cat on a hot tin roof by tennessee williams

With that vivid vision in your mind the one million dollar question is why exactly did I not relish Richard Brook's take of the exceedingly dramatic, mendacitic, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'? Well, nobody particularly seemed quite at his or her best here not the writer, not the director, nor the performers. Don't ask me why but when I'm watching a dramatic or theatrical circumstance unfold through my very eyes I experience a thrill of ecstasy coursing throughout my veins, roused and ready, I feel like I'm about to explode. Melodrama is probably my favorite genre of film. 'There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity'! Even in diluted form, the story is still compelling, but I think you'd be better off reading (or seeing) the play. If you want to see Taylor really deliver, watch 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', which is night and day better. Williams' words are there (at least sometimes, and minus profanity), but they're not always delivered with the intensity they deserve. It also suffers from emotional fire in the performances.

The adaptation suffers from removal of references to homosexuality, an important part of the story, and by the addition of 'feel good' elements in the ending which I disliked (as did Williams and Newman). Tennessee Williams' play is a brilliant portrait of a family fractured by frustrations, alcohol, unfulfilled dreams, and sorrow. Personally though, I think it's overrated - reasonably good, but far from great. The combination of his blue eyes and her violet eyes alone make this film worth at least something. Paul Newman looks like a Greek God in this film, and Elizabeth Taylor is no slouch herself.

Cat on a hot tin roof by tennessee williams