A Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire

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

In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan, faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy s...( read more  read more... )ection of New Orleans. Stella's boorish husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), not only regards Blanche's aristocratic affectations as a royal pain but also thinks she's holding out on inheritance money that rightfully belongs to Stella. On the fringes of sanity, Blanche is trying to forget her checkered past and start life anew. Attracted to Stanley's friend Mitch (Karl Malden), she glosses over the less savory incidents in her past, but she soon discovers that she cannot outrun that past, and the stage is set for her final, brutal confrontation with her brother-in-law. Brando, Hunter, and Malden had all starred in the original Broadway version of Streetcar, although the original Blanche had been Jessica Tandy. Brando lost out to Humphrey Bogart for the 1951 Best Actor Oscar, but Leigh, Hunter, and Malden all won Oscars.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Id: 10095160

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A Streetcar Named Desire Recent Reviews
  • RiderOfTheStorms
    June 26, 2009
    RiderOfTheStorms
    I really didn't like the film as a whole but I really enjoyed the acting and I thought the Lighting of the film was terrific especially being black and white.
  • Saxia
    January 2, 2009
    Saxia
    What's the deal with this Vivien Leigh? She plays Blanche Dubois, this dramatic, anxious, mentally unstable woman. And she is either a very good actress or a very bad one, I couldn't decide. I just couldn't help but wanting to slap her in the face! Somehow her dramatic style of a...( read more)cting, and the natural intensity of Brando amplify the irritation I felt towards her. I guess that's a good thing right?
    (So if you have decided on this, let me know, if there are any suggestions on which movies I should watch to find out, by all means, let me know!)

    Anyways, I loved that claustrophobic atmosphere and the bad, bestial sex that Stanley Kowalsky (Brando) oozed.
  • kenstachnik
    November 19, 2008
    kenstachnik
    This movie drips with sex
  • shauna1354
    August 5, 2008
    shauna1354
    A Streetcar Named Desire is a dramatic, fascinating and truly memorable cinematic experience. I could not take my eyes off the screen through out, I was completely engrossed by the sharp and edgy atmosphere and tense confrontations between the characters.

    Elia Kazan did an...( read more) excellent job of bringing to life Tennessee Williams's celebrated play.

    Never before have I witnessed acting so good from all of the leads. Vivien Leigh shines as the disturbed and confused Blanche, drifting between fantasy and reality. Marlon Brando, wow. He gives an immaculate performance of the rude and brutal Stanley, definitely up with the best of his career, maybe even THE best. Karl Malden and Kim Hunter both give incredible supporting performances.

    A Streetcar Named Desire is an emotive, intelligent, thought-provoking piece of film-making. A true example of a classic.
  • ebs90
    August 3, 2008
    ebs90
    Much praised film indeed, which is why I approached it with usual skepticism. It, of course, did not disappoint. With such a fine source material as is Tennessee Williams, whose plays I always enjoy reading, and with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, it was difficult to fail.

    Th...( read more)e highlight is the performance, both Brando's and Leigh's, but there's something to be said for the direction too: inobtrusive, straight to the point, not experimental, not symbolist, just a plain good delivery of the story and a close faithfulness to the originality of the script.

    Marlon Brando is stunning. He becomes the quintessential macho, although one with internal weaknesses and insecurities. There are few scenes in the history of cinema as unforgettable as Brando standing on the street, crying and yelling for his wife, Stella. He is, to put it simply, powerful, and dominates the screen at all times, towering over Leigh both physically and metaphorically. This is a milestone in the history of acting, and now that I've seen it I realize how many later performances drew their essence from this one.

    Vivien Leigh is also fantastic as Brando's unstable sister-in-law. Worn down by financial and emotional crisis, probably broke, capricious, and hypocritical, she is a disturbing, mortifying figure lurking throughout the film, intermittently taking the spotlight, thrashing the place, and receding. She makes us feel sorry for her and hate her, and vice versa, for 2 hours straight.

    With that said, it's difficult to state anything previously unknown about this classic. Except perhaps "Watch it!", because it's a pleasure to witness such a display of virtuosism.
  • Rossjm
    December 20, 2009
    Rossjm
    Spellbinding. One of the best films of all time.

    A Streetcar Named Desire is on of the best written films of all time. The suspense, tension and atmosphere is mostly driven by dialogue, which is just too perfect. It is easily one of the best screenplays of all time from one of...( read more) the most famous plays in English Literature.

    Other than the superb screenplay, there are other factors that make this the classic it is. For instance, the ensemble cast are undeniably excellent.. Marlon Brando, in a performance that easily eclipses his Oscar winning roles in The Godfather and On the Waterfront is magnificent as Stanley, making the character more iconic than it would have been with another actor of the time. He makes the character both likeable and hateable; there are some things you agree with him on but there are other things you will loath him for and this explosive mix was highlighted moreso by Brando's unforgettable acting abillity. Karl Malden appears as Mitch, the complete contrast to Stanley; a kind, loving and shy man. His Oscar was much deserved. His scenes opposite Vivian Leigh are some of the best scenes, out of many, in the film. Leigh herself won another much deserved Oscar and we can see why when we witness the chemistry she has with all of her co-stars. Her performance is one of the best, if not the best female performance of all time. The other winner was Kim Hunter and as with the Malden and leigh, she certainly deserved it.

    Elia Kazan directs with pure excellence and creates such a great pace you begin to forget you are watching a film. You get lost in the film due to his use of angles and how he gets the characters to live onscreen. Better than On the Waterfront in directorial terms, Kazan left his mark on cinema with this classic.

    The art direction, which won an Oscar, is phenomenal. The home remains strangely yet vibrantly dark, even in scenes set in the day. Shadows are created by the shapes of the sets and this gives it a gothic tinge, like with the staircase, for example. In Streetcar, we witness the cinematography and the set pieces form a strong relationship.

    The melodramtic score heightens the emotional tension between all of the troubled characters and contributes signifcantly to many of the scenes. Very well composed and suiting to the story and eveything involved.

    A Streetcar Named Desire mixes the drama sub-plots extremely well to present the gripping story. We witness melodrama, romance and an ubiquitous yet subtle thriller undertone.

    A Streetcar Named Desire is a flawless classic and is perfect in its tireless attention to detail a must see for any film lover.
  • Capitansalgado
    December 19, 2009
    Capitansalgado
    Superb acting of Vivian Heigh (even though she was actually bipolar in real life). About Brando I think he is just acting as himself jaja. The movie has extraordinary confrontations and drama, even though it looks like a play from the beginning. Excellent complain about moral pre...( read more)juicies and barbarity represented by the main two characters.
  • melissac89
    December 18, 2009
    melissac89
    Well acted... but not my kind of movie
  • anastasia57001
    December 9, 2009
    anastasia57001
    Classical praise put aside, this is a film of tremendous value and personality. Elia Kazan's talent is 100% evident here (too bad he wasn't as inventive during his McCarthian examination). I feel that I should point out the things we usually leave out of our first reading: the po...( read more)rtrayal of the mentally unstable Blanche, and how Vivian Leigh lived up to the expectations of the role walking on a very thin red line, on one hand, and the fetishizing of Marlon Brando's body and masculinity in general as a derivative, on the other. From a feminist point of view, the film is too close to supressing the issue of rape and the celebration of the rule of the Man over the Woman ("Every man is a King" in Stanley's words), and also the rule of the sane as contrary to the insane (respectively attributed to the masculine and the feminine here). This clasp of the absolute opposites and the way the conflict plays out realistically to the very end is at the heart of the film and it's also what makes it forever memorable.
  • friskyflugette
    December 3, 2009
    friskyflugette
    A good film with some powerhouse performances especially by Leigh and Brando but unfortunately it went on for far too long. There are some classic moments to behold in the film. The characters are well rounded, if perhaps a little overplayed by the actors. Of course, it is one of...( read more) the classics to be admired but it wont be in my favourites of all time.
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