Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

JohnHowardReid Its initial U.S./Canadian rentals gross of $4.8 million propelled Streetcar into second place (behind M-G-M's Show Boat) for the title of America's most popular film of 1951. Surprisingly, - after all it did star England's Vivien Leigh, - the picture rated nowhere in the U.K. list of the forty most successful pictures of 1952. In Australia, however, the movie scored 18th position.COMMENT: An engrossing drama, vigorously acted, with superb cinematography and effects. Although the action is mostly confined to the play's tenement setting, director Kazan has handled it so cinematically we are never ever aware that we are watching a photographed stage play. The movie's numerous awards were all well deserved. In fact, I thought that Brando losing to Bogart's captivating but hardly world-shaking performance in The African Queen was an amazing misjudgment on the part of Academy voters. Another brilliant piece of acting in the movie was that of Karl Malden - and it fortunately was acknowledged. In fact, his award made his career, whereas the equally lauded Kim Hunter fell victim to self-promoting Senator Joe McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee.

Leofwine_draca Like THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is one of the most famous films of its era and a film that seems to be incredibly ahead of its time. It's a low budget effort, crisply shot and directed, and a film that simmers with power and sexual tension. An ageing Vivian Leigh gives an excellent performance as the washed-up Blanche DuBois and her character has the kind of depth rarely found in cinema. Marlon Brando matches her in a breakout performance on which he would later build with ON THE WATERFRONT. For a character piece, this is a film packed with memorable interludes and hard-hitting conversations.

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.

blanche-2 "A Streetcar Named Desire" from 1951 is a brilliant adaptation of the Broadway play that catapulted Marlon Brando to superstardom. The performances in this film are formidable.There is talk on this board of Leigh's classic style of acting versus the "method" acting of the rest of the cast, but somehow it all works beautifully. Leigh's Blanche has all the frailty and disillusionment necessary to the character, as well as the sweetness and flirtatiousness. It is a delicate, soft, heartbreaking performance. We can see her disintegrate before our eyes, first after Mitche's total destruction of her emotionally, and then Stanley's destruction of her physically.Marlon Brando, with his bulging muscles and macho style, is the epitome of the new, non-class-conscious South, the swaggering man with the bad temper and the strong sexual hold he has on his wife. His performance needs to be appreciated as it was in the time period with all the handsome, heroic, classic leading men, well spoken, and wearing tuxes. Enter this walking, talking, overt sex machine, a real macho man with his mumbling voice, tousled hair, t-shirt, and major attitude. It was a shock. It was even a shock to Tennessee Williams, since the main character is supposed to be Blanche. It wasn't on Broadway.Here, Elia Kazan's skillful direction and the magnificent acting brings the play into balance and shows the new south obliterate the old south of jasmine perfume, pretty frocks, and class distinctions.Someone said Leigh's Blanche was an extension of Scarlett O'Hara had we seen her age. But Scarlett was one who changed with the times. In what was left of her mind, Blanche was stuck in the old days of manners, flirtation, and gentleman callers.An incredible play, a beautiful film, even with the slightly softened ending. Because we know Stella will return to Stanley, no matter what he did to her sister. The game, after all, is "seven-card stud," the last words in the play. In that game four out of seven cards are exposed to other players. Like the game, certain aspects of human nature, such as cruelty, remain hidden. Poker is based on the ability to bluff. Stella is also trapped in a world of fantasy, perhaps even more so than her sister.