Customer Reviews

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a playwright, Tennessee Williams was to the South what William Faulkner was as a fiction writer: a creative genius who revolutionized not only the region's arts scene and literature but that of 20th century America as a whole, bringing a Southern voice to the forefront while addressing universally important themes, and influencing and inspiring generations of later writers.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning "A Streetcar Named Desire" dates from the peak of Williams's creativity, the period between 1944 ("A Glass Menagerie") and 1955 ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," his second Pulitzer-winner). After its successful 1947 run on Broadway, "Streetcar" was adapted into a screenplay by Williams himself for this movie produced and directed by Elia Kazan, starring the entire Broadway cast except Jessica Tandy, who was replaced by the star of the play's London production, Vivien Leigh. The piece takes its title from one of the New Orleans streetcar lines that protagonist Blanche DuBois (Leigh) rides on her way to the apartment of her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), foreshadowing her later path, from (ever-unfulfilled) Desire to Cemetery (death, or the loss of reality) and a street called Elysian Fields, like the ancient mythological land of the dead.

Although Blanche is the person most visibly engaging in deception (of herself and others), almost everyone of the characters suffers loss after a brutal reality check: Stella, who hasn't been back home for years, first learns from Blanche that their genteel home Belle Reve (literally: "beautiful dream") is "lost" - although in what manner precisely Blanche doesn't specify, which immediately raises the suspicion of Stella's husband Stanley (Marlon Brando) - only to later hear from Stanley that under the veneer of Blanche's appearance as a delicate Southern lady lies a promiscuous past, and the true circumstances of her ouster from her job and ultimately from their home town were not as Blanche would have Stella believe. Stanley's friend Mitch (Karl Malden), who despite their disparate social backgrounds intends to marry Blanche after they are drawn to each other by their mutual need for "somebody" in their life, is similarly disillusioned by Stanley, and subsequently by Blanche herself when he insists on seeing her in bright light instead of the dim light of dancehalls and of the paper lamp she has insisted on hanging over Stella and Stanley's living room lamp, neither able to face the effects of age and a profligate lifestyle herself nor willing to reveal them to others. And Blanche's own loss of innocence, finally, set in years earlier, when she found her young husband in bed with another man and he committed suicide after she publicly reproached him. "Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see each other in life," Tennessee Williams says about "A Streetcar Named Desire" in Kazan's 1988 autobiography "A Life;" and in a letter opposing the movie's censoring before its release he described the story as being about "ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate, by the savage and brutal forces of modern society."

The brute, of course, is Stanley, who not only becomes the catalyst of Blanche's fate and the destroyer of Stella's, Mitch's and Blanche's own illusions, but is her antagonist in everything from background to personality: Where she is a fading belle dreaming of days gone by he is all youthful virility, a working-class man living in the here and now; where she is refined he is crude, and where she engages in pretense, he tears down the facade behind which she is hiding. The conversation during which Stanley tells Stella about Blanche's past is pointedly set against Blanche's humming the Arlen/Harburg tune "It's Only a Paper Moon," which sees love transforming life into a fantasy world, which in turn however "wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me." Yet, as portrayed by Marlon Brando, who with this movie stormed into public awareness with his unique and volcanic approach to acting, Stanley is no mere vulgar beast but a complex, often controversial character, despite his brutal streak almost childishly dependant on his wife and frequently hiding his own insecurities under his raw appearance (thus putting up a certain front as well, but unlike Blanche's, a socially acceptable, even common one). Ever the method actor, Brando reportedly stayed in character even during filming breaks; much to the disgust of Vivien Leigh, for whom lines like "[h]e's like an animal. ... Thousands of years have passed him right by and there he is: Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the stone-age, bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle" must consequently have come from the bottom of her heart.

In early 1950s' society, "Streetcar" was considered way too risque - even downright sordid - to be presented to moviegoing audiences without severe censorship, which Williams and Kazan were only partly able to fight. One of the most substantial changes made in the adaptation was that at the end of the movie Stanley is punished for his brutality towards Blanche, whereas in the play's cynical original ending he is the only character experiencing no loss at all; indeed seeing his world restored after Blanche's exit. Since Kazan's suggestion to produce two alternate versions (one to please the censors, one in conformity with Williams's play) was rejected, even the 1993 "Original Director's Version" retains its altered, censorship-induced ending. Therefore, the play will forever constitute the last word on Williams's intentions. But even in its censored version this movie was a deserved quadruple Oscar- and multiple other award-winner (albeit undeservedly not for Brando). It has long-since become a true classic: a cinematic gem of first-rate direction and superlative performances throughout.

And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice.

Hart Crane, "The Broken Tower": Preface to the published version of Tennessee Williams's play.

Also recommended:
Tennessee Williams: Plays 1937-1955 (Library of America)
Tennessee Williams: Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America)
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
The Rose Tattoo
Suddenly, Last Summer
Baby Doll
This Property Is Condemned
Tennessee Williams' Dragon Country (Broadway Theatre Archive)

I won't go into how amazing this movie is. We all know that. What gets me is how little respect Warner Bros. pays to the classic films that built their studios. Here you have one of the best films of all time and they release it on a DVD with virtually no extras and a VERY sub-par transfer. From the moment the Warner Bros. logo pops up you can see how unstable the image is...not to mention a large amount of dirt and debris running through every scene. The sound quality isn't much better (I actually had to turn the subtitles on for some of the pivotal scenes).Isn't this film worthy of a restoration? I've run across this same problem a lot with this company's releases. I guess they know that people will buy these wonderful movies based on the reviews of the movies themselves and don't feel any need to fork out cash to ensure the quality of their products.

The film (like virtually all pre-1952 films) was shot in the Academy format of 1.37 to 1. Because your non-widescreen TV is 1.33 to 1, there is no reason to letterbox the DVD image. So the aspect ratio has only been altered to the extent that you're losing a few millimeters on each side. (The same is true of virtually all other pre-1952 films, despite numerous posts at Amazon.com complaining about no widescreen and pan-and-scan cutting, etc. It's great that people now look for widescreen videos and DVDs, but it's not so great that people don't understand that you're not going to find them before the fifties.) "Streetcar" is a masterpiece, certainly one of the top 50 American movies every made. The only reason I've given it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the film print used for this DVD is somewhat warn and there is much graininess in the image. There's also a hiss on the mono audio. Hopefully, this film will be remastered for DVD someday. In the meantime, this is still the best the film has ever looked for the home market. Also, at this price it's a real bargain.

This is a very good, touching and terrifying at times film about how people use, intimidate and ill-treat each other even among families. A poor, long-suffering lady is close to a mental breakdown and comes to seek out her sister for help but in the end this only leads to a totally opposite outcome. Both Leigh and Brando put in excellent performances here and so does Karl Malden who together with Brando would go on to even better things with "On the Waterfront."

The problem is with the DVD which hasn't been restored at all making for very, very poor picture and sound quality. With the advent of Blu-Ray, here's hoping they would take this opportunity to totally remaster this film and to add good bonus features which are totally missing here. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or DTS THX sound options would be a real treat.

This is a good film but I recommend you wait for a much better restored version to surface and not to waste your hard earned money on this very, very poor DVD version.

This is among the worst transfers to DVD I have seen. Do not bother. A VHS tape is at least as good.

Why didn't they find a decent print to master this from>

"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.

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.

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.

"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) is one of the few masterpieces of American cinema - a true work of art. The story unfolds in New Orleans where former teacher of english, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to live with her sister, Stella (Kim Hunter) and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in their small, run down apartment in a poor section of town. When Blanche and Stanley meet for the first time, the sparks begin to fly almost immediately, setting the tone for the entire film. Blanche's intentions to leave behind her unsavory past and begin anew (having been run out of her town of Oriole) are at odds with her brother-in-law's determination (intensified by his suspicion that Blanche has duped Stella out of an inheritance) to expose her social airs and genteel manner as a cover for a life of depravity and immorality. The conflict between the two characters builds to a shocking and pathos-filled climax resulting in the disintegration of the last fragile thread of Blanche's sanity. The film's star, Vivien Leigh, gives the greatest screen performance of her life, moving the viewer to feel her character's despair and regret, particularly when confessing to her newly acquired beau, Mitch (Karl Malden), one of Stanley's buddies, the reason behind her husband's suicide when they were both teenagers. Marlon Brando is unforgettable as brutish, antagonistic, slur-speeched Stanley. His presentation of beer & sweat stained, animal-like masculinity is quite sensational even today, 50 years later. Kim Hunter is equally as brilliant in her role of expectant mother, Stella Kowalski. Her valiant attempts to keep peace between her husband and sister prove futile and eventually she, too, is dragged down into a quagmire of disillusion and resentment. The film contains several messages, but perhaps the most striking sentiment is that a careless, unkind word spoken can cause irreparable damage and lead to tragic consequences, ruining many lives in the process. Add these four players' performances to the excellent Tennessee Williams' story, Elia Kazan's great direction and Alex North's outstanding score - what you get is a genuine first rate classic!

"I've always relied on the kindness of strangers," Blanche DuBois tells us near the end of this mesmerizing adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play; but what we have found out is that she has often relied on the warmth of strangers, very often, and now with her looks faded and her charm gone, she has become a sad, neurotic creature desperate for any sort of attention.

Vivian Leigh's portrayal of Tennessee Williams's languished southern rose is one of the most memorable and haunting performances of the American cinema. Seldom in the history of film has there been such excellent casting. Leigh of course won the Academy Award for best actress, but she was not alone. Karl Malden won for best supporting actor and Kim Hunter for best supporting actress. Marlon Brando could easily have won for his raw animal portrayal of Stanley Kowalski. Credit should also go to Elia Kazan for the artful mastery of his direction. In short this is one of the most celebrated movies of all time, a classic, period. But no mistake should be made about where the primary power comes from. It's from Tennessee Williams's Pulitizer Prize winning play, a work of theatrical genius second to none in the history of the American theater. Williams had the gift of understanding and the ability to project the melancholy self-delusion and sexual/social angst of the feminine psyche onto the stage, and to do it with objectivity and compassion. (Cf. Laura in The Glass Menagerie and Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.)

Brando's interpretation of the animalistic Kowalski, typified by his screaming up the stairs, "Stella!" in tight t-shirt and bellowing voice, and his crude way with women, electrified audiences and established him as a star. A string of cinematic successes followed, highlighted by his work in On the Waterfront (1954) for which he won an academy award.

I want to add that we are driven by Desire until this silly dance concludes and we arrive at the Cemetery. In a beautifully observed bit of accidental irony, those names-"Desire" and "Cemetery"-are the names of streetcars that ran back and forth on the same line in New Orleans, giving inspiration to Williams's apt and unforgettable title.