Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – 1966
OK, this was one seriously messed up movie. My jaw was practically on the floor. The performances of all four of the actors were incredible and need to be commended. But it was the biting and razor sharp script that was really the film’s star. The film is based on the popular play of the same name that was written by Edward Albee. The movie was really pushing boundaries when it premiered in 1966.
So what was so daring about it? Well, its use of profanity, for one thing. It was crass and incredibly unrepentant about it. The director, Mike Nichols, had to fight to have all the original language from the play kept in the film. He, and other people involved in the movie, made sure that the incendiary language of the script was not watered down by the Hayes Code. In fact, this film was one of the forerunners of a more modern kind of film that was able to break free from the shackles of that prohibitive code. And believe it or not, the world didn’t come to an end. Audiences were mature enough to handle it.
The two lead characters, George and Martha, played by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, were vulgar, spiteful, hateful, and vicious, for starters. Add to that the fact that they were both severely emotionally damaged, and you have the makings for some pretty good drama. Add to that the phenomenal quantities of alcohol they each consumed over the course of the film, and you have one of the most intense dramatic films I’ve seen in a long time. The movie is called a black comedy, but I saw no comedy at all. Every line seemed to be laced with poison.
George and Martha are a middle-aged married couple who, on the surface, hate each other with a passion. They are both so mean to each other that it seems ridiculous that they should be together. But underneath all the harsh words and insults, they really do love each other, though it is a side of their relationship that they very rarely show. But when they do, their affection for each other is painfully clear and surprisingly deep.
The two actors playing the supporting characters of Nick and Honey, were George Segal and Sandy Dennis. You might think that it would be difficult for them to keep up with such big names as Taylor and Burton, but Segal and Dennis both stepped up to the challenge. They were just as competent and really showed off their acting chops. They complimented the more experienced actors and helped to develop the film’s hyper-dysfunctional feel.
The plot is intricate and complex, too much to go into in a review this short, but I’ll give a quick, bare-bones synopsis. George is a history professor at a small New England College. Martha, his wife, is the daughter of the school’s president. She is a vulgar harridan who views her husband as a weak-willed man who is a failure in his career because he will never be qualified to take over her father’s position. George sees Martha as a wild and overbearing harpy who is bitter and domineering. Nick is a new Biology Professor who has plans on some day being president of the college, himself. Honey is a frail woman who is afraid of having children.
Every now and then, the subject of George and Martha’s son would come up, but it was treated as a taboo subject. Something wasn’t quite right, and it soon became apparent that it was the big mystery of the plot. What was true and what wasn’t? Of course the climax of the movie revealed the real answer, and it was strange, to be sure. But the dark truth was enough to take me completely by surprise.
Each of the four actors turned in a spectacular performance, and each was nominated for an Oscar for their efforts. However, only Taylor and Dennis won. That’s too bad, because I thought that though they were all good, Burton stood out to me as a cut above the rest. His portrayal of the weak-willed George was inspired. First of all, it was against type. I’ve never seen him in such a role. He usually plays the strong confident characters, but here, he was the exact opposite. It was unexpected and his performance was brilliant.
I would recommend this movie, only to those with a thick skin. But if you can handle it, the intense drama is well worth the effort.