Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Mike Nichols
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Agnes Flanagan, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, Richard Burton, Sandy DennisDirector: Mike Nichols
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler
Editor: Sam O'Steen
Producer: Ernest Lehman
Writer: Ernest Lehman
Writer: Edward Albee
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; Latin (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 131 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-12-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Falling in love is an adventure, marriage an ordeal
Summary: 5 Stars
This has got to be the best portrayal of a difficult marriage that has ever hit the screen. It is so real, so intelligent, so funny, and so pathetic that it is worth viewing at every period of one's life. Nothing portrays the complexity of living together in disharmony as this film does. They hate eachother, they love eachother, they find themselves stuck in realities and games of their own making, to the awestruck horror of their young guests who appear to be on the same path.
You have Martha, who is spoiled, self-destructive, an alcohol abuser, and lover. At lucid moments, fuelled by alcohol, she gets glimpses into what she is doing to their marriage. She reproaches herself, yet plays the game with relentless cruelty and energy. George appears hapless, stuck in a career that dooms him to mediocrity and scorn by the woman he continues to love and despise. But he is smart and witty and devious. Underneath, there appears (at least to me) to be much that is good in both of them, but it is submerged in their frustration at stalled lives.
As a young student, I saw this and was horrified. Why don't they divorce? That is the natural question. Isn't it over, given the horror on display with such nakedness in front of their naive guests? Then, in middle age, you can recognize what you have seen in so many couples: the rage at personal limits and perhaps fate, turned on the partner as blame, yet the core of caring still intact in unguarded moments. They operate within boundaries of their own devising, but even these no longer work for some reason. SOmething has changed, some vital turning point reached or breached. Is it broken, the end? Or is it an indication of some new way forward? My reading of the film is that it is ambiguous and up to them - just like in real life. If there anything positive left? Or will they kill eachother?
If you can take it, this is an utterly mesmerizing film, so real in its portrayal of living dysfunction that its power cannot be denied. While my own marriage never reached such a depth of enmity and emotional violence, it is a place that any realist should fear to tread. After all, you never understand how easy marriage was until it no longer works.
REcommended with enthusiasm for those who have the courage to look reality in the face.
Summary of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Two married couples have it out verbally in an all-night session of bitter conversation. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 12/05/2006 Starring: Richard Burton Sandy Dennis Run time: 131 minutesA word of advice: If George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) ever ask you over for late-night cocktails--pass. On the other hand, if you have the opportunity to see Mike Nichols's scorching film version of Edward Albee's sensational play, don't miss it! Elegantly photographed in crisp black and white by the great Haskell Wexler, the play has been "opened up" for the screen by director Nichols (The Graduate, Primary Colors) and producer-writer Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest) without diluting its concentrated, claustrophobic power. Taylor has never been better or brasher as Martha, letting loose with all the fury of a drunken, frustrated academic's wife on one crazy Walpurgisnacht bender. Burton plays her husband, George, the ineffectual history prof married to the college president's daughter. And George Segal and Sandy Dennis are young, callow Nick and Honey, who have no idea what sort of mind-warping psychological games they're being drawn into. Among the most successful theatrical adaptations (artistically and popularly) ever brought to the screen. The entire principal cast was nominated for Oscars--and Taylor, Dennis, and cinematographer Wexler won. --Jim Emerson
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