A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

I watched this tonight for the first time and I really feel the need to say something that is completely out of step with every other opinion I've read.First, I should explain that I love movies from all periods and have bought over 1,500 films on DVD and Blu Ray, all ranging from 1920s releases right through to current day.I have often been stunned by the acting performances of both main stars and supporting cast, and this film provides another few good examples of what must be considered masterful acting. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter all shine in this movie, and they deserve every accolade thrown their way. But Vivien Leigh?There is not a single moment when I didn't find her acting to be completely over the top or lacking in authenticity. In fact, every scene of hers was painful, and the contrast it made with her co-stars was embarrassing to witness. I tried to remind myself that she was playing the part of someone who was going mad, but this fact provided no excuse for the shameful performance she gives here.We've all seen people doing roles like this before, since portraying mental instability/illness is nothing new to the big screen, and there are many, many cases where it is handled superbly and the descent into insanity is made completely believable by the actor in question. But in 'Streetcar' Vivien handles it as if she's never even been in front of a camera before.Watch her eyes, her reactions to people's comments and questions: there is not one second where she doesn't seem to be combining the automated recital of memorised dialogue with over-the-top emotion, and it was obvious to this viewer right from the start that she didn't understand how to portray authentic emotion/reaction at all.Yeah, yeah, I've read the reviews that all gush over her performance, even the director's comment that she brought everything he wanted to the role and more. At first this fact puzzled me greatly, since I found her performance to be easily the worst I've seen out of tens of thousands of performances in perhaps 20,000 or more movies over the years. But then I discovered that she was married to Lawrence Olivier right throughout her career, and everything suddenly made sense.How do you tell one of the greatest actors of all time that his wife reeks as an actress? Better yet, how do you cover for her awful performances when there is the possibility of a public backlash over her roles that could prove embarrassing for the great man? That's easily solved: just hand her an Academy Award and that will shut everyone up. "Oh, she got the Academy for that part?! Okay, then it must be good!"It isn't, and it brings down what could have been a 9/10 for 'Streetcar' to a 7, in my opinion.PS - I also found her acting to be just as painful in 'Gone With the Wind', and guess what?! She got the Academy Award for that part too!! Go figure.

She's a prissy "wannabe sophisticated", but past her prime for the times, and out of men to play. He's her social opposite. He's living in the "now", won't allow dreamy non-sense to be spoken in his castle, which just happens to be a seedy basement apartment in New Orleans French Quarter. Their surrounding are cheap and that's where the confrontations begin. Vulgar and bright, is our testosterone fueled ogre, barely draped in a t shirt so tight that imdv lists it amongst its' trivia! She's a freaking nutcase who attempts to cover up the truth behind her many shameful transgression with endless blabber about a dreamworld that's just as nauseating. This is one of the best dramas I ever had the pleasure of losing myself in. Elia Kazan doesn't let you out of your small corner while you await each confrontation, yet this would have boiled over early if not for our married sister caught in the middle.Marlon Brando was absolutely brilliant and Vivien Leigh, in the later stages of her "Scarlett" genre was completely terrifying in her cover up acting inside of the characters she floated willingly down the Denial River. The sympathetic plight belongs to Kim Hunters' Stella until the censored end. Would get 10/10 if not for those who stole our script and meaning. This is a story of confrontation that could have been even more of a social juggernaut!

Brando's pleading wail "Stella! Hey, Stella!" (#45 of AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list) is just one of the many great lines in this essential Tennessee Williams drama; another is Vivien Leigh's "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers" (#75 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list).Directed by Elia Kazan, Williams's screenplay earned him the first of his two Oscar nominations for Writing (he received his second for his only other collaboration with the director five years later, Baby Doll (1956)). Kazan, who received his second Best Director nomination, would win his second Oscar on his third (of five) Best Director nomination three years later with his Oscar winning Best Picture On the Waterfront (1954), which also features actor Karl Malden. In fact Malden, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in this film, would receive his only other Oscar nomination for his Supporting role in On the Waterfront (1954). I'm guessing the playwright and the actor have nothing but nice things to say about their director.The love story is between Stanley Kowalski (Brando, who received his first Best Actor nomination) and his wife Stella (Kim Hunter, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar on her only nomination). Stella is pregnant with their first child when her older sister Blanche DuBois (Leigh, who earned her second Best Actress Oscar on her second nomination; the other was for Gone With the Wind (1939)) comes to visit.Blanche is a destitute Southern Belle who finds Stanley to be too crude for her tastes, even as his animalistic sexual energy overwhelms her. Stanley thinks Blanche is a phony, and begins checking up on her story, finding financial malfeasance and more in her recent past. Malden plays a card playing buddy of Brando's that believes Blanche is the idealistic, refined lady of the South she pretends to be, until he learns otherwise.In addition to Leigh, Malden, and Hunter, this Best Picture nominated film's B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration also won an Oscar; its B&W Cinematography and Costume Design also received nominations as did its Dramatic Score and Sound Recording. #45 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list. #67 on AFI's 100 Greatest Love Stories list. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1999. #19 on AFI's Top 25 Film Scores list.

This movie has a great reputation, so I went into it with high hopes, and was left disappointed. At times the movie dragged on, and at other times it was very interesting. Marlon Brando was great in his role, and despite his character's repulsive qualities, made white T shirts very popular. Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for role, but I wasn't impressed by it. I thought her character was very annoying, and I didn't sympathize with her. Leigh has some good moments, but at other times she overacts. I understand that theatrical performances could still be well regarded at this time, but when she acts opposite to Marlon Brando, whose performance is anything but theatrical, her performance only seems worse. Despite my complaints, I really liked the ending. It was disturbing, and even though I disliked Blanche, I felt sympathy towards her after being raped by Stanley, which totally surprised me. Marlon Brando was great and really made this movie more tolerable than it would have been without him. I wish I wasn't disappointed by it, because I loved On The Waterfront, also directed by Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire isn't a bad movie, but it's not deserving of its reputation as a classic either.7/10