A Streetcar Named Desire Review

Elia Kazan's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire tells the story of Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stanley (Marlon Brando), a couple expecting a baby whose relationship is put to the test when the deranged Blanche DeBois (Vivian Leigh), Stella's sister, comes and stays with them.

A Streetcar Named Desire was released in 1951, with the '50s being notoriously responsible for films such as Vertigo, Rear Window and Seven Samurai, films that all explored and pushed boundaries in the developing form of film, we see A Streetcar Named Desire step aside from the technological advancements of cinema and focus on the performances given by cast. This leads the film's camerawork to be almost unnoticeable, sticking with static shots for the majority of the feature, allowing us to feel intimacy with the characters, ignore the fact that there is a whole crew of people behind the camera and feel almost as if we are watching it as a play, which it was originally performed as.

The performances from Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, who were both a part of the original Broadway production of the play, are absolutely breathtaking. Brando's portrayal as the dominant and heavy handed Stanley is so pure, showing the raw talent that Brando had and the genuine connection he had with his character, with it only being his second feature film. Brando and Hunter's performances are so subtly brilliant that it is only until after the film, once we have taken our eyes off of their characters and realised that they are fictional, that we understand just how mesmerising their performances were. Vivian Leigh's portrayal of Stella is a much more Hollywood one, with her feature film career running sixteen years prior to the release of the movie, her experience in playing the dramatic female lead is evident. Her overcompensation in some aspects of her performance runs in correlation with her character's eccentric and dramatic personality, however, and the casting director's were extremely clever when it came to the casting of Blanche DeBois.
It is no surprise to me that three Academy Awards were won for acting in this film, however, it both confuses and angers me how Marlon Brando was not in the list of winners, with his performance being the main brilliance of the film.

The film does stick to the main story of the play, with just a few minor changes due to the obligations required by the Hollywood Code, and doesn't try and jazz up the feature with quirky camerawork or crazy sets, the sets are simple and the camera is static, we are aware from the beginning that we are watching an adaptation and that the narrative and relationships between characters are the most important part of this film. In a time when the world was going crazy for innovational camerawork and technology, the film would have been, and still is, a breath of fresh air that I'm sure no fans of the original play would be disappointed with.