A Streetcar Named Desire [VHS] [1951]

Elia Kazan's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play 'A Streetcar Named Desire' translates beautifully to the screen in this 1951 film version. Anchored primarily by screen giants Vivien Leigh (Blanche DuBois) and Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski), the film tells the story of a faded Southern Belle (Blanche) and her struggle to come to terms with her own existence in an increasingly faded world, and illustrates the dramatic conflict between Blanche and her brother-in-law Stanley, played by the sensual Brando.

Having directed the play just years earlier on the Broadway stage, Kazan was keen to put his own mark on this film translation, where there is an overwhelming sense of the steamy South, encapsulated and enclosed, literally, within the walls of the Kowalski apartment. Although Leigh holds her own against Method giant Brando, her performance ultimately pales into insignificance compared to Brando's revolutionary interpretation of Williams' sexually-charged hero. Not only did it signal the dawn of a style of acting unseen in film - paving the way for such performances of James Dean's Jim Stark and Paul Newman's Brick Pollitt - but represented an archtype in male sexuality and sensuality in post-war America. Wearing t-shirts that reveal rippling biceps, quite self-consciously on the part of Brando, and a body that reminds one of a modern-day Adonis, Brando stalks through Kazan's film. Certainly, it is Brando's Stanley, and not Leigh's Blanche, who becomes the eroticised object of the film, something that, it is worth noting, Williams' original play did not intend.

Through the use of lighting and sound, and through, of course, the magic of Leigh's performance, the film represents Blanche as a woman undone in the emotional and physical sense. The film tracks her emotional disintegration, choosing to use Williams' original sound effects (most notably with the Varsouviana when Blanche talks of her dead husband), and lighting and shading that come to represent the darker sides of her behaviour. Karl Malden as Mitch is also a casting masterstroke, and with Kim Hunter as Stella, the film fails not to impress with its delve into the dynamics of sexual desire and mental illness.

Brando, however, becomes the film's scene-stealer - something Williams did not originally intend in his play. Brando is just too good looking for us to perceive his character as a menace and a bully. Kazan's attempts to translate and open out Williams' play on the silver screen in a Hollywood riddled with industry censorship ultimately created a landmark in film-making. A recommended watch at the highest level!

A streetcar named desire is a masterpeice. The conflict between Stanley's brutish and untamed masculinity and Blanche's once refined but manipulative sexuality is explosive. Blanche whom after a life of death and tragedy is mentally unfit, clings helplessly to her past beauty and upbringing which contribute to the only identity she has in the world. Now her life depends on the kindness of Stanley and his wife her sister Stella who is captivated in Stanley's sexuality and masculinity which the viewer will find both attractive and repulsive. The conflict between stanley whose masculinity makes him unable to control his behaviour, is onset by blanche's constant remindings of her past position in society makes the sexual anxiety run high in this movie.

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.