Review of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) by Nicole R — 14 Sep 2009

I think the way the audience feels about Brando is best summarized in Kim Hunter's line: "He was smashin' up the place, but I was... kind of thrilled by it." Stanley Kowalski is a force of nature, careening through life with little regard for the opinions of others, but the movie forces us to ask whether his more conventional counterparts are any more civilized.

There is also his undisguised love for his wife, and an obvious yearning toward cultivation (his constant references to the "Napoleonic Code"). Vivien Leigh's Blanche is a hollow, delicate, broken shell, and the pathos is increased by the parallels to the actress herself, who cut a rather tragic figure in the Golden Age of Hollywood.