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Laramie Movie Scope:
A Streetcar Named Desire

A classic tale of beauty versus brawn

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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December 2, 2007 -- “A Streetcar Named Desire,” released in 1951 is the classic adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play, featuring one of Marlon Brando's legendary performances. The movie was historic because Brando's electrifying performance made method acting the preferred style of acting for generations afterward. To be sure, there were method actors before Brando, but there were a lot more of them after “A Streetcar Named Desire” made Brando a movie star.

The acting style known as “the method” was famously taught by Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio in New York in the 1940s and 1950s and by many others since then. The method was pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavski in the Soviet Union. The method is a technique whereby actors try to create a realistic performance by internalizing the emotions attributed to the character they are portraying. Imagination and memory of past experiences and emotions are used by the actor to internally build a character. Brando's performance in “A Streetcar Named Desire” showcased the method and made it a model for other actors to emulate. Both Brando and Robert DeNiro were tutored by acting coach Stella Adler, whose own version of the method emphasizes imagination over past experiences.

In “Streetcar,” Brando plays the brutish Stanley Kowalski, who is married to Stella (played by Kim Hunter of “Planet of the Apes”), who is pregnant. The two receive a visit from Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh of “Gone With the Wind”). Stella and Blanche are descended from aristocratic stock, but their family fortune has been depleted by lifetimes of poor management. Blanche tells Stella that the family's house has been sold to pay outstanding debts. Stanley is angry because he had figured on getting some money from his wife's estate. He simmers with anger as Blanche hangs around the house for months and drinks up the household liquor. Blanche has a romance with one of Stanley's friends, Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell (Karl Malden of “On the Waterfront”). That blows up when Stanley tells Harold about some dark secrets from Stella's past.

There is a final showdown between Stanley and the fragile Blanche one night which changes everyone for the worse. Blanche had been living in a kind of dream, somewhere about 10 feet above the ground of reality. She is shattered by the confrontation. Stanley is not directly affected by the confrontation, but soon finds he is indirectly affected. Stella and Harold are also affected indirectly. We don't really see the confrontation in the movie, since this was a historical period when such things were not explicitly shown, but the movie gets the point across.

The film generates a lot of raw emotional power, thanks to great performances by the main characters. Brando's performance contains the kind of raw sexual energy seldom seen anywhere. His animal-like force on the screen is staggering. To see his performance in this film is to see one of the greatest actors in history at the height of his power. Cinematically, the film is very stagey. The sets are claustrophobic and there are very few of them. The direction by Elia Kazan, who also directed Brando in another classic, “On the Waterfront,” is flawless, as is the camera work by Harry Stradling (“Guys and Dolls”). This movie rates an A.

The name of the play and film is taken from a streetcar route in New Orleans where the story takes place. In a line of dialogue from the movie, Blanche asks about the streetcar that runs on Desire Street. That is the streetcar that will take her to Stella and Stanley's apartment on Elysian Fields Avenue. Elysian Fields is the name of the final resting place of the heroic souls in Greek Mythology. I recently bought an old full-screen videotape of this movie. The original aspect ratio (1.37:1) of the movie is pretty close to that of a standard TV screen. It was not originally filmed in any of the widescreen formats, so VHS tape works well enough.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics, theater tickets and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2006 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)