A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)
by Elia Kazan

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DVD details

Actor: Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Rudy Bond, Vivien Leigh
Director: Elia Kazan
Cinematographer: Harry Stradling Sr.
Editor: David Weisbart
Producer: Charles K. Feldman
Writer: Oscar Saul
Writer: Tennessee Williams
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1997-03-26
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Reviews of A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)

DVD Review: Histrionic
Summary: 3 Stars

Histrionic and overdramatic by today's standards, with a lot of crying, screaming and exaggerated dialogue. Nonetheless, an interesting story and social commentary whose message has held up well over time.

DVD Review: overrated??
Summary: 3 Stars

Its funny how everyone defends the movie with the "because of the play" mentality. I did not know about Blanche's relationship with her husband which led to her downfall prior to viewing the movie so I had to judge it on its own merit. Obliviously this movie is well written, acted, directed. But there are holes in characterizations and plot which make it lacking complete coherency.

As usual, I judge a movie in the context of its genre. It seems people award 4 and 5 stars out of nostalgia and "because of the play". Since I the viewer really cant understand Blanche's inner demon very well which at times is an annoyance 3 stars. Also, the play's lovers speak of how the ending is different, which after listening makes more sense in the than the movie's ending. There are way more movie drama's with more profound story lines and deeper characterization out there.

DVD Review: This film is truly desirous...
Summary: 5 Stars

Considered by many to be one of the great American staples; `A Streetcar Named Desire' is in all honestly one of the greatest films of all time. It truly lives up to the hype and delivers one of the most satisfying and gratifying cinematic experiences anyone can wish for. With dynamic acting, solid writing and daring direction, `A Streetcar Named Desire' is truly desirous.

The film tells of the conflict between disturbed Southern Belle Blanche DuBois and the simple yet brutish Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche travels to see her sister Stella she never imagined the trouble she would not only cause but ultimately find herself in. She immediately begins to butt heads with Stella's husband Stanley, their ideals and personalities at complete opposite ends, but she attempts to make things work, for as long as she can. The film does a marvelous job of depiction a true loss of one's grasp of reality as we see Blanche and everyone around her sucked into a loss of hope. Blanche arrives at her sister's New Orleans doorstep after losing her home (their childhood home) under circumstances that Blanche is not quick to relay. Blanche seems to be placing up a fa?ade to hide a past she is most ashamed of, but what sort of woman is she really? Stanley, determined to deliver a reality check to everyone, searches out the truth despite the harm it may cause (it can be stated that Stanley receives the biggest `reality check' of all).

The film dramatically and effectively approaches these characters with a stark realism that makes their every movement and action all the more poignant.

I adore films of this nature, as many who read my reviews already know, for it delivers an emotional shock to the soul, and those connections make me feel invested in a film. `A Streetcar Named Desire' is quite frankly one of the best examples of brutal honesty captured on film. There is no sugarcoating here, none whatsoever. Everything is stripped bare and delivered in a frank yet morally ambiguous nature; so much so that we become a major player in the films unraveling.

And then there is the acting; tour de force across the board.

Let's get the easy out of the way. Kim Hunter and Karl Malden both deserved the Oscar's they won for their wonderful supporting turns here, adding layers with each scene to their characters but also to the leads as well. Hunter is flawless as Stella, giving her a naivety that beautifully centers her character, grounds her into her surroundings and into our hearts. That smoldering descent down the staircase is probably the single best scene in the film and makes for the one of the steamiest and most passionate scenes in cinema; ever. Malden is also effortlessly captivating as Mitch, the clueless suitor who finds a light in Blanche that others cannot see. His desire to have that someone is so passionate that when Stanley snuffs out that passion we are heartbroken; betrayed even.

What is so wonderful about the casting of Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando is that their styles are so distinct that they complement the very conflict erupting within their characters. Leigh is a very mannered actress who mirrors the actresses best suited for the stage. The fact that this is a stage play adaptation works in her favor. She reminds me of Julianne Moore in her delivery. One could say that she appears to be acting, and in this case it works brilliantly. Marlon Brando is a much more natural actor, his delivery appearing fluid and relaxed. He's far less controlled or restrictive in his performance. You can liken him to Russell Crowe. When these two actors share the screen it is such a blessing, watching them battle one another in more than one way. It is the definition of inspired casting, and watching these two performance work to outdo one another is a treat to the viewer.

The fact that Brando is the only actor in the bunch to lose the Oscar is a shame, since he was by far the best performer here.

In the end I will wholeheartedly recommend this masterpiece of a film. It gets better and better every time I watch it, and truth be told it is truly one of the best films to ever be labeled the best of anything. Sporting one of the greatest ensemble casts, one of the most powerfully riveting scripts and some of the most inspired direction of it's time and any other, `A Streetcar Named Desire' is a knockout on all levels and deserves to be rendered as such.

DVD Review: Explosive
Summary: 4 Stars

The seamy, hot nights of New Orleans with the rattle trap streetcar thundering along outside the apartment blocks represent the superb setting for this tight, ensemble class to deliver their superb perfomances.

The film resembles the stage play, with the ensemble cast acting out a drama of passion and class, that encompasses the great human themes of frailty and facade.

Marlon Brando is dynamite in his famous role as the brutish, alpha male Stanley which had women fainting in cinemas in the 1950s, and ever since.

A must see.

DVD Review: An explosive masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars

Elia Kazan's screen version of Tenessee William's firey work is a non stop emotional ride. Marlon Brando revises his stage role as Stanley Kowalski, a working class man who lives in New Orleans with his wife Stella. There life is a roughly passionate one which intensifies when Stella's southern belle sister Blanche DuBois arrives. Blanche, portrayed so beautifully and truly by Vivien Leigh, that her husband Sir Lawrence Olivier once commented on how it almost broke her to play this role. Blanche is mentally unstable, broken by the world and by distorted ideals. Stanley immeadiately loathes Blanche and all that she pretends to be, allowing this hatred to consume him and become an animalistic urge that explodes at the end of the film. In all this film displays both the beauty and horror of human kind, it is a must see for all!

Description of A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)

Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty, brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prizefighter, Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"), are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella), and Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was rereleased in a "director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that had already secured its place as an essential American work. --Robert Horton

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