A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Runtime: 122 minutes

Directed by: Elia Kazan

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond

From: Warner Bros.

About time I saw a famous movie in full that I only knew for STELLAAA! This was a DVR recording I made off of TCM earlier this month, and last night was the night where I had the time/urge to check this out.

In case you are unfamiliar with the Tennessee Williams play this is based upon, I'll briefly mention that Blanche DuBois is a Southern belle who loses the family property and is forced to move into the ramshackle apartment in New Orleans owned by her sister Stella and her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski. As Kowalski is usually described by movie fans as “a brute”, of course it's a clash of personalities. Much of the movie is examining how a quartet of characters interact w/ each other. You see, there's Mitch, a friend of Stanley who isn't a lout like the others.

While the stage origins are obvious, that is not a hindrance when it's such a captivating story, it has such a thick atmosphere full of heat & sweat, and there are great performances from Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, & Karl Malden. The latter three won Oscars for their roles and in hindsight the fight that Brando was the one of the four who didn't win-that is not a great look. The fact that Brando's raw performance had an impact on how actors performed from the movie's release until today... unlike in the past, he was unrestrained yet was not 100% an animal and in fact at times displayed the qualities that made you understand why Stella is attracted to him despite some heinous actions you see him do throughout the runtime.

What a bold adult movie this is; there are some harsh implications and adult themes that are bubbling underneath the surface. It's not the easiest movie to watch-after all, it's about Blanche's deteriorating psychological state-and one way this is shown is that quite subtly, the dimensions of the apartment shrink the further in the story you go. Elia Kazan may not have been the most trustworthy of friends but he was one heck of a director. Another critical component is the jazz score from Alex North-one of the first of that genre to be used as such in a Hollywood movie. As it's not a feel-good motion picture who knows when or even if it will be watched again; that doesn't mean there are any regrets in finally discovering why this has had so much praise in the past 70 plus years.