Country: U.S.A.
Genre(s): Drama
Director: Elia
Kazan
Cast : Vivien Leigh
/ Marlon Brando / Kim Hunter
Plot
Impoverished and
homeless, eccentric Southern belle Blanche DuBois comes to stay with her sister
Stella and her husband Stanley in their New Orleans apartment. Blanche, disturbed and manipulative, and Stanley,
fiery and violent, despise one another, competing in a personal power struggle
for control over Stella.
What I Liked
Although I have seen
the young Brando in other movies (“On the Waterfront,” for example), it wasn’t
until I sat and watched “A Streetcar Named Desire” that I could truly witness
what made him such a sensation upon his arrival on the American film
scene. One needs only to compare his
performance with that of star Vivien Leigh to understand the one-man revolution
(and revelation) he was to film acting. Leigh,
one of the legends of the old style of acting is a study in preposterous facial
expressions and exaggerated gesticulations which always seem like leftovers from
the silent era. This all made her
perfect to play the ruined neurotic that is Blanche DuBois and thus is no
hindrance to the film’s success as a drama.
However, in Brando we have a man who is utterly believable and wholly
natural in the skin of his character.
His performance is rounded out by both seething passion and subtle
complexity.
Of course, there was
more to Brando than simply his acting.
Karl Malden, another method actor, plays a meaty supporting role with
just as much artistry as Brando. Yet
Malden, while a greatly admired actor of the era, never achieved Brando’s
legendary status. Certainly a great deal
of that had to do with the young Marlon’s sensual good looks. Particularly in the first several scenes he
and the filmmakers do a great deal to play up his sexual attractiveness. I never truly understood why Brando was
considered a sex symbol in his youth until I saw this movie. Lots of times I hear women talking about how
handsome and actor is and I look at the guy and think, “Really? He just looks like a normal dude to me.” Watching “Streetcar,” I get why women fell
for Brando. I’m a straight male, but I
can admit the man was definitely gorgeous.
But there was even still more than looks. Lots of people are good looking, but never
magnetize audiences the way Brando could.
Some performers, whatever their medium, just have that undefinable “It”
element. ‘Charisma’ is a word often
thrown around to describe it, or ‘screen presence.’ Both descriptions fall short of capturing
those who are truly great at that unnamable quality. Brando is one of those greats. Vivien Leigh was one of the biggest stars of
her generation, with loads of her own on-screen charisma, and she gives one of
the most iconic performance of her career.
On paper, her character is also more interesting than Stanley. Yet Brando absolutely outshines her in each
and every moment they share the same frame.
What I Didn’t Like
Elia Kazan is one of
the great directors of American films, though he is undeservedly left out of
the first names to roll off of the typical movie fan’s lips. Coppola, Chaplin, Hitchcock, Scorsese,
Spielberg, and Ford almost always get mentioned long before Kazan on any list,
yet his filmography (“Streetcar,” “On the Waterfront,” and “East of Eden,” among
others) can compare rather favorably against most of those other men. Yet Kazan’s talent was in his ability to get
the most out of his actors to tell the stories, not in cinematographic
technique, style, or innovation. “Streetcar”
in particular is shot with a matter-of-fact, straight-ahead simplicity that was
obviously intended but nonetheless dry.
I imagine Kazan’s unembellished approach was a way for him to focus on
the stark reality he intended to present.
He did not want flourish and dazzle to rob his films of their authenticity. His films are about the characters and their
relationships, not style. Good for
him. But would it have hurt to give us an
interesting camera angle just once?
Part of the problem
with watching this movie now is the influence it had on later cinema and
television. So much of “Streetcar” is
now evident in lesser films and cheap soap operas that the clichés of its
imitators have dampened the impact of the drama in the original. I first started watching this film with my
wife, but about halfway through we were both falling asleep. When it came time to finish, my wife declined
to watch the rest, saying she just wasn’t “into it.” I can’t blame her. “Streetcar” is now an intellectual treat, a
document of the development of cinema as an art.
Most Memorable Scene
The sensuality of “Streetcar”
reaches an early climax when Stella and Stanley make up following a row shortly
after Blanche’s arrival. In the steamy
rain of a humid New Orleans night, Stanley lures Stella out of hiding with his
desperate cries. She is drawn hopelessly
down to him until they clasp against each other in an impassioned embrace, the
muscles of Brando’s glistening in the lamplight as Stella’s hands cling to his
flesh with unbridled desire. Even today
the sexual charge of the scene is impressive, considering how jaded we are
today with flesh and sex on TV. Kazan
and his actors achieve a highly erotic scene that stands the test of time
without resorting to nudity, sex, or shock value.
My Rating: 4 out of 5
