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Cat on a Hot Tin RoofRating:
Release Date: 06 November, 2001 Retail Price: $19.97 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (18 total) |
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Reviews
There's An Elephant In The Room
This screen version of Tennessee Williams' play CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF was quite a success upon its release in 1958, earning Academy Award nominations for both Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie) and Paul Newman (Brick). Maggie and Brick are childless-- sleeping together was a requirement in those days for children to be conceived; these two do not do that anymore. Brick spends most of his time drinking while Maggie pleads for him to stop, to love her, to bed her, etc. Big Daddy (Burl Ives), who is worth about ten million dollars, at 65 is dying with cancer. His other son and daughter-in-law have reproduced themselves five times ("no-necked monsters" according to Maggie)and have another in the oven. If Brick is to inherit some of his father's money, he needs to be both sober and a father. He and Maggie are pitted against his brother and wife. Additionally there is his relationship with his father or lack thereof. Although the word wasn't catchy in 1958, there's obviously more than enough dysfunctionality to go around here.
There is also an elephant in the room bigger than Big Daddy: what really was going on between Brick and his best friend Skipper who committed suicide for unknown reasons. This adaptation of the Williams play doesn't make much sense as to their relationship. They were friends, Brick only started drinking upon Skipper's death, and now won't sleep with Maggie. Since Ms. Taylor as Maggie was at the height of her incomparable beauty in 1958, that Brick does not find her sexually attractive is difficult to comprehend, given what the audience is told. The irony of all of this is that much is made about dishonesty ("mendacity") throughout the film. Certainly the writer here is less than forthright about what really went on between Skipper and Brick.
Mr. Williams it is said did not like this film at all. He wrote the screen play for a later version that spells out that Skipper and Brick were in love with each other but that Brick rejected such a relationship, and Skipper then committed suicide. The plot at last makes sense.
This version suffers from too much talk-- often loud talk; additionally the no-neck monsters are little more than caricatures of children. The film is saved, however, with the acting of Newman, Taylor and Ives, particularly Mr. Newman. It is also interesting to see how far movies have come in almost 50 years as to what can be discussed frankly by writers.
48 years later . . .
. . . this movie looks quite different than when it first came out. Now watching it on my big screen TV in remastered DVD digital clarity in my late fifties, I experienced an entirely new view of it. Some of it hits more passionately in the more intimate setting of your own living room but some of it shows up poor directing of this all star cast especially towards the end when Maggie, Brick and Big Daddy are dissecting the suicide of Brick's football buddy and Big Daddy's impending demise due to cancer. There are moments when they seem to be discussing something benign like where to go on vacation instead of the life and death issues they are facing in William's classic. Cast fatigue? Director collapse? This notwithstanding, the quality of the DVD is excellent. Now if we could only have the same quality video capture of the Broadway production . . .
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