The Blu-ray release of Elia Kazan’s 1951 film of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, which retains the special features of the 2006 Special Edition DVD, doesn’t give us anything new, but what it does give us is another opportunity to take a look at one of the screen’s great masterpieces.
The 1947 play, directed by Kazan, catapulted the young Marlon Brando to stardom s Stanley Kowalski, the animalistic brute of a husband who clashes with his fading Southern beauty sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois, played by Jessica Tandy. Kim Hunter played his pregnant wife, Stella, caught in the middle and Karl Malden played Brando’s factory buddy who takes a liking to Blanche until Stanley reveals certain secrets about her past.
Joining Kazan and three of his actors (Brando, Hunter, Malden) for the film version was Vivien Leigh, a bigger screen name than Tandy, who had played the part in the London production. Leigh, whose previous great screen role was as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind was genius casting. On one hand, she played the part as an older version of Scarlett and on the other, she played it close to her then real life persona of an older woman with mental problems and a not so carefully guarded promiscuous reputation.
Kazan placated the censors by agreeing to eliminate references to Blanche’s late young husband’s homosexuality and by toning down the climactic rape scene. Upon completion, he made minor cuts to a couple of scenes, mostly brief dialogue cuts, to satisfy the Hays Office. He had to make further cuts to prevent a “Condemned” rating from the powerful Catholic Legion of Decency. These cuts, which seem absurd in retrospect, included toning down the famous scene in which Stella slowly descends the outdoor staircase to fall into Stanley’s arms, and Alex North’s forced re-scoring of the scene to make it less sensuous.
The DVD and Blu-ray editions include the restored director’s cut, discovered in the early 1990s, which led to the film’s 1993 theatrical re-release.
Whether you see the original 1951 release version or the restored 1993 version, this is far and away the definitive version of the play, which was filmed two more times for TV and has been done in numerous Broadway revivals and other subsequent stage productions. Leigh and Brando smolder with their clashing personalities and clashing acting styles. Hunter and Malden, though good in their parts as well, are not quite in the same league. Leigh, Hunter and Malden all won Oscars, but Brando would have to wait another three years for his first.
If the sexual encounters in Streetcar were hot stuff for 1951, and they were, they had nothing on the goings-on in British director Steve McQueen’s Shame.
Michael Fassbender, whose breakout role was as IRA prisoner Bobby Sands in McQueen’s 2008 film, Hunger, once again has an unforgettable role as a New York yuppie sex addict in McQueen’s latest. Although Fassbender spends almost the entire film either in a sexual situation or contemplating one, much of it in the nude, the film is never prurient. It is basically a sad commentary on both the character and modern society.
Carey Mulligan gives perhaps her finest performance to date as Fassbender’s messed up sister. When she isn’t whining or looking for sex in all the wrong places, she is singing her heart out in a jazz club, performing a scintillating slowed down version of Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York. The failure of both Fassbender and Mulligan to secure 2011 Oscar nominations gives a black eye to the Academy.
Speaking of black eyes, has there ever been as brutal a first film as that delivered by actor turned writer-director Paddy Considine in Tyrannosuar, the deep, dark British drama about a short-tempered widowed hothead and the Christian charity store worker with secrets of her own?
Peter Mullan delivers a lacerating performance as Joseph, the sad, fist-ready widower who in the first few minutes of the film, beats up one guy, almost beats up another, terrorizes a third and kills his own dog. Olivia Colman delivers an equally impressive performance as the pious woman whose shop he wanders into. Compared to her husband, Eddie Marsan, Joseph is a kind man. There is a sub-plot involving a sweet kid who is abused by his mother’s boyfriend. All of it would be too depressing were it not for the superb performances inhibiting it. One bit of caution, however. The dialogue, filled with British colloquialisms, is difficult to understand at times, especially when the actors are shouting the words. You will, however, get the gist of it, and you won’t miss any of the f-words which are shouted repeatedly.
Shame is available in both Blu-ray and standard DVD; Tyrannosaur is available only n standard DVD in the U.S.
Turning to lighter fare, the fourth installment of the successful Tom cruise franchise, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is as exciting an entry as any in the series even if the plot is more implausible than ever.
Joining Cruise for this outing are Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and an unbilled Tom Wilkinson. Ving Rhames and Michelle Monaghan from the last outing have cameos. Renner is an especially engaging addition. Given the actor’s involvement in other franchises, however, it’s questionable whether he will return for the next mission, should there be one.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is available in both Blu-ray and standard DVD.
The 1935 version of
Randolph Scott as Hawkeye, Binnie Barnes as Alice, Henry Wilcoxin as Major Heywood, Bruce Cabot as Magua, Heather Angel as Cora, Phillip Reed as Ungas and Robert Barrat as Chingachgook, the title role, created characters that were etched in the collective memory over that long stretch of time. Newly released on DVD by Henstooth, it makes a welcome addition to anyone’s video library.
Also newly released by Henstooth is Gregory Ratoff’s 1942 version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Corsican Brothers, the eighth film version of that now somewhat obscure work.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is in fine swashbuckling stead as the twin brothers, separated at birth, now united to seek vengeance on the usurper who killed their parents. Ruth Warrick, Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol Naish and H.B. Warner co-star.
This week’s new DVD releases include Contraband and the Blu-ray debut of Camelot.
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