This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because when I started, the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something, and now I can't stop.
(M) ★★★★★
Director: Elia Kazan.
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias.
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| "Bib? I don't need no stinkin' bib." |
My five-year-old is very interested in movies. When I put him to bed, he asks me if I'm watching a movie later, and if I say yes, he asks what it's called.
"A Streetcar Named Desire," I tell him.
"Is it about a streetcar?" he asks, not knowing what a streetcar is, but probably thinking its just a car that goes down a street. Which is technically correct.
"No, I don't think so."
"What's it about then?"
I think for a bit. I haven't seen the film in 20 years, and I can't recall what happens in it. What I can remember is the yelling, the passion, and some kind of steamy New Orleans anger.
"It's about emotions," I say in the end. "It's about a bunch of people with some very strong feelings."
It's not the best summary, but my five-year-old seems satisfied.
Much like my son's probable understanding of what a streetcar is, my summary isn't incorrect. A Streetcar Named Desire is from that niche genre of preferably black and white films that are adaptations of plays with minimal plot but lots of yelling and emotions. By the end of the film, secrets will be uncovered, someone will go crazy, and you'll wonder whether love really exists. See also Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?.
A Streetcar Named Desire is the pinnacle of this dramatic sub-genre. It's emotions are dialled up to 11 by the sweltering New Orleans heat and Marlon Brando's physique, which is matched by his titanic performance. A jazzy score swoons as everyone sweats in a cramped apartment where the emotions bubble away like a pot perpetually on the verge of boiling.
The plot, as scant as it is, revolves around the fragile yet narcissistic Blanche DuBois (Leigh), who has come to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella (Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley (Brando) to recover from a breakdown. The rest, as they say in the classics, is psychology.
Tennessee Williams' play (and this adaptation) explores gender roles, domestic violence, masculinity, and mental health, and it's the internal journeys that are of real significance. Stanley's increasing brutishness, Stella's awakening, and Blanche's descent remain fascinating to watch 70 years on. The film's self-awareness regarding its more horrific elements (most of which happen offscreen) means it's aged pretty well compared to some others on the AFI list.
But the real reason A Streetcar Named Desire still makes it on to lists like this is Brando. Ironically, Brando was the only one of its four stars that missed out on an Oscar - Leigh, Hunter and Maldon all took home Academy Awards, but Brando lost out to Humphrey Bogart's turn in The African Queen (#65 on this list).
But it's Brando that dominates this film as Stanley, the neanderthalic "survivor of the Stone Age" as Blanche puts it. Showcasing "method acting" to an unwitting audience for the first time, he shreds the screen. Leigh is amazing as Blanche, Hunter and Maldon are wonderful in support, but Brando is on a whole other level. He makes Stanley's caveman masculinity real, mixing it with raw sexuality, street smarts, frailties, and an explosive darkness that leaves Stella and Blanche quaking in his wake. He is terrifying in places. This is the fourth Brando performance on this AFI list (see also The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and On The Waterfront) and it's arguably the best. He makes Stan horrifyingly real. It's a masterclass.
Brando and Leigh's contrasting acting styles makes the imbalance between Blanche and Stanley all the more effective. Leigh's "properness" and more classical style of acting ensures Blanche's prim facade rarely gives way to the lust for danger that lurks within, while also amplifying the growing mental illness. More so than Stanley, Blanch DuBois is the source of endless discussion and debate, whether she be celebrated as a doomed heroine or a tragic antihero, studied as a fallen woman or dismissed as an alcoholic nymphomaniac. Either way, her treatment is a cutting reflection of the society at the time that breaks a woman, and then oppresses her when she doesn't fit with its ideals, as is beautifully essayed in this New Yorker review of the play from 1947.
The whole thing is beautifully shot, with Elia Kazan doing his best to let the action play out, keeping the cutting and camera moves to a minimum. His use of lighting is great - at the start, Stella and Stanley's home is bright and inviting, though rundown. By the end it is filled with menacing shadows, elevated by Kazan's shot choices.
While the film has a definite villain in Stanley, he's not your typical bad guy, and the film doesn't really have a hero in the classical sense. Add to this its deep psychological themes, and A Streetcar Named Desire is ripe for analysis. In fact, here's a study guide, and another, and here are the cliffs notes.
There's something unshakeable about A Streetcar Named Desire. It seems so simple on the surface, but it lives in your brain long afterwards, becoming more and more complex as time goes on, as you weigh its characters, its themes and its psychology. It's a tough, gritty watch, and somewhat sanitised compared to the play, but it still works in its own special way, allowing us a peek behind the closed doors of a group of people with a lot of very loud and dangerous emotions.
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