Ivan Lalic Marlon Brando was THE actor of the golden age of Hollywood, but often misleading the public with his looks and not his acting. Story about a possessive love and hate relationship between him and Vivien Leigh was precisely one of those scripts that grew more ripe over the decades, still being able to shock and move the viewer even long after its protagonists were gone. Tennessee Williams was one of the most sucessfull writers to be adapted into movie scripts in that era and Elia Kazan was one of the best directors to do such a task, which resulted into 12 nominations for "oscars", including all the major categories. Acting earned 4 of those noms giving the "golden boys" to Malden, Hunter and Leigh, leading to some impeccable one-on-one scenes of pure intensity, unparalleled deep into the 21st century. If you want to watch one of the Top 10 American movie dramas of all times, you should definitely watch "A streetcar named desire".

callandobs With a screenplay by Tennessee Williams, direction from Elia Kazan and quite possibly the greatest performance ever in Vivien Leigh's Blanche DuBois- you can't go wrong. This movie is dark, gritty and, at times, disturbing in its portrayals of domestic abuse and mental illness. It's astonishing how much of a punch this movie still has after all these years. This just goes to show what a true genius Tennessee Williams really was. The characters he wrote, with all their own complexities and contradictions, and the script with its haunting poetry and now iconic lines are all classic. But what good is a great script without great actors? Well, luckily, the cast couldn't have been better. Here we have a young Marlon Brando as the brutish Stanley Kowalski, who is truly ferocious in the role. We then have Kim Hunter who gives a great performance as the weak-willed Stella. Stella is the most likeable character in the movie for all she wants is for everyone to get along. Karl Malden is equally great as Mitch, who is seemingly weak and simple and serves as a contrast to Stanley's brutality. Then we have Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois. As I said above, I believe Leigh's performance here to be the greatest ever to be committed to film and here's why- Blanche DuBois is probably one of the most complicated characters ever written. She's a compulsive liar, who lives in a world of her own, choosing to create her own reality rather than acknowledge her bleak surroundings. She's a snob, a hypocrite and a user but at the same time she's an underdog who's had a tough life and just wants to be loved. Tennessee Williams himself said of Vivien's performance that 'she brought everything I intended to the role and even much more than I had dared dream of' which pretty much sums up her performance here. She truly gives herself to the darkness of Blanche DuBois, she's unpredictable, tormented and haunting while still somehow sympathetic. Through Leigh's mastery of her character we see that Blanche is really just a daffodil in a windstorm rather than a bad person. Every time I watch this film I notice a new nuance in her performance, whether it's a look in her eye that I hadn't noticed before or a change in her voice as Blanche lets her mask slip- never has there been such a true embodiment of a character.So all this considered, with Kazan's brilliant direction, great cinematography and the unique "jazzy" score, is why I consider 'A Streetcar Named Desire' one of the greatest films ever made. It's not a film for everyone- it's heavy from the start, it's quite talky and most of the film takes place within the Kowalski's apartment but if you want a movie with brilliant acting and a dark, poetic script then there's no better film than this.

Marc Israel She's a prissy "wannabe sophisticated", but past her prime for the times, and out of men to play. He's her social opposite. He's living in the "now", won't allow dreamy non-sense to be spoken in his castle, which just happens to be a seedy basement apartment in New Orleans French Quarter. Their surrounding are cheap and that's where the confrontations begin. Vulgar and bright, is our testosterone fueled ogre, barely draped in a t shirt so tight that imdv lists it amongst its' trivia! She's a freaking nutcase who attempts to cover up the truth behind her many shameful transgression with endless blabber about a dreamworld that's just as nauseating. This is one of the best dramas I ever had the pleasure of losing myself in. Elia Kazan doesn't let you out of your small corner while you await each confrontation, yet this would have boiled over early if not for our married sister caught in the middle.Marlon Brando was absolutely brilliant and Vivien Leigh, in the later stages of her "Scarlett" genre was completely terrifying in her cover up acting inside of the characters she floated willingly down the Denial River. The sympathetic plight belongs to Kim Hunters' Stella until the censored end. Would get 10/10 if not for those who stole our script and meaning. This is a story of confrontation that could have been even more of a social juggernaut!

monsieurdreamer13 Absolute misandrist garbage! It should've been titled more appropriately thus, "SYMPATHY FOR A HARLOT". The protagonist, Blanche DuBois, is a swindler, a golddigger, a paedophile, a harlot, and a lunatic. She also drives her homosexual(not mentioned in the movie) husband to suicide. Yet all the sympathy in the movie is reserved for her because she's shown as a victim of the patriarchal society. It's the same old cry, "I wasn't bad, it's the men who made me do it." All male characters are shown as brutes/pigs and all women are shown as angels and men's victims. Compare it with the answer to this movie, Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.