The Fugitive Kind (1960)

Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  Maybe if Kazan had directed this movie would have been more exciting, I don't know what the problem was, but this movie is incredibly slow and boring. The story seemed good, but I couldn't follow it very well.

• Robert C

  
  Everything that you would expect from a Tennessee Williams play / film; unrequited love, compassion, lust, intolerance, hate, hope, brutality. And of course, lots and lots of over the top female characters ranging from "strong and determined" to "weak and crazy".… More
  Everything that you would expect from a Tennessee Williams play / film; unrequited love, compassion, lust, intolerance, hate, hope, brutality. And of course, lots and lots of over the top female characters ranging from "strong and determined" to "weak and crazy". For me the men (even in the major roles) are ultimatley "a means to an end" for the most part. There to serve as the catalyst for the inevitable breakdown of one (or all) of the female charaters. If it were anyone else this formula might become tedious, but WIlliams characters are always so interesting and complex and the worlds in which they reside so entrancing - that I'm always sucked right in and (depending on the actress/actor) completely engrossed. While this is far from Brando's best work, he gives us a great "Brando" for the most part. Which suites the role. Funny how much he goes on and on about how much he loves his guitar, but never really plays the damned thing! Joanne Woodward is fun to watch as the counties favorite crazy "Carol Cutrere", but I couldn't help but feel like she was channeling Carroll Baker from "Baby Doll". Which had come out a few years earlier. For me the star of this film is Anna Magnani, who to spite being a bit over the top at times (Fellini-esque?) delivers a powerful and touching performance. Just keep in mind that this (as with most of his work) was originally written for the stage so there is always a flair for the melodramatic. I think it would be hard (impossible?) to convert them to more traditional (toned down) "film characters", without loosing the charm that comes from the mind / pen of Tennessee Williams.

• Stefanie C

  
  "Wild things leave their skin behind...so the fugitive kind can follow their kind." This film seethes with a dark, sultry, gothic atmosphere: Tennessee Williams brand of Southern discomfort. Life in this small town is painfully slow, quietly desperate and overwhelmingly… More
  "Wild things leave their skin behind...so the fugitive kind can follow their kind." This film seethes with a dark, sultry, gothic atmosphere: Tennessee Williams brand of Southern discomfort. Life in this small town is painfully slow, quietly desperate and overwhelmingly restrictive, barely masking its inherent corruptness and grotesque stagnation. Marlon Brando oozes sexuality and sensitivity, playing the outsider ~ the bad boy with the good heart. He is an absolute and primal magnetic force; you just can't take your eyes off of him! Pleasantly surprising, his co-stars, Woodward and Magnani, offer unforgettably powerful, dramatic interpretations, uncompromised by Brando's charisma. The love story is never believable, but the shared camera time creates the illusion of intimacy, compensating for the lack of chemistry. Williams’ microcosm is all too familiar, the direction is theatrical, but the performances are mesmerizing and the social indictment remains damning.

• jay n

  
  Not top notch Tennesse Williams, florid and over ripe. Brando, Joanne Woodward, Anna Magnani and Maureen Stapleton do what they can with underwritten parts, Victor Jory is wonderful in a small but showy part practially dripping evil.

• Conner R

  
  Another amazing Tenesse Williams adaption. Marlon Brando gave an equally stunning performance to his in Streetcar while playing a completely different character. The story is such a powerful combination of love and tragedy. What I always love about Williams' work is that it is… More
  Another amazing Tenesse Williams adaption. Marlon Brando gave an equally stunning performance to his in Streetcar while playing a completely different character. The story is such a powerful combination of love and tragedy. What I always love about Williams' work is that it is still as relevant and flawless as it was at its inception.

• danny d

  
  this film is only recommendable and only watchable because of amazing performances across the board, highlighted by a stellar performance by brando. but as usual, williams script was deplorably bad in most parts and the story didnt really mean anything. which i guess works because… More
  this film is only recommendable and only watchable because of amazing performances across the board, highlighted by a stellar performance by brando. but as usual, williams script was deplorably bad in most parts and the story didnt really mean anything. which i guess works because williams nihilistic philosophy is as meaningless as his plays. there were a few interesting moments of diologue, but they were each followed by more incoherent silliness. watch it if you like brando, if you dont, stay away.

• Veronique K

  
  "thr fugitive kind" is another terrific piece scripted by tennesse williams, and it is adequately casted with marlon brando and ann magnani as williams' two archetyped characters in his plays: sexually dissatisfied female with great willpower vs luscious male with… More
  "thr fugitive kind" is another terrific piece scripted by tennesse williams, and it is adequately casted with marlon brando and ann magnani as williams' two archetyped characters in his plays: sexually dissatisfied female with great willpower vs luscious male with stormy sex antagonism. the harsher extreme exemplification would "streatcar named desire" as brando's stanley is the central object of desire, perhaps williams' personal inclination does contribute to his various creations of "homme fatale" which is men who are the seductors casting or catalyzing doom to women. by this time, brando is the alluring drifter with snakeskin jacket and guitar by his side, a symbol of his uninhibited nature, an aloof poise which fascinates women with masochistic tendency. and two women become the prey under his charm: one lewd exhibitionist and one shrew with tangled past. somehow he's employed by the latter whom he also falls in love with. but the malice of the woman's invalid spouse brings forth catastrophe to everyone, nothing left but a snakeskin jacket remained from a fire disaster, another symbol of williams' poetric tragedy, and one fugitive kind seeks another to compensate. brando's male beauty has not been in the prime blossom as he was in 1951 "streetcar named desire", by 1959, he starts to bare some rugged ripeness. anna magnani, who makes her fame in "the rose tattoo", is perfect casting choice as the elder woman whose vigor of life is mighty enough to lure brando without being perished into pieces by him. "the fugitive kind" is one good example of the significance of the scriptor, and the movie's functionality all relies upon the pearly lines of tennesse williams and his metaphoric usage of lust and death which are frequent themes in his plays as well as the occasional dialogues of existential futility which are too lengthy to be mentioned here. "fugitive kind" requires your thorough attention to chew over the clever words of pessismistic wisdom, far from a mindless pleasure you could squander over.

• Mike T

  
  This is by far one of the most unnerving and depressing films I've ever seen, and it's all the better for it. Marlon Brando was an unstoppable vessel for human emotion and insightful understanding of the human condition, and this performance is yet another piece of evidence.… More
  This is by far one of the most unnerving and depressing films I've ever seen, and it's all the better for it. Marlon Brando was an unstoppable vessel for human emotion and insightful understanding of the human condition, and this performance is yet another piece of evidence. His range of sensitivity and brutality is downright amazing. The story, full of profound philosophy and unique character study, will require several viewings for complete justice. A fantastically directed and extremely underrated film.

• Steve S

  
  moral: git while the gittin's good.

Read all 9 featured audience ratings