A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Just perfect...

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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!

Blanche is no more neurotic than the rest of the mumbling characters, but the most vulnerable (not having enough income to be able to get her own apartment), so it is she that gets marked to be the scapegoat, and gets carted off to a "mental hospital" at the end.Before that climax, you see a troop of impossibly over-emotional people yelling and throwing things. I thought I was watching a nature film about chimpanzees.

Brando's pleading wail "Stella! Hey, Stella!" (#45 of AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list) is just one of the many great lines in this essential Tennessee Williams drama; another is Vivien Leigh's "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers" (#75 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list).Directed by Elia Kazan, Williams's screenplay earned him the first of his two Oscar nominations for Writing (he received his second for his only other collaboration with the director five years later, Baby Doll (1956)). Kazan, who received his second Best Director nomination, would win his second Oscar on his third (of five) Best Director nomination three years later with his Oscar winning Best Picture On the Waterfront (1954), which also features actor Karl Malden. In fact Malden, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in this film, would receive his only other Oscar nomination for his Supporting role in On the Waterfront (1954). I'm guessing the playwright and the actor have nothing but nice things to say about their director.The love story is between Stanley Kowalski (Brando, who received his first Best Actor nomination) and his wife Stella (Kim Hunter, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar on her only nomination). Stella is pregnant with their first child when her older sister Blanche DuBois (Leigh, who earned her second Best Actress Oscar on her second nomination; the other was for Gone With the Wind (1939)) comes to visit.Blanche is a destitute Southern Belle who finds Stanley to be too crude for her tastes, even as his animalistic sexual energy overwhelms her. Stanley thinks Blanche is a phony, and begins checking up on her story, finding financial malfeasance and more in her recent past. Malden plays a card playing buddy of Brando's that believes Blanche is the idealistic, refined lady of the South she pretends to be, until he learns otherwise.In addition to Leigh, Malden, and Hunter, this Best Picture nominated film's B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration also won an Oscar; its B&W Cinematography and Costume Design also received nominations as did its Dramatic Score and Sound Recording. #45 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list. #67 on AFI's 100 Greatest Love Stories list. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1999. #19 on AFI's Top 25 Film Scores list.

For two hours I desired to jump into the screen and strangle one of my favorite actresses. I think Vivien Leigh was bit kook, cause something like this can not be completely faked. One of the most deserved Oscars I have ever seen. All 4 leading actors were nominated and only Brando didn't win it. I consider him one of the greatest actors of all time and his performance here definitely is on the level of Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. I'm most sorry that Tennessee Williams didn't win the Oscar for screenplay, cause story of this depth and strength is rarely seen in movies. Mandatory for all film lovers.............................