(I'm home for three months. My only goals are to get fit and educate myself in books and films that I've been meaning to read and watch. Call it pretentious or whatever, I'm going to try to post here about my thoughts on the ones that leave an impact on me.)
Today's movie was A Streetcar Named Desire. I knew absolutely nothing about it before I watched it. Netflix recommended it, I downloaded it. It's black and white, and Wikipedia tells me that it's what made Marlon Brando famous.
It started off corny, with a woman getting onto an actual srtreetcar (a tram) that was named "Desire", to reach the house her sister, Stella, shared with her husband, Stanley, in the poorer part of town. Blanche duBois annoyed me. She was an obvious misfit in the Quarter, and seemed far flightier than necessary. She looked down upon the house Stella and Stanley lived in, and called Stanley common. Just pissed me off. Especially because it was obvious Stanley and Stella were in love, who cares about their run down house if they're happy together? Stella definitely didn't care. She understood Stanley under his brutish behavior and genuinely loved him. Stanley seemed like a stand up guy. Quick to anger, and uncouth, but a decent guy all around. He was madly in love with Stella, and was doing well in the factory he worked in. His friends from the factory all got together for beer and poker, and bowling from time to time. They were all loud, had love-hate relationships with there wives, and reveled in violence. Torn shirts and bruised faces were the norm. But, things were running along just fine.
As the movie progressed, complexities were revealed. Blanche obviously had problems with her mental health, triggered by a horrifying incident. Stanley beat his wife, and raped her sister. Stella always went back to him. By the time the movie ended, I was confused about my feelings for all of them.
I don't know what I learned from the movie. There seemed to be no message, apart from the fact that all the themes they covered are still very much relevant.
#1 Mental Health is considered a sissy issue. If you have anxiety, or PTSD, or any other condition, you're just to be written off. People try to help you by shouting the truth at you, and calling you a liar for imagining things. Very, very disturbing.
#2 "No, I won't marry you. You're not clean enough to take home to my mother." I don't think this needs elaboration.
#3 Rape is a way of establishing dominance; it need not be sexual.
#4 Patterns in behavior have to be broken. In the original play, Stella is comforted by Stanley and the men continue their poker game. In the movie, Stella takes her baby and vows to never return to Stanley. What is the last straw? How do you recognize it? Can people ever change their essential nature?
We live in a fucked up world. That is all.
Today's movie was A Streetcar Named Desire. I knew absolutely nothing about it before I watched it. Netflix recommended it, I downloaded it. It's black and white, and Wikipedia tells me that it's what made Marlon Brando famous.
It started off corny, with a woman getting onto an actual srtreetcar (a tram) that was named "Desire", to reach the house her sister, Stella, shared with her husband, Stanley, in the poorer part of town. Blanche duBois annoyed me. She was an obvious misfit in the Quarter, and seemed far flightier than necessary. She looked down upon the house Stella and Stanley lived in, and called Stanley common. Just pissed me off. Especially because it was obvious Stanley and Stella were in love, who cares about their run down house if they're happy together? Stella definitely didn't care. She understood Stanley under his brutish behavior and genuinely loved him. Stanley seemed like a stand up guy. Quick to anger, and uncouth, but a decent guy all around. He was madly in love with Stella, and was doing well in the factory he worked in. His friends from the factory all got together for beer and poker, and bowling from time to time. They were all loud, had love-hate relationships with there wives, and reveled in violence. Torn shirts and bruised faces were the norm. But, things were running along just fine.
As the movie progressed, complexities were revealed. Blanche obviously had problems with her mental health, triggered by a horrifying incident. Stanley beat his wife, and raped her sister. Stella always went back to him. By the time the movie ended, I was confused about my feelings for all of them.
I don't know what I learned from the movie. There seemed to be no message, apart from the fact that all the themes they covered are still very much relevant.
#1 Mental Health is considered a sissy issue. If you have anxiety, or PTSD, or any other condition, you're just to be written off. People try to help you by shouting the truth at you, and calling you a liar for imagining things. Very, very disturbing.
#2 "No, I won't marry you. You're not clean enough to take home to my mother." I don't think this needs elaboration.
#3 Rape is a way of establishing dominance; it need not be sexual.
#4 Patterns in behavior have to be broken. In the original play, Stella is comforted by Stanley and the men continue their poker game. In the movie, Stella takes her baby and vows to never return to Stanley. What is the last straw? How do you recognize it? Can people ever change their essential nature?
We live in a fucked up world. That is all.
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