Review of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) by Parker S — 08 Sep 2012

I feel obligated to watch these classics even though I don't enjoy romance films all that much. I want to experience these "fantastic" movies, but its troubling for me. One problem is my expectations.

I expect to be blown away by them, I want them to change how I think about certain genres. And second is the acting back then. Especially the women. The female characters in these 50s-70s movies are so unbearably melodramatic.

Its so irritating. They arent realistic emotions, and they arent even fun; they are just annoying. The male characters have their faults as well usually, particularly with their boring attitudes. I suppose it was the style back then to have these two complete opposites of the emotional scale on camera, but today, most of the interactions in these 50s-60s "classics" feel contrived.

This movie partly suffers from the same thing. Vivian Leigh is really annoying and stupid in this film. It doesnt matter if shes trying to act out the "craziness" of her character; her performance was a huge problem with A Streetcar Named Desire.

I seriously can not even comprehend how she won an oscar for this film. Kim Hunter completely overshadows her and she wasn't even that special! On the other hand, Marlon Brando is awesome. His performance is the polar opposite of Vivian's; cool, calm and most importantly, believable.

The whole crazy romance story is alright I guess, but then again I don't really like romances so maybe I'm not the intended audience. I would say this movie is good, but was disappointed since it is nowhere near a classic.