A Streetcar Named Desire: Iconic for a Reason

Stanley Kowalski was the character that shot Marlon Brando to the moon. He first played the violent beast on stage and it was his performances there that landed him the lead in Elia Kazan's enduring classic. Brando received instant acclaim for his acting in the movie, yet Humphrey Bogart beat him to the Academy Award, even though his performance is one of the most influential and iconic in all of American cinema. Brando did away with restraint as he embodied Tennessee Williams' creation in all his sweaty nastiness. It's raw, it's wild, it's frenzied and it would be a style that would be adopted by the likes of James Dean, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. When talking about A Streetcar Named Desire, the only logical place to start is with Brando and his magnetic performance as Stanley, a dangerous man, wrongly labelled a hero in many quarters.

Williams writes Stanley as an animal, his rough, confrontational language emphasises that. And Kazan directs Brando into being a monster – he dominates the screen and the camera follows him intently, almost as if it's afraid to look away. Stanley swaggers from scene to scene, wearing that tight t-shirt that exposes his dripping sweat and ripped muscles and he's carefree and rude in a purposeful way that is seemingly an attempt to personify a vision of masculinity.

For all the talk of Brando's performance, A Streetcar Named Desire is a great ensemble piece. Kim Hunter's Stella emits just why a woman would be attracted to Stanley despite his monstrous temper and Vivian Leigh's forgotten but tempestuous Blanche is the heart of the film as she wilts from whim to whim trying to escape the darkness. It's one of Leigh's great performances and she plays the perfect shrieking foil to Brando's brooding wolf. She is simply tragedy defined. Karl Malden as Mitch also offers a great deal as the sappy, sad and desperate courter of Blanche.

Blanche is the character round whom the whole film revolves around. It's her arrival at the Kowalski home in New Orleans where the film starts and it's her vitriolic relationship with Stanley that begins to tear everybody's lives apart. Blanche comes to her sister in the Big Easy after falling on hard times and being forced to engage in the most decadent of lifestyles that covers a snobbish woman in shame. Indeed, for the first part of the film it is hard to find sympathy in Blanche. She is rude, racist and elitist, but once we find out her story, we see her heart and warm to her. She and Stanley exist in a permanent state of toxicity where fear and lust battle each other until the end.

Nothing can prepare you for the awful horror of the final scenes. Stanley wields his power in fear of being emasculated and exerts his machismo in the most forcefully brutal way imaginable. We finally see the true malice of Stanley as he breaks the world around him. A Streetcar Named Desire remains so popular due to Brando's landmark performance and its perfect display of melodrama. A classic, and though it doesn't break the rule of the film being better than the source, it's damn well close.