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 HOME VIDEO
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, 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
Product features:
- Mike 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 t
Movie Reviews of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Not As Good as the Critics Say
Summary: 3 Stars
There are a few distinctively American artists -- Norman Mailer comes immediately to mind. And then there are many more pale imitators of European art that happen to be American, and are rewarded because of American chauvinism. Edward Albee falls into the latter camp. There's something powerful and authentic when Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus write about the meaningless and absurdity of the human condition but when Edward Albee writes there's something wildly immature and annoying.
Albee's first work "Zoo Story" which is a childish imitation of "Waiting for Godot" can be forgiven as exactly that: a childish imitation. But what are Albee's excuses for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?"
George (Richard Burton) is a middle-aged small-town college history professor who is married to the college president's daughter Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). Once full of promise and vitality George now resorts to alcohol and bitter violent fights with Martha to pass the time. One night they invite over a couple who are a younger, much more vibrant version of themselves -- and the two take this as an opportunity to reflect on the life they cursed themselves with.
Because Edward Albee is considered a genius and because "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" is considered one of the greatest films of all time I searched for meaning and substance in the film, and after forty minutes I became desperately bored, began fast forwarding, and then eventually just gave up. There were moments when I did feel that the film was trying to say something but decided it wasn't true because the film didn't really develop that theme and that theme was really juvenile anyway -- I mean, would a serious playwright use for his masterwork the theme that marrying for money and position will only make you miserable?
In the end I could only conclude that this film is merely a visual projection of all the anxieties and phobias, self-loathing and narcissims -- in short, the collected mental masturbation -- of a playwright who just happens be homosexual and childish and depressed. The articulate protagonist is a stand-in for the playwright, someone so witty and luminous yet underappreciated by the world and trapped in an impossible situation with a hysterical wife. The wife Martha represents either the playwright's mother or just a generic impression of all women: violent and insane, selfish and self-indulgent, a whore and a witch.
Albee then takes this disjointed and incoherent worldview, and slaps on a flimsy and hackneyed plot, and puts it on stage -- and everyone calls it art and genius. So why do you hate yourself and the world so much, Mr. Albee, when life is this easy and wonderful?
To be fair this play was written almost half a century ago when psychology wasn't so developed. Back then they did not understand what was "co-dependency" and "bipoloar depression" and "borderline personality disorder" and writers could only re-create these things on paper from the rough sketches of their personal lives. But so what? Great writers are great because they are overly attuned into the peculiar nuances of the human condition: Shakespeare did not have to major in psychology to create the convincing and powerful psychological portraits of Hamlet and MacBeth and King Lear and Othello.
It is perhaps all too common to fear and to misunderstand something, and then quickly dismiss it as "crazy" or worse "genius." "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" is in the lucky position to find itself labelled as "genius" by a society that fears and misunderstands it more than it appreciates and understands it.
Summary of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie DVDA 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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