[6] Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Ok.



This movie is dark. I mean these kids nowadays with their 'Drag me to Hell' is awesome man; yeah right! Go see this movie you little morons. This is scary, this is psychological and this resonates in places that virtually no screenwriter alive has the ability to investigate without invoking mainstream horror or some kind of distraction to save focusing on what is the truly disturbing aspect of life; the descent of a regular person into a monster through years of pent up hate, longing, sadness, tears, anger bitterness betrayal - the list of emotion is endless and the range of Taylors character reflects this magnificently.



The depression and longing of the characters in both 'Killers Kiss' and 'The Hustler' have nothing on the two main protagonists here. Taylor and Burton are terrifying as the married couple who endure a mutual detest for one another but who are nonetheless managing to trawl though their respective existences until Burton introduces into the household a newlywed couple whose hopes, dreams, expectation and insecurities are about to be shattered through one nightmarish evening of extreme psychological trauma as Taylor and Burton go at another with ever increasing menace.



The dark secrets teaming at the center of Virginia Woolf are extremely adult in nature and actually quite difficult to understand as their reveal is shrouded in all kinds of uncertainty but I don't think they necessarily represent the main bones of the piece. Played out like just a good stage play VW is quite simply a magnificent study of human nature. The four mainstays of our piece all represent different aspects of humanity. From Taylors bitter and twisted persona to Sandy Dennis' trite country girl who is never quite 'adult' enough to deal with the complex layering of events that she becomes embroiled in. George Segal is the man who isn't quite a man, too easily distracted and too impressionable despite his mainline ideological stances and Burtons character, just like that of his 'beloved' wife, is beyond summary; this movie represents possibly the greatest effort I've ever seen at portraying the extreme diversity of human nature. It also goes to great pains in retaining plausibility, in particular when it came to filling up on their next drink, they were incessant. Burton never misses an opportunity, noone is sipping beverages here; these people were out to get drunk and director Mike Nichols ensures the booze keeps on coming. It's painful just how 'real' this movie is, sometimes it's a struggle to watch and for a mid '60's ensemble piece that's quite an achievement.

Nothing is black and white; everyone is massively flawed but not just for the sake of it. Sigourney Weaver plays an 'alien empathizing biologist' in her latest venture 'Avatar'. When we meet Sigourney for the first in that movie we see that she’s a smoker. I sighed; I simply couldn't believe the obviousness of that move. Without a doubt a shallow attempt by the director at injecting some dimension to her character. He didn't want her to be just some 'wishy washy and tree hugging' biologist (like she frickin' well is!) - he wanted her to have an 'edgy' side to her nature!. What pile of crap! We see her smoking once and that's it, zero effect is achieved. James Cameron, you're a moron.



I'm happy to report that VW is eons away from hat kind of shallow obviousness. There was a time when movies were written by qualified people and not just hacks commissioned to draft up scripts to suit a target audience. Despite the remarkable acting here which is as high brow and as top notch as it gets (I really can't praise it enough, Taylor being particularly exceptional) it is the writing that just surpasses anything I've ever seen. The script is teaming with genius. From Taylor’s incessant cries of “Swampy” to Burtons brilliant deadpan reposts VW is, from a literary perspective at least, perfect.



Go see immediately.