Today we’re talking about A Streetcar Named Desire. But before I get into it, I want to say thank you for checking out the Reels on Wheels Movie Club. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I’m choosing one film a week to watch and dive into. I announce the Movie of the Week in advance so you can watch too, and I’m hoping to kick off a discussion by sharing my thoughts on the film on Movie Mondays.
Why This Film?
New Orleans is a city unlike any other. It’s a city which many words are insufficient to describe, but for now I’ll stick with vibrant. It starts with the people, and then there’s the music, the food, and so much more. During our stint there last week, I was inspired to look into some of the most notable New Orleans films. There are many titles of note related to the Big Easy, including (not surprisingly) The Big Easy, King Creole, The Princess and the Frog, and Interview with a Vampire.
So with no shortage of options for this Movie of the Week, I decided to go with a film that is widely considered to be one of the best of all time: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). The film received numerous accolades with four Academy Awards wins (including best actress, best supporting actress, and best supporting actor) and is listed on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 movies at number 47. Even though I’d heard of this film and seen it referenced in pop culture, I’d never actually seen it. And now that I have, I can see why it’s considered one of the all-time greats (though it’s not always enjoyable to watch what’s playing out on the screen).
Summary
Directed by Elia Kazan and adapted from the Tennessee WIlliams pulitzer prize winning play of the same name, the film tells the story of Blanche DuBois (played by Vivian Leigh) after moving in with her sister, Stella Kowalksi (played by Kim Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (played by Marlon Brando) in New Orleans. Blanche is a middle-aged school-teacher who claims to be on leave from her job due to her nerves and is haunted by the death of her husband when she was younger. Her sister is happy to host her, but the brutish Stan is put-off by her high-class mannerisms and skeptical of her story.
He rummages through Blanche’s belongings thinking she is hiding money from them, but Blanche’s papers show that the family estate was indeed lost to foreclosure. One night during a poker game, Stanley strikes Stella in a drunken outburst and later pleads with her to forgive him and return, which she does. Blanche wants Stella to leave Stanley, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Blanche strikes up a romance with Stanley’s more well-mannered friend, Mitch (Karl Malden).
Months pass and the tension between Blanche and Stanley has grown, and Stanley has been investigating Blanche’s past. Mitch and Blanche near the point of an engagement until Stanley finds that Blanche had a history of promiscuity and a relationship with an underage student that cost her her teaching position. Stella is upset with Stanley for trying to ruin Blanche’s relationship, and then she goes into labor. Mitch confronts Blanche and their romance ends, and later Stanley returns from the hospital to find Blanche fantasizing about a better future. He antagonizes her before physically attacking her. Blanche is left in a severely disturbed mental state, and it is implied that Stanley raped her. Due to these events, Stella has Blanche committed to a mental institution and decides to take her baby and leave Stanley with no intention to return.
Overall Impressions
Overall, this film took me by surprise. Perhaps I haven’t watched enough older films so my impression is inaccurate, but I was surprised at how dark it was. We’re faced with issues like mental health, domestic violence, suicide, and rape all in a movie rated PG! In any case, once I settled in to exactly what kind of a movie this was going to be, I was able to appreciate the film for many reasons including the integration of its setting, the standout performances, the brilliant writing, and the character-focused story it told. I’m going to get into each of those in turn.
Setting
As I said, this film was chosen in conjunction with our travels to New Orleans. It was fascinating to see how the city was portrayed in this film from 1951. There are some similarities even to the modern day, such as the hustle and bustle you feel from the very outset, as a flustered Blanche makes her way into the French Quarter. There’s people, music, and energy all around. It’s hectic for her as it would be for any out-of-town visitor who didn’t know what to expect. And this immediately indicates to the audience that our main character is a fish-out-of-water here. She’s flustered by her new surroundings, the city, the neighborhood, and her sister’s home. Unlike many films, where the setting may only be a backdrop and little more, here it is highlighted to help tell the story.
One quote in particular stood out to me. When Blanche is talking to the young boy who comes by before she goes out with Mitch, she speaks wistfully and asks “Don’t you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour–but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands–and who knows what to do with it?” She’s nostalgic, she yearns for more time, she is attracted to his youth and perhaps missing her own, and calling out New Orleans’ ability to slow-down time helps to convey that.
Of course, this is based on a stage play from the 1940s, so there is much more missing from this depiction of the city than what one experiences in reality. Needless to say, this is not a full and accurate representation of the residents of the city, nor the scale of its size, nor the depth of its culture. But it was great to see how the setting played a role in the story.
Performances
With legendary actors like Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando, you have to talk about the performances in this film. You can really feel that this movie is based on a play. It’s dialogue heavy and most of the scenes take place in one location – in and around the Kowalski home. So the film is anchored by the writing (which I’ll get to below) and, of course, the performances. Ultimately, it’s the ensemble’s ability to feel truly human as they struggle through complicated, tense, and tragic developments in their relationships that elevates this film.
The fact that Vivian Leigh can really act is no secret. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her iconic performances as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and here as Blanche DuBois. She brought not just talent but also experience to this role, as she had already played Blanche on stage in London’s West End in 1949. Her performance here is captivating. Blanche is a complicated character, mixing sincerity, deception, anxiety, instability, despair, hope, and – dare I say – desire, among other things. And Leigh is able to deliver all of this in a way that shows us a full picture of her character, where the portrayal could have otherwise felt disjointed and lost.
One scene I want to highlight is the final confrontation with Stanley, when she finally confesses the truth about her past. Up until this point, we’d seen her do many things, but always preserving some part of her act. She had never let down her guard and fully expressed her true self. When she revealed her secrets out loud, confirming to Stanley that she did indeed have the sordid past he discovered, you can hear the inflection and tone of her voice change as well. She’s not wistful, and she drops the high-class persona. She’s more direct and aggressive and her face and voice reflect this.
This performance allows the audience to see, feel, and internalize – not just through her words – the dramatic turn of events that unfolds as she confirms Stanley’s suspicions. It also evokes a sense of dread in the audience because we know just how monstrous Stanley can be when provoked, and up until this point, Blanche had used her lies and stories to defuse at least some of the tension.
And that gets us back to Marlon Brando as Stanley. He’s not the biggest person, but he’s so physically dominant and imposing in every scene he’s in. He sells us on at once being charming and crude, being attractive and repulsive.
Early on, we, along with Blanche, are drawn in by what I found to be a curious moment of female-gaze – curious because so much of film (even today) is dominated by the male-gaze on women, and this is a film from 1951. Blanche appears to be quite intrigued when Stanley comes home and takes off his sweaty shirt, but she’s quickly disillusioned by his thuggish nature, which Brando completely owns.
Still, the film’s iconic moment, where Stanley yells out for Stella after having beaten her, only works because the audience can’t completely hate Stanley and cast him aside as simply a monster serving no other purpose than to antagonize other characters. And it’s honestly a bit uncomfortable for that reason. But I think that’s part of the point. Brando allows us to sympathize for Stella not just as a victim of Stanley’s physical abuse, but also as a victim of his allure. When she returns to him in that moment, we can see and feel why.
Brando also excels at keeping the rage in check and unleashing it in an instant to shock the audience. Early on, when he is rummaging through Blanche’s things looking for answers and she approaches him fishing for compliments, he’s just not giving in. He says she looks okay and just seems to be skeptical of her, but then suddenly he just erupts without warning. We immediately understand that we have a character who’s a volcano. His volatility keeps the audience on their toes.
Both Kim Hunter and Karl Malden delivered Oscar-winning performances as well, and they are well-deserved accolades, but I won’t get into more detail about their performances here because I could go on all day.
Writing
I do also want to commend the writing. It’s so evident that this is an adaptation of a pulitzer prize winning play. Not only is the story complex, emotional, and distinctly human, but also there were simply moments where I had to step back and appreciate certain lines.
One example is the quote I mentioned earlier about New Orleans: “Don’t you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour–but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands–and who knows what to do with it?” Notwithstanding any deeper meaning, this is just beautifully written.
Another standout moment was the scene where Blanche recalls the loss of her former husband to Mitch. “When I was sixteen” she says “I made the discovery – love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck the world for me.” And when he died and the love was gone, she says, “the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again.” That just hits hard. The feeling of intense, young love, the tragic loss, and the sudden and intense emotions associated with both are expertly conveyed by this writing. And this excellent writing serves the film throughout.
Characters
The story forces the audience to grapple with issues of family relationships, abuse, mental health, trauma, and more. This movie could simply be described as watching one man torment two women, but that wouldn’t capture the full story. We’re watching a character study on individuals who are dealing with different demons in different ways.
Stanley is a portrait of toxic masculinity. He’s insecure and takes out his frustrations on his wife and anyone or anything else around. He says he’s the king of his castle and can’t stand being criticized or spoken to in any way he sees as disrespectful. His famous cries for Stella show that he does fear losing her and seems to even be dependent on her, but that’s what makes him so dangerous. He draws her in and deceives her into thinking they are happy. He even tries to blame Blanche’s presence for their marital issues. Ultimately, he’s an abusive and violent person at his core. Even when he is right – discovering Blanche’s lies and true history – he uses that to tear her down even further, take advantage of her weak mental state, and – worst of all – rape her.
Blanche is a person who is trying to desperately to run away from her past. She’s haunted by it. We see the recurring theme of lights to show that she wants to remain in the shadow of the reality she’s crafted for as long as possible. She wants to put a shade on the light in her room. She only goes out in the evenings with Mitch. She says that being in love was like casting a blinding light on the world that went out after her husband’s tragic end. And when Mitch finally confronts her, he – or rather the truth – force her into the light. And it’s in this moment and after, when she can no longer hide in the shadows of her half-truths, that she reckons with her actual reality and begins to fully breakdown. Combined with the trauma inflicted on her by Stanley, she simply can’t bear it. Her story is a tragedy.
Meanwhile, Stella finally can come to terms with the reality that Stanley can’t possibly love her. Perhaps before she could justify his violence and aggression and return to him if he begged forgiveness and said he loved her and that he was wrong. But how could she possibly do so now that he had done the unforgivable to her sister while she was giving birth to their child? She too was forced to face the reality of her life and finally walk away from Stanley for good. Though I will say the ending was ambiguous enough, with her simply going upstairs to Eunice’s apartment like the last time, that she could still return this time as well. Viewed this way, the ending is even more tragic.
Final Thoughts
A Streetcar Named Desire is definitely a film that stands the test of time. Anchored by brilliant writing and excellent performances, the film tells a tragic story that can transcend generations by asking audiences to grapple with serious issues that are human at their core.
I want to leave a couple of questions about our two complicated main characters. First, what’s your take on Stanley Kowalski – is he just a monster or something more? And what about Blanche – do you completely sympathize with her or do you think her actions in any way contributed to her outcome? And one last, more general question – do you think this film is appropriately regarded among the best of all time? Other thoughts?
Let me know in the comments or @rvleaguers on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Thanks again for checking this out, and come back next week when we’ll be discussing, as I’m sure you guessed, Avengers Endgame! Happy Avengers week!