1958 movieRating: 16/20 (Jen: 16/20)
Plot: Big Daddy, a wealthy plantation owner, is the big birthday boy. He returns from a trip to enjoy some time with his two sons--firstborn Gooper and favorite Brick. Unfortunately for Big Daddy, somebody sent him the worst birthday present of all time--cancer. Before Big Daddy's return, Brick decides to try to impress the ghost of his late friend Skipper with whom he enjoyed a long homoerotic relationship, and he drunkenly breaks his leg while jumping over hurdles at a high school track. Everybody argues about various things. Maggie humps Brick's broken leg.
The first third of this movie is dominated by an argument between Brick and Maggie and it's got a lot of things working for it. First, the performers are good looking. People like to see good looking people. Second, the good looking people are Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, and they're pretty good actors at the top of their game here. Third, the dialogue is crisp and caustic and dynamic and charged. I loved Brick's answer to his niece's question about why he's on the floor. "Cause I tried to kill your aunt Maggie." Finally (the "thing working for it" that I'm probably making up), I really like how the architecture and decor of the room is ingeniously used to visually represent this tension between the two, a tension that, since this all begins in medias res, the audience has no way of comprehending. I really dig how line, color contrasts, lighting, and mirrors are used to show the detachment between the husband and wife. It's great stuff. Overall, there's almost too much going on in this. The conflicts get as cluttered as Big Daddy's basement. Oh, and speaking of Big Daddy, out of all the strong performances in Cat, Burl Ives' performance as the patriarch is my favorite. And the guy just oozes sexuality! I sometimes have difficulty staying focused with play adaptations, but this dialogue-heavy movie is never boring. I don't like the title very much though. I would have called it My Leg Is Broken and My Nephew Has No Neck so Pass Me My Drink, Big Daddy or Gooper, Whoever Is the Closest to Said Drink. Maybe that's why I don't write plays.
Funny (or sad) that I never noticed the decor or it's relevance to the story. I'll pay attention next (the 20th) time.
ReplyDeleteI love this movie, and am happy that you liked it. It is one of the most literate films I have seen, and unlike many Williams adaptations, I feel like it never goes too far. The charisma of the three leads is incredible, and the diagolue blows me away (the line from Ives about being a hero and how most only get their name in the paper when they die is one of my favorite lines, ever). This has been a top-10ish film for me since the first time I saw it 25+ years ago. A 20. Thanks for checking it out.
Replacement: "Breaker Morant"
diagolue?
ReplyDeleteCool. I have that one taped. I have 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' sitting around, too.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, the decor thing was likely only in my head. It just seemed like there was always a color, a sharp line, or something else in between the two. Or one character in a mirror and the other not. They were always filmed visually detached even when they were just a couple feet apart.