Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Mike Nichols
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Flanagan, George Segal, Richard Burton, Sandy DennisDirector: Mike Nichols
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Latin (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (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: Improved WOOLF
Summary: 4 Stars
Very good remastering of the Albee classic, with great, insightful commentary by Mike Nichols, as well as the iffy one by cinematographer Haskell Welxer that was on the first pressing in the late 90s. A lot of specific information about how the play ended up pretty much whole in a still code-ridden era. Good new documentaries about the film and a minor one about Taylor's career round out the package.
The film itself is a definite classic, maybe a bit too serious in tone, whereas a good production of the play is riotously funny. This seems pretty heavy going and somber most of the way through because they felt they had to be so in order to pass muster with the censors.
All four of the stars are perfect. Burton probably has his finest moments ever on screen, and there's nothing like this anywhere else in Taylor's career.
The plot is a puzzlement, but that's as it should be. This is not THE VIPS, BOOM or THE SANDPIPER. In fact, it's not a Taylor/Burton film at all. It's an honest attempt to turn one of the top pieces of dramatic literature in the last half of the 20th Century into a marketable big studio film. It isn't destroyed, as is so often the case. Although, to listen to Nichols on the commentary. it came dangerously close.
Summary of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
A 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 EmersonMike Nichols' first directorial effort represents a milestone in psychological realism and "foul" language in American cinema. George and Martha as played superbly and without vanity by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are as far from the bourgeois 1950s perfect married couple as you can get alternatively badgering berating abusing and loving each other both alone and accompanied by the naive young married couple that have come over for a nightcap (portrayed brilliantly by George Segal and Sandy Dennis). The fun and games in which George and Martha involve Nick and Honey are a lacerating look at the older couple's existence where the emotional brutalizing fill an unspeakable void at their center and a troubling preview of what the younger couple's life could become. Edward Albee's dramatic vision combines the banal the vulgar and the poetic and Ernest Lehman's adapted screenplay is amazingly faithful to the structure of Albee's play. The acting is uniformly excellent and Taylor and Burton were never better together. A harrowing movie experience but very worthwhile and finally unforgettable.System Requirements:Run Time: 131 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC Rating: NR UPC: 012569821095 Manufacturer No: 82109
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