Watching the film really gave me a much better insight as to how Williams intended to portray the characters. Blanche for example was really crazy in the film. When I was reading the play, I did not think that she was all that crazy. Just watching her eyes and the way they would roll and look like they came out of her head made her look like a mass murderer.
When I read the play, I felt bad for Blanche after her sister made her out to be a liar and sent her to an institution. After watching the film, I do not really care if Blanche was raped or not, she needed to be sent to an asylum. However, I think that Stella, Stanley, and Mitch needed to join her there. All four characters were made to appear insane in the film. I did not find that to be the case while reading the play.
The reading made the situations and characters seem more realistic and natural. The film however really showed the characters "acting." Everything we saw seemed forced and very fake. I think that this took away from the play. Mitch for example played a very fake role. When he danced up to the door, it just did not seem to fit the situation. If a guy I had just met was coming to take me out for the first time and he came dancing up to the door like some sort of clown, I would close the door in his face. When I read the play, I did not think that Mitch was crazy or as immature as he was portrayed to be in the film. He seemed very responsible and mature in the reading.
One good thing that the film did as far as portraying characters was with Stanley. He was a pig, and Blanche had every right to compare him to an animal. The only times we ever saw him without food in his mouth was when he was fighting, or being abusive. When I read the play, I thought that Blanche was just trying to make herself look better than him by putting Stanley down. After watching the film, I would agree that Stanley is a pig in every sense of the word.
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Blanche did make a lot of weird facial expressions. I thought that was cool how they portrayed her in the film. It was very sad they sent her off to the institution because she didn't deserve that at all.
Blanche was freaking INSANE, and her eyes bugging out of her actually scared me- I better not think about it to close to bed time, cause I might have a nightmare. I agree with what you said, about Mitch seeming mature in the play. I definitely got the sense that he was trying his hardest to find a woman that was suitable for him and that his mother would like. In the moive, he seemed like a jackass, and a complete loser. He reminds me of a clown with his bowtie, and how he was bald on the top but had hair on the sides.
I agree with the point you made about Stanley really being a jerk, and a pig. At first I just thought Blance was stuck up but Stanley is actually gross (HOT, but yeah- a jerk none the less) I mean, I was actually a little afraid of Stanley just from watching the movie!
I agree that the film showed a better example as to how Williams intended to portray the characters. While the book did do a good job, I felt that the film took it a few steps further. It was very helpful seeing facial expressions and other physical reactions of the actors. By seeing these reactions it gave a better understanding of how they were reacting to the actions happening around them. Particularly the end of the film when the men at the card table were glaring at Stanley after Blanche was taken away. Also Blanches facial expressions were able to more accurately portray how mentally unstable she had actually become. She looked much different towards the end of the movie which made it easier to understand how crazy she had become.
I dont think that in either of the versions did i ever feel that it was ok that she was raped. while the movie did make me feel less pitty, and good feelings for Blanche it still makes me mad everytime i read/see that stanley rapes her. He is a womanizer and in a perfect world he would get punished for his actions or best he would be kicked out of society. rather it is ignored even though everyone knows he had done it. the movie did make me feel a little better about stanley, i think actually seeing Blanche made you feel a little bad for Stanley. but the play makes him out to be someone that should be hated.
I definetly agree that Blanche's character in the movie was much crazier than I had pictured her when I read the play. But I think this is one of the things that made the changed ending work so well. When I was reading I was really upset that Stella chose to stay with Stanley and send Blanche away. I felt really bad for Blanche because it seemed like she was just sent away so that she would be out of the way and they wouldn't have to deal with her. At the end of the movie I liked that it had been changed so that Stella left Stanley but Blanche had been so crazy throughout the film I thought they had no choice but to send her to a hospital.
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