Review of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) by Mitchell S — 12 Jul 2017

Mike Nichols' original masterpiece, as much a horror as it was a comedy and a literary tragedy. This movie forced American cinema to grow up and embrace not only darker subtext and more profane subject mater, but also morally ambiguous concepts. While I'm sure Edward Albee didn't invent literary comprehension on screen, the creative team here certainly were the first to pioneer the concept to Hollywood - still stuck in the golden era.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was not only controversial for its day (one of the movies that helped bury the Hayes Code) but also a wonderfully warped mind trip that is still shocking almost 50 years after the fact. The movie has multiple layers of depraved entertainment; it is a marriage farce, a battle of old time wits (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at their most imprudent), a coarse perspective of relationship counseling, and of course, it has a plot twist so brutal, you'll never play games at the dinner table again. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has two things going for it: it's based on a play by Edward Albee (the best scripted films are always based on plays) and it's directed by Mike Nichols who has an enormous sensitivity when he's directing couples on screen. This PG rated drama is still the most disturbed thing you'll see in any given month.

What I Learned: I really think Edward Albee and Mike Nichols' creation is where I got some of my harsh and caustic wit. Of course, I always thought really disturbed and funny things in my own head, but until Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf I never knew it could be so deliciously fun to torment people with using only your quick-witted mind. There was great sadism in this sarcasm and it helped me realize there is no need to bite your tongue-at least not in art.