1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- A Streetcar Named Desire

#245- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter
Directed by: Elia Kazan


Plot Summary: Blanche DuBois is a southern belle with delusions of grandeur who pays a visit to her sister Stella Kowalski and her husband Stanley in New Orleans. Blanche comes with bad news that her family's plantation, Belle Reve, was lost. Blanche also says that she's taken a leave of absence from her job as an English teacher to clear her nerves. Stanley doesn't believe Blanche and is determined to find out the truth at any cost. Blanche is not thrilled about Stanley's "common" behavior, including his verbal and physical abuse towards Stella, who, unknown by Stanley, is pregnant. One of Stanley's friends, Mitch, takes a liking to Blanche, even though Stanley disapproves of it. When Stanley finally learns the truth about Blanche's past, he uses it to his advantage in order to bring Blanche's extended stay in his home to an end.


And now for a film choice that was inspired through school (perish the thought considering it's summer). During the Fall semester last year, I read "A Streetcar Named Desire," a critically acclaimed play written by Tennessee Williams that was later adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Marlon Brando. I really enjoyed reading the play, so I was very excited to watch the film version when the semester was coming to an end. Unfortunately, we didn't finish the entire movie (we had about 20 minutes left when class ended on the final day), so I knew I needed to re-watch A Streetcar Named Desire soon in order for the proximity of my thoughts to make it in review form.

Marlon Brando stars as Stanley Kowalski, in one of the most important roles of his career. Stanley is an absolutely detestable character, with an aggressive personality and violent temper that leads to many moments of abuse within his home. An important theme used with his character is that he is labelled common, and that the attraction to him is primal, which is definitely notable once you have him played by an amazingly charismatic actor like Marlon Brando. Brando is one of acting's all-time greats, so it's almost frustrating to see a character this despicable have a natural charm to him. It doesn't excuse any of his actions, but you can't help but notice that intangible quality to him that an actor like Brando can give Stanley. Plus, he knows how to win the heart of his wife back, by screaming her name out in the rain.

Blanche DuBois, Stanley's sister-in-law, is played by Vivien Leigh. Leigh was the only cast member out of the four leads that did not reprise her role from the original stage adaptation, but you wouldn't get that impression watching it. Leigh has natural chemistry with each of the main characters, and does a fantastic job of playing Blanche as a woman who looks to have her head in the clouds, but means well in the process. Of course, there's a lot more to Blanche than meets the eye (no, she's not a Transformer), which many of the other characters find out along the way. Stanley doesn't trust Blanche for a second and so their tension is a crucial aspect of the film. It doesn't lead to the greatest of endings for Blanche (I'll give you a hint and say that it basically happens to her when she played Scarlett O'Hara), but it allows her to serve as a martyr-like character, with the event being an important catalyst that leads to some karma-heavy resolution for Stanley.

Kim Hunter plays Stanley's wife, Stella. Like Blanche, Stella is the kind of character who is a natural free spirit, but feels confined where she is thanks to her controlling husband. Hunter does a fine performance, but there's something that's somewhat irritating about the character of Stella (most likely the annoyance of how often she goes back to Stanley when she clearly shouldn't). The audience knows what's best for Stella, and the baby that she's pregnant with, and it isn't with Stanley, so we want her and Blanche to get out of there. But I guess if that were to happen, we wouldn't have that iconic scene of Stanley yelling "Hey STELLA!"

Harold "Mitch" Mitchell is Stanley's friend and Blanche's love interest, played by Karl Mulden. Mulden's performance is pretty good, as he is able to make Mitch feel genuine when he's with Blanche, but also cowardly whenever Stanley is around. It's clear that he wants to be happy, but also doesn't want to step on his friend's toes, especially with the temper that Stanley has. I think almost everyone has a friend like Mitch, and in many cases are like Mitch himself. At least, that's how his character is for majority of the film. Once Stanley gets involved in unraveling Blanche's past, Mitch reacts with bitterness towards Blanche, which is understandable since he's the kind of character to wear his heart on his sleeve. He loved and trusted what Blanche was putting out there as the "real" her, and when her past conflicted, he didn't know how to react to this version of Blanche.

For the first time in a while, I have done a review where I actually analyze all the crucial main characters in depth. Part of that comes from the fact that this is a character piece adapted from the stage to the screen. Since my biggest passion is film and I spent all four years of high school in the theater program, I have a large appreciation for a film like A Streetcar Named Desire that is able to make its film adaptation resemble the stage production. Not only are all four main characters performed well, but the entire film is primarily set within the tight confines of their apartment, making the whole film feel like a "bottle episode" (go look it up, or watch the Community episode where they define the term). The use of space creates a tense area, and accentuates the performances that much further. I would love to go see an actual stage adaptation of "A Streetcar Named Desire" to compare which version, stage or film, was able to do it better.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

This is a film that should be remembered through the quality of acting performances, primarily through Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. A Streetcar Named Desire is a film that I recommend for all fans of movies, particularly good acting, to check out at least once.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review 

A Streetcar Named Desire and movie images are copyrighted by Warner Bros.