A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version) | Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando

A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version) | Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando | "A crown for an empress...Here's your plantation Stella, right here!"

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A Streetcar Named ...

	A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version) Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando Warner Home Video, 1997 average customer review:based on 121 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great movies of the last century

There are so many superlatives in this movie, it is difficult where to begin. This was one of the first Tennesse William's plays to be cast to screen and was an instant success. Marlon Brando was born in Nebraska, the state that brought Montmogory Clift. At 23, he brought Stanley Kowalsky to screen and transformed it. He was educated at Libertyville High School in Illinois and then sent to Shattuck Military Academy. There he was expelled for indiscipline - that had been his plan. He went to the dramatic workshop of the New School for Social Research in New York in 1943, and studied with Stella Adler, yet he never filled the role of a determined, dedicated actor. On the contrary he boasted of the chanciness of his career, his laziness, and a deep indifference to acting as art or vocation. But he got parts in I Remember Mama (1944), and Truckline Cafe and Candida in 1946. He was amazingly beautiful - there is no other way of saying it, or denying its vital thrust in what happened. He had huge eyes, a wide, deep brow, an angel's mouth, with the upper lip crested. And he could speak, softly, like breathing, so the mouth scarcely moved. But he was as male as a wild animal, hunky, husky, sensual, and incoherent or rhapsodic, depending on which style worked best with the young woman of the moment. Irene Selznick, the producer of A Streetcar Named Desire, had thought of John Garfield or even Burt Lancaster for Stanley. But she had seen Brando in Ben Hecht's A Flag Is Born in 1946 and had been "galvanised by his power... however risky, he was bound to be interesting." Elia Kazan, the director, wanted Brando because he knew the actor's radiance would keep Stanley from being just a villain, the trampler upon Blanche Dubois's fragile bloom.

It was left to the playwright, Tennessee Williams, to decide. Brando went to see Williams, who was living on Cape Cod. When he got there, both the electricity and the plumbing were out. The actor repaired them both, and then did a reading, with Tennessee taking the other parts. It was 10 minutes before they called Kazan and Ms Selznick and told them yes. Williams wrote to his agent, Audrey Wood: "It had not occurred to me before what an excellent value would come through casting a very young actor in the part. It humanises the character of Stanley in that it becomes the brutality or callousness of youth rather than a vicious older man. I don't want to focus guilt or blame particularly on any one character but to have it a tragedy of misunderstanding and insensitivity to others. A new value came out of Brando's reading which was by far the best reading I have ever heard. He seemed to have already created a dimensional character, of the sort that the war has produced among young veterans."

There was a latent sense in which Blanche was a male surrogate, the spirit of refinement and gentility, confronted by a far more brutal and modern male force. Kazan was a director of the new breed that needed to find himself in the work. So he identified with Brando's Stanley and a crude upstart vitality reducing the pretentious lady to his own level. The play surpassed its text in production, and in some profound way 1947 was ready for every fantasy that was appealed to.

As Kazan saw it, Brando had changed the play - audiences like Stanley more or as much as Blanche (it was only later that Streetcar became a play about Blanche). A kind of rutting force was let loose, a feeling of native American force. Brando was seen on stage half-naked (he had a flawless torso then), discarding a sweaty T-shirt, alive, urgent, unruly and golden. People of both sexes fell for him at the same moment as a classical male persona had been explored or layered, and only Brando could have held the human beast and the brooding angel in balance. It began to be possible for the American hero to be beautiful and not just handsome.

There are so many sections about the movie that show the brute force and mean side of him compared to Blanche. Every time he is tampered with by his wife or Blanche, the way he retaliates is ruthless. Though it may not be as realistic in the present day world with women having more power, even women appreciated him and his acting style. The younger generation may not understand the movie, which is sad, as it is not about political correctness but the reality of those times and how petty people can be. Though that form of racism does not exist anymore, calling people "Polacks", it hurt people a lot. It was the introduction of Brando to the screen with a bang. He was one of the few, who despite quite a few failures could stick on and reinvent himself in different roles later in life. As Jack Nicholson said, "Now that he is gone, we can all aspire to go up one step in the acting ladder." It was unfortunate that he did not get his oscar for his role in this movie and it went to Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen. That movie comes nowhere close to this in class and is close to being forgotten. Though Brando won two richly deserved oscars, this movie was one of his crowning achievements.

There are so many dialogs in this movie that have been repeated in other movies that it speaks for itself as something that trascends time. Though the transfer is not great, this is one of the great american classics and should be cherished. Kudos to all the actors, director Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams for the screenplay and the overall production. I hope that they release a 2 disc version of this classic.

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"A crown for an empress...Here's your plantation Stella, right here!"

Marlon Brando missed out on getting the Oscar in 1951 for his celebrated performance as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Not to be disappointed, he eventually won for On The Waterfront, but he really deserved to join all his fellow cast members in accepting the gold statuette for his amazing performance in this absolutely brilliant and seminal film.

Over fifty years later, this film still stands as one of the all time cinematic greats, and having never seen it before, and also having never seen a young Brando, I was absolutely bowled over by the film's startling intensity, it's complex moral dilemmas, and it's gritty atmosphere of loss and decay. Brando is just amazing, totally burning up the screen, never before have I seen an actor bring such earthy sexual intensity to a role.

The film begins as a bewildered Blanche DuBois (Vivian Leigh) emerges from the New Orleans train station. She seems confused and out of touch with reality, but she manages to get herself to the home of Stella, her sister (Kim Hunter). She's initially disgusted with the gritty reality of her sister's grimy existence, the appearance of her squalid apartment in the French Quarter, and her crude, rough, and animalistic husband, Stanley (Brando). But there's nowhere for her to go, she's lost Bella Reve, the family house, lost her job, and also lost any confidence she might once have had.

Stanley immediately takes a dislike her superficial, pretentious, and psuedo-aristocratic ways and his blood really rises when he hears that she's lost the family homestead. As he goes through and unpacks Blanche's trunk, his initial reaction is to lash out at her and shout at her about the Napoleonic Code. He's abuse and nasty and yells at Stella about how useless and ineffectual her sister is.

As Stella tries to keep the peace, the three of them gradually become involved in a subversive dance of sexual power, with Blanche and Stanley each trying to get the upper hand. Stanley may be a simple, straightforward, and truculent he-man, but he's not stupid. He quickly sees through Blanche's flirtatious manipulative tactics and suspects that Blanche is hiding something. It doesn't take him long to discover the truth, and he only withholds his evidence out of love for his wife.

Meanwhile, Blanche tries urgently to weave a web of romance around Stanley's affable friend and co-worker Harold "Mitch" Mitchell (Karl Malden). But she's becoming ever more desperate, loosing further her touch on reality, and gradually, the viewer is given subtle clues about her shady and "immoral" past. The frustration and anger in all the characters is evident from the outset. Stanley is a volatile animal who has no respect for women and blows into a fit if rage at a moments notice.

When Stella joins in with judgmental remarks at the dinner table about Stanley being vulgar, greasy, and pig-like, he explodes, throwing his dinner plate on the floor and giving the two sisters a severe tongue-lashing. After smashing his cup against the wall he offers to clear their plates too. He effectively humiliates and degrades them both. He lets them know who is boss, while also providing one of the best scenes in the film.

Stella is a woman whose sexual need for her husband is so strong that she will put up with being beaten by him and lie to herself about his destruction of her sister. You suddenly realize that Stanley and Stella each are getting what he or she wants and needs, which is probably mostly sexual gratification. It is this uncomplicated and primal sexual union that Blanche is disgusted with, and to her ultimate sorrow, attempts to shatter.

A Street Car Named Desire is all about the juxtaposition of illusion with reality. Stella and Stanley have grown to accept the world around them and perhaps their "lot" in life, while Blanche prefers to live fancifully, bathing in steamy hot baths to calm her nerves, wearing cheap costume jewelry, turning down soda pop in favor of scotch, denying her past sexual adventures, and refusing to venture into well-lit areas. As she looses her hold on reality, she becomes even more whimsical, dancing around the apartment in a tacky prom dress and hearing music that isn't even there.

The production design is superb, with famed director Eliza Kazan, imbuing the movie with a suitably steamy, claustrophobic, and over heated atmosphere. And the performances are the best you will ever see on screen. But is Brando's performance as Stanley that really stands out. Complete with sweaty muscle shirt, he stalks his way through the film - poetic, fearsome, and his pain so deeply felt you can barely take it in. Stanley is brutish, infantile, and full of hurt and frustration, but he's also remarkably sensitive when he needs to be. He's a complex, tortured soul; a giant tyrant who suffers like a man. Mike Leonard July 05.

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SHOCKING: HOW WOMEN ARE DRIVEN INSANE

I have watched this video 40 times and each time I get more out of it for being so shockingly real. Williams is a genius in psychology and how human systems create insanity in all the nuances of the collision between the gross and the fine, the male and female elements, gentile and vulgar, the delicate and the course, the inward and outward. What female or sensitive male has not experienced this collision and been unable to explain it? But human systems create and maintain insanity and this video shows it the best. Stanley overheard Blanch downputting him to his wife Stella as "common and vulgar, like an ape" and he became vindictive, aiming to be rid of her. This story unfolds around that plot and her grips on reality dissolve accordingly. Initially hypersensitive and convalescing from a young marriage ending in suicide, Blanch is again confronted with sorrow in adapting to her brother-in-law and her zvengalized sister. As Stanley becomes more ruthless, she seeks protection more from "Mitch" his buddy. Then Stanley finds out that in her town of "Oriel" she was a prostitute. Female psychology shows that early female promiscuity is often just a seeking of protection from the male element, and an inability to "just say no" is from fear of reprisal and lost protection. But society doesn't see it that way and she escaped Oriel to her sister's domicile. She wants Mitch for the same reason "just to finally relax--I am so tired of fearing." Such women go from man to man for protection, and since it doesn't work regress more with time and as they are labeled whorish their sink into insanity is next. She was thrown out of the first town because of her affair with a 17-yr old boy, duplicated in a scene with the newspaper boy who was superbly kind, gentlemanly, respectful and gentle (in direct contrast to Stanley) and so here again, she kisses him as a link to gentile reality, and confirmation as a lady. The most ruthless and cruel contradiction is when Stanley rapes Blanche and soon after commits her to a mental hospital. The "kind doctor" arrives and takes her away on his arm, and she seems in love, "always dependent on the kindness of strangers." The viewer is left to wonder what happens next--does she link to the kind elderly father doctor, and does Stella really reject Stanley for good, transfering her love to her baby?

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