I'm not the biggest Tennessee Williams fan, I think mostly because I have never seen his work on stage. Only in movies. Generally the movies (and I'm thinking specifically here of A Streetcar Named Desire, with that iconic Brando performance) are fine examples of writing and acting, but they're not always interestingly filmed. Although Cat on a Hot Tin Roof does make some efforts to open up the mis-en-scene and give the characters some space, this is still a play made into a movie. The action is all happening in this southern mansion; a storm rises and rages as metaphor for the characters rising tempers (groan.). And while that can be fine as long as the acting and writing are superb, (which they are- Newman is at his moodiest, blue-eyed, Newmanest best and Elizabeth Taylor manages to be sexy, vulnerable, and a shrill all at once) by the time we get to the fifth or sixth loud confrontation and resulting epiphany I was totally burnt out.
I felt the same way with the 1951 Streetcar; even with Brando method acting up the joint and Vivien Leigh perfecting the deranged Southern belle, I checked out about 20 minutes before the movie was over. I just couldn't watch these characters continue to verbally kick the shit out of each other anymore; I was past caring. So: the Technicolor makes this film nice to look out. But: it is still a long, drawn out Southern bitching fest. Man up, 50-plus-year-old fictional characters. Get over it.
Bonus: Jack!!! My parents' sheltie. Spent plenty of time chilling with this guy when I was in NYC. At first you think he's kind of lame and not really cute, but then he grows on you. And then you kind of love him.
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