Street Car Named Desire

I'm a big Brando fan, and while I enjoyed his performance in Streetcar, I didn't like the movie too much. Seemed to me like a spin off of Gone with the Wind, the "heroine" in both are played by Vivien Leigh and share very similiar backgrounds. As far as whether Kowalski raped Blanche or not, I guess its assumed he did, though the movie does a poor job of letting its viewers know what exactly is going on. What bothered me was the reactions of the people around Stanley at the end, minutes earlier they where all fine and dandy, then they are able to somehow get the impression that Kowalski raped Blanche through her crazy ramblings. All too sudden, who would believe her after they had that much rapport with Stan and barely knew Blanche. Though I guess he did rape her in the movie in an out of character drunken stupor. Like I said, I didn't like the movie very much, it made little sense. But the performances were great. Eric

you know what? i'm ashamed to say it, but i've never seen the movie or the play. i know it's great because i've seen a few minutes of it here and there and i can tell the scenes are funny and powerful. i'm going to rent it and let you know, but from the impression i got, i'm sure blanche would have slept with him if he wanted her to. he wouldn't have had to rape her. but i'll check it out one of these days and let you know what i think.

I read the play; don't do movies. It's a heavily implied offstage act, and the classes I've studied it for treat it under the assumption that it definitely happens.

kai, i just watched the dvd. it's a great film. he rapes her. that is why stella goes upstairs in the final scene and says she'll never go in there (her house) again. i saw the director's cut which may have a scene you missed. it's pretty obvious he rapes her. that's why he says 'i never touched her' to his friends. apparently blanche told everyone but no one wanted to believe her. in the 'production notes' section of the dvd it states how williams and elia kazan fought not to have the rape censored. they also tried to censor the backstory of blanche's ex being homosexual and her becoming a nympho after he dies. eric, this is a fantastic movie. perhaps when you're older you'll be able to identify with all the characters. blanche should be on our list of coolest movie characters. there were too many great lines in this. i'm going to watch it again tomorrow.

No question about it. Congratulations on discovering this great American play (and its highly satisfying film version).

I've only ever seen the musical version on The Simpsons. I'll get to the real one eventually.

Well, it's probably ambiguous to some because T. Williams didn't know too much about male-female relationships; much less the sexual aspects of it. I think he's weak here because of his homosexuality. Still, a great movie and Brando was great in most all of his movies. T. Williams wrote some other plays which I think also translated pretty well to the big screen. Just can't remember many others. did like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof though. Newman and Taylor were great.

Spoilers Included: Matador, There is plenty of room for confusion. The whole rape aspect is completely out of character for Kowalski. He is a pretty stand up guy the whole movie, and he ignores the very very subtle flirting Blanche throws at him early in the movie. And the reaction all the people, friends of the Kowlaskis at the end of the movie went from "Haha, everything is normal, were just hanging out" to turning their backs on Stanley for no apparent reason. If they had heard rape acusations earlier why would they be so jovial with Stanley before they committed Blanche. Her insane rambling made no sense, she didn't blame Stanley during her rambles, but everyone seems to know she is messed up because Stan raped her, confusing me because minutes earlier, everything was fine. I have the new DVD with all the deleted scenes include that were supposed to have all the sexual tension. Even for a film of its time, I saw very little "sexual tension", there was more of it in Casablanca a film a few years older. Also, Blanche is defenitely not someone I would add to the coolest actor/actress list, perhaps the crazy whore list. I didn't see many women, and I didn't name any because none really stand out to me aside perhaps Natalie Portman in "Leon". I just think Streetcar was a pretty weak movie aside from the performances and fail to see why it recieves so much praise. I doubt this is gonna change with age, but who knows, I'd much rather like something than dislike it, but I can't lie to myself. Eric