DVD of the Week: A Streetcar Named Desire
Monday, May 12th by leinana
Before he looked like this:
Marlon Brando was a handsome, handsome man. From the moment he appears in A Streetcar Named Desire, wearing that tight t-shirt that he wore so well, you can’t take your eyes off him. As Stanley Kowalski, he has a masculine energy that is primal, brutish, the definition of an alpha male.
His blue-collar “commonness” is contrasted with his sister-in-law’s put-on airs and affected gentility. Blanche du Bois is a southern belle, albeit a quickly fading one. She comes to stay with Stanley and her sister, Stella, in New Orleans while taking a leave of absence from her teaching job. No-nonsense Stanley quickly sees through Blanche’s pretense and begins to uncover her lies and her unsavory past, which he is quick to share to with Blanche’s would-be suitor.
Not that Stanley is such an upright citizen himself. He is volatile and prone to violence, even hitting the pregnant Stella during a drunken poker game. Afterwards, feeling guilty and ashamed, he cries out for Stella (“Stellllllaaaaa!!”) in that iconic scene voted #45 on AFI’s list of the top 100 movie quotations. This isn’t the last, or even the worst, of Stanley’s violent outbursts, as we shall see. He succeeds in shattering Blanche’s illusions of grandeur, but in the process sends her over the edge…
The movie unfortunately glosses over two key events in the original play. Forced at the time to comply with Hollywood’s Production Code, it only vaguely alludes to why Blanche’s husband died, and what actually happened between Stanley and Blanche. These omissions make it harder to understand the source(s) of Blanche’s trauma, possibly making her seem even more delusional. To know what really happened, I guess you’ll have to read the play, but don’t miss seeing this film—or Brando in that t-shirt.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
DVD Date of Release: March 1997
Based on A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
