Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? directed by Mike Nichols starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis Rated R for language and mature themes
In the 1960's, many changes occurred in cinema. One of them was the burial of the Production Code. Once, films were limited by censors who believed in the well-being of audiences, but now, almost anything can be said in a movie. Midnight Cowboy audaciously went beyond the adult content norm, as did Easy Rider, the story of drug-wielders. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, from the controversial play, went through censorship hell before Jack Warner decided he would be true to the play's essence and keep the phrases "h**p the hostess" and "scr**" in the film. Mike Nichols and the cast quartet comprised of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis create an eerie, surrealistic film, bitter and dark.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were then at the center of a tipsy-turvy marriage and some say the two, who play an unhappily married couple in the film, didn't have to act much. I'm sure Taylor's and Burton's rocky marriage contributed to the utterly choking atmosphere between the two in the film, and the resulting performances are absolutely riveting. In the tradition of A Streetcar Named Desire, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a Broadway play before it was made into a movie. It also has a dark, shaking atmosphere like Streetcar and it also only has four principle actors.
The couple- George and Martha- in the movie is so dysfunctional. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, in one of the funnier moments in the movie, screams at George (Burton) for not knowing which film the line "What a DUMP!" is from. "You're so stupid," she quips, "it's some damned Bette Davis Warner Bros. epic!" The movie begins when George and Martha are returning home, under a moonlit sky, from one of Martha's father's parties. George is a college professor and Martha's father is the college president. At home, Martha screams and bickers at the weary George and announces, to his surprise, they are having guests. "At this time of the night?!" George yells.
The guests, Honey and Nick, are flawlessly played by Sandy Dennis and George Segal, and they are new in town. Nick is a professor in biology at the college. The night starts out with few words (they have nothing to say to each other) and then dips into a nightmare of wicked flirtation (between Martha and Nick), bitter mockery (between Martha and George), flowing alcohol, long-kept secrets, and ghoulish games. Honey and Nick are surprised at the ceaseless stream of insults the elderly, middle-aged couple throw at each other and they become ill-at-ease. They are trapped, however, in Martha and George's web of deceitful and frightening games. Honey, a frail woman, becomes sick after one of the most potent scenes in the film:
"So here I am with this FLOP, this BOG!" Martha screams, pointing at George. Martha is playing a game with him- to see what will make him snap. He does, breaking a glass bottle on the bar and, to drain out the noise of Martha's voice, sings loudly "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" while dancing and twirling with the very drunk Honey.
The film is basically in three acts- the first one just mentioned, the second one where more games are played at an empty dancing club, and the huge finale involving Martha and George's marriage-long illusion of a son. We have learned that both couples have an inability to reproduce- Martha has created the image of a son in her mind, she has kept up with this game throughout her failed marriage. Nick is impotent and Honey is frightened of childbirth.
Haskell Wexler's phenomenal black-and-white cinematography only heightens the emotions on this non-stop two-hour roller coaster. He uses a hand-held camera much of the time and telling close-ups. He uses shadows, creating a dream-like state for some of the reality-fantasy sequences. The shakiness of his camera makes us feel we are looking through the eyes of the four characters as they go through this inferno, this earthquake of a night which begins after midnight and ends at dawn.
The performances are very smart and well-done, especially the two leads'. Elizabeth Taylor, in her finest performance, her Hamlet, gained twenty pounds to play Martha alongside her-then husband Richard Burton. She is flaming, red-hot madness: loving George one minute, and pounding him the next. She has so many memorable scenes and never have I seen such a raging performance from her. Richard Burton is not to be outdone- he has quiet moments in the film which are his best. His character, George, has a softness that Martha tries to take advantage of and make fun of. George Segal is very good as Nick, the perplexed, naïve new professor and Sandy Dennis goes from soft-spoken to a loud drunk in the film and it is absolutely fascinating.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? could almost be called a war film. It has the psychological twists and turns of Streetcar but, here, it seems Elizabeth Taylor is the barbaric Marlon Brando and Richard Burton is the timid, ruined Vivien Leigh. The film has been called a black comedy, and though so many scenes scream a humorous irony and preposterousness, there isn't much that is funny about this difficult drama. Mike Nichols is like Elia Kazan here, pulling out every ounce of emotion from his actors. The anger of the film is unsettling and depressing, like Streetcar's, and the movie feels stagy during many parts of the film. But I have never been moved more by Mr. Nichols, nor have I seen such a well-put-together cast for a long time.
By Andrew Chan
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