfectly manages to prompt certain empathy as well as keep viewers constantly alert. Meanwhile, she maintains 'healthy distance' towards anything she does and anything she says. Bosley Crowther memorably observes in his review that she is "a woman of even greater fullness, torment and tragedy" that the previous portrayals could ever accomplish. Sometimes, she is the one to be pitied, sometimes, the one to be criticized but never blamed. With her final line that has almost become the movie's symbolic impact "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" she portrays a character who belongs everywhere and, at the same time, nowhere. A sort of 'psychological harlot' but also an endless walker, in constant search of something. In a scene with Mitch (Karl Malden), she purely reveals the desire to love, to have someone close. In her instance, we might say that the Code did a better job because assuming slowly from her past, the viewing experience corresponds nicely to a depiction of human mystery.
On the verge of naturalism, MARLON BRANDO whose sticking shirt, brooding looks, embarrassing and an almost exhibitionist behavior is remembered as one of the most male - animal portrayals on the screen, the portrayal of "Tennessee Williams' rough, smelly, sexually charged hero" (Roger Ebert). No wonder he has been hailed by critics as the one who makes his character "a riveting, rough, sensual man's man" (Montreal Film Journal), "some bastard child of Achilles or King Kong...the crowning champion of the new era" (Nixon), "highly charged" (Crowther). It is funny in a way but he manages to combine disgust and awe. As if constantly in an 'erotic aura' he creates a savage picture of a man who relies primarily on muscles. In an implicit scene of raping Blanche, his animal drives reach the pinnacle of self admiration expressed in making a woman an object of his satisfaction. But, again, to the very last minute, we cannot say that he is 100% bad and that is the supreme human achievement of the movie. Sometimes, he is tough, very brutal, almost unendurable and a 'beast' reduced to the gutter hardly to be pitied; sometimes, he is weak as a child in cry for a person at his side. In an almost unforgettable scene at the staircase (mind you the purely Hollywood effect of staircase scene), in his despair, he calls for Stella, his wife. The growing claustrophobia of the scene along with the perfect camera work and closeups makes the scene almost to be emotionally and erotically experienced.
Just a note: famous actor Jack Palance here began his acting career as Brando's understudy.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS: Crowther rightly notes that others from the cast "fill out the human pattern within a sleazy environment that is so fitly and graphically created that you can almost sense its sweatiness and smells." A note, of course, must be made of Kim Hunter as Stella, Blanche's sister and Stanley's wife and Karl Malden as Mitch, "more of a sap" (Ebert), a typical mom's boy who seems to do anything for his mother and, yet, appears to hate her deep down. A theme that has come back at Hitchock's with a more psychological space given to the depiction.
Towering performances, flawless atmosphere and a highly respectful direction make it a milestone movie at multiple levels, a significant moment in movie history, and a movie that will fill you with a desire to see it again.