Streetcar Named Desire (Full Screen): Amazon.ca: DVD: DVD

Product Description

Amazon.com Essential Video

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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Customer Reviews

83 Reviews

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (83 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars One Quick Question......... (3.5 stars), Aug 6 2002

By

Michael Crane (Orland Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streetcar Named Desire (Full Screen) (DVD)

I'm curious to know if anyone has read the play. Because, I want to know what they think of the ending in the movie version. It completly changes the tone and subject of the movie! Let me tell you something: this play was supposed to be about Blanche's tragedy. Changing the ending takes that element away. You can no longer call it a tragedy, and all of the sudden now the movie is about Stella.

Coming from someone who absolutely LOVED reading the play, I think this new ending is a complete cop out. Well, it is. I know it was forced on the studio from people who didn't think the original ending was "appropriate."

My advice: read the play. It's better. Actually, the movie is also really good as well....except when it gets to the ending.

All in all, I was really disappointed with how it ended. Should've stuck to the original ending that was in the play. I would've given it 5 stars had it not been for the ridiculous "forced" ending.

But that's just one man's opinion.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Totally satisfied, April 27 2010

By

Dean Taylor "Dean Taylor" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Streetcar Named Desire (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

The DVD arrived in timely fashion, the quality was excellent (I had been worried about that, but all was okay, it turned out) and the material on the second disc was wonderful. All in all, I am completely satisfied.

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5.0 out of 5 stars some of the best the screen has ever seen, July 13 2004

By

Saima Huq "sh" (Astoria, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Streetcar Named Desire (Full Screen) (DVD)

Vivien Leigh, well-known for her portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's "Gone With the Wind", plays Blanche, a Southern belle as fragile as Scarlett is strong. In a way, Blanche is what Scarlett would have become if she had watched her mother die. "Death is very pretty compared to dying," she tells her sister Stella, who only came home for the funeral.

Stella is pregnant and married to Stanley (the inimitable Brando) who both abhors and is fascinated by his sister-in-law Blanche (and not just in a platonic manner.) Blanche in turn is interested in meeting new gentleman callers, as her great love once killed himself (as she tells us in one of the most riveting scenes in movie history.) Interesting note: the delivery boy she flirts with is Mickey Kuhn, who once played Leigh's nephew Beau in GWTW.

Blanche is so fragile that she has no choice but to break. Unfortunately, others hurry her down that path. Perhaps the worst thing one can do, it seems, is depend on the kindness of strangers.

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