A Streetcar named Desire review

 Number 276 on the top 1000 films of all time is Elia Kazan's 1951 drama 'A Streetcar named Desire.'

Based on Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer prize winning play of the same name, A Streetcar Named Desire (Streetcar) follows the fading southern belle Blanche Dubois (Vivian Leigh) who due to misfortune has come to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her Polish-American boyfriend Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando.) However, the prim and proper Blanche soon starts to clash with the often drunk, rough-and-ready Stanley Kowalski.

This is the second Tennessee Williams' film I have seen recently after Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. While I was critical of CHTR for its perceived lack of subtext, I think Streetcar was far more nuanced. It was a rapt, often distressing collision of two different worlds. You have the old-fashioned, mentally unstable Blanche who is desperately clinging onto the morals of a long-dead world, and then you have the crude and animalistic Stanley who has been worn down by many years of institutionalised and personal racism. Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando were very capable in the lead roles. They gave us an often uncomfortable, but necessary window into the American experience.

But also two very different American experiences. Due to Stanley's Polish background, he has had to fight for everything he's ever had, leading to plenty of smouldering resentment. Contrast this to Blanche who is living on the wealth of a bygone generation. Or trying to live, I should say. And poor Stella is caught between this warring couple.

This was also a scary film. Far scarier than it had any right to be. At times Brando was very relatable as the beaten-down Stanley, but he was also terrifying when he entered a fit of rage. It was similarly upsetting watching Blanche lose her sanity. The final few scenes where she is rendered to a near-catatonic state due to Stanley's actions, and is being taken away to a psychiatric institution, are disturbing to watch.

I enjoyed Streetcar more than I thought I would. I thought it would be dark and hard-going, which it most certainly was, but this darkness was underlined by a powerful subtext. I just don't think I will be watching it again in a hurry.