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Movies / On DVD / A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

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Reviews Counted:46

Fresh:45

Rotten:1

Average Rating:8.5/10

Rated: 15

Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:14-11-2008

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a former... Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a former prostitute who visits her sister only to be taunted mercilessly by her childish brother-in-law. Academy Award Nominations: 12, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Screeplay. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter), and Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden). The director's cut contains three minutes of previously censored footage. [More]

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Wright King, Richard Garrick

Director: Elia Kazan

Director: Elia Kazan
Producer: Charles K. Feldman
Screenwriter: Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul
Composer: Alex North

[See More Credits]

Reviews for A Streetcar Named Desire

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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One of the most potent productions of the post-war years.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/01/07
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Between them Kasan, Brando and Leigh take all the blood, sweat and tears of Williams' text and create one of the most potent productions of the post-war years.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/14/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...Kazan achieves a sort of theatrical intensity in which the sweaty realism sometimes clashes awkwardly with the stylisation that heightens the dialogue into a kind of poetry.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The blistering sexual repression is the entire point of the 1950s. Quite simply, fabulous.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
11/14/08
James Christopher
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Simply a masterful adap of Tennessee Williams' sultry, searing play and an affirmation of Marlon Brando's acting genius.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
11/14/08
Jane Crowther
Jane Crowther
Total Film

The film is perhaps best regarded as an intelligent and engaged recreation of the original Broadway experience, in which Jessica Tandy first played the role. There's no denying the awful horror and pity of the final scene.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
11/14/08
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
09/27/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

it's a close-to-definitive example of how to make a great play work on film, for all the very slight air of Hollywood compromise.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
11/14/08
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's an inevitable staginess to Tennessee Williams' devastating portrait of delusion and cruelty, but director Elia Kazan catches the squalid, claustrophobic atmosphere of a New Orleans tenement just right.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment 2 Comments
11/14/08
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

This faithful picturization of Tennessee Williams' grim and depressing drama of Southern decadence will shock many regular picturegoers just as it will be widely praised and discussed by sophisticated patrons.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/05/02
Boxoffice Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A Streetcar Named Desire features some of the finest ensemble acting ever offered on the screen, speaking some Williams's most vivid dialogue.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/28/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The camera has done greater justice to the Williams play, catching the nuances and reflected tragedy with an intimacy that is so vital in a story of this type.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
02/13/01
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Has a permanent place amongst the classics, not only for the performances but for Tennessee Williams' raw writing about people raw with pain, fear, longing and complicated feelings

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
02/20/09
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

No review available.

comment Comment
08/01/02
Bob Grimm
Bob Grimm
Las Vegas Mercury

Inner torments are seldom projected with such sensitivity and clarity on the screen.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/18/02
Brian J. Arthurs
Brian J. Arthurs
Beach Reporter (Southern California)

No review available.

comment Comment
04/16/04
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

The powerful performances remain untarnished by time.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

This is a film about passion, and the movie positively oozes it.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
04/10/06
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

No review available.

comment Comment
11/04/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

Latest News for A Streetcar Named Desire

August 12, 2008: Taylor Hackford Revisits Tennessee Williams' Early Years Opens in new window
Taylor Hackford has signed on to direct Tenn, a Robin Shushan-scripted drama about the formative years of playwright Tennessee Williams. More...

June 22, 2007: AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...

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