A Streetcar Named Desire

Synopsis:

Um...I'm still not sure what this movie is about.  Apparently it's about a crazy delusional woman who goes to live with her sister and the sisters abusive husband.  I think.  You may want to look it up.

Review:

I don't get this movie.  I am so glad I never wasted the money to sit through a theatrical production of it.  But I just don't get the hype.  Why is this so popular?

What I can say about this is that I loved Vivien Leigh as the delusional woman.  I mean LOVED her.  It actually took me quite a while to realize that that was her.  I knew going in that she was in the movie, but the only real experience I had with her was from Gone With the Wind and this is a pretty good departure from that.  Marlon Brando does well at playing the bad-guy, abusive husband who keeps no secrets about not wanting the sister around.

The problem I have with this comes from the story-line.  It doesn't seem to go anywhere.  It's more of a day-in-the-life type movie and that might be where my confusion is coming in.  I never really understand those types of movies.  But I find myself still wondering what caused the sisters mind to warp   She came into the story already messed up and we discover she is there due to losing the family home, but throughout the movie certain things come up that you think are delusions just to find out they're not and think things are true just to discover they're false.  It makes it hard to really figure out what it was that fractured this girls mind and it seems that that is a very important part of the story.

The other problem I have with this is the violence and how the neighbors are so accepting of it.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that years ago it was normal for a man to beat his wife and for everyone to just brush it off because it was accepted, but they handle it in a very confusing way.  Fist the husband goes nuts and everyone tries to stop him form hitting his wife.  Then they all just give up and go home.  Then the wife goes back to the husband and complains about how he hits her, then makes excuses for him.  Then everyone tries to stop him again.  I know that stuff like that happens in real-life abusive relationships, it's just the way it is played out in this movie.  Almost like when the writers couldn't think of what to put in there they just threw in a beating and then back-peddled in the next scene because it didn't fit.

Without giving away too much, I will say that at the end of the movie there is an insinuated rape.  That makes this the first movie to get my "Rape" tag.  Just to warn you.  They don't actually show anything, you just hear her screaming, but the next scene confirms that that is what has taken place.

Kid safe:  I would have to say no.  Although there is no nudity or foul language, the subject matter is at times disturbing and the way the women are treated is not the kind of thing I would want my daughter to think is acceptable or my son to think is an okay treatment of women.  Plus, insinuated or graphic, I will never suggest a movie with any type of rape for children of any age to watch.  I'm an adult and it bothers me.

IMDB link:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044081/