Editor's Note: While to-the-minute movie releases are fascinating, there's a certain something about a good classic film. In the interest of cultivating a finer appreciation for the classics, The Eagle's Neora Luria presents a new column that explores the finer side of cinematic antiquities.
Do you prefer fantasy or reality? Beautiful antique times or new, lusty fire? Death or desire? In the rebellious "A Streetcar Named Desire," three troubled characters discover that when time works against you, the choices are made for you.
Based on Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the film adaptation braved shaky media grounds of 1951 standards. Before screening, production was a tug and pull with censorship and religious groups. Thrashing through the thorns, the project emerged with three Academy Awards, a first in Academy history.
The controversy, conflict and complex characters can speak just as loudly to people today. The story follows the frail Southern flower Blanche (Vivian Leigh), who visits her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in the New Orleans French Quarter.
Blanche floats and flaunts in white dresses and an aristocratic air, representing the wealthy past she once shared with Stella but is now crumbling. Stanley, a common worker and "brute" in Blanche's eyes, investigates his invading in-law as soon as she walks in. Under Louisiana's Napoleonic Code, a man has a right to look into his wife's affairs, which means digging up the corrupt past he's sure Blanche is hiding.
For the woman in the middle, seesaw-Stella, it is difficult to balance her loyalty between Blanche and Stanley. Stanley is Stella's physical senses - abuse, sexuality, pregnancy - her body before her mind, in both pain and pleasure. Blanche Dubois (French for "white wood") is Stella's higher thoughts - intellectualism, art, foolish fantasy. However, since her two loves are extremes in their own realms, they become dangerous detriments. Is Stella's life a matter of making a choice between the two, or does she need to create her own path?
While watching the triple tango in this film, keep a close eye for encoded implications and subtle suggestions. Small actions like Brando opening a bottle of beer or Blanche lamenting an old love were not so minor to censorship groups of the 1950s. In fact, groups like the Catholic Legion of Decency forced director Elia Kazan to delete several scenes and rework disagreeable aspects of the story.
Both the deleted scenes and the original play had stronger references to rape and homosexuality. The little that came through in the final film was already a major push into exposing what was too taboo to utter. If curiosity gets to you, you can rent a 1995 remake with Alec Baldwin and Diane Lane. This made-for-TV movie includes all the scenes the original was scolded for filming.
Why You Should Watch This Film:
"A Streetcar Named Desire" raised film standards. Even score composer Alex North broke rules. He trashed the trend of limiting music to representation of drama, and instead had it speak for the personalities of the characters and their psychology.
For those who don't know much about Marlon Brando, you should know that he was a god long before "The Godfather" - an acting idol that blew directors away with his skill and shocked audiences with his self-assured sway. "Streetcar" was one of his first films after his Broadway career and Hollywood discovered a timeless treasure, both in an actor and a film that the world continues to hold dearly.
