The Fugitive Kind (1959)

Oscar ® winners Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront) Anna Magnani (The Rose Tattoo) Joanne Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve) and Maureen Stapleton (Reds) lead the stellar cast of this Southern Gothic "sizzler" (Los Angeles Times) based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending. Thanks to "brilliant" (The Film Daily) performances The Fugitive Kind "sets one's senses to throbbing" (The New York Times). Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Brando) is a handsome drifter with a guitar and a past. Taking a job as a store clerk in Two Rivers Mississippi his strong and silent demeanor attracts not only the local party girl (Woodward) but also the shopkeeper's exotic wife (Magnani). Soon this explosive love triangle will ignite a powder keg of fury that could rock this small town to its very core. System Requirements: Running Time 121 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616125378 Manufacturer No: 12537 Product Description

Cryptic fire

It's sort of like Tennesee Williams decided Streetcar Named Desire was just too happy, so he wrote something even more depressing, and cryptic. But terrific acting from all involved makes this movie a must see for film buffs. This movie is on fire with emotion. February 18, 2008

A Golden age lost

This Film was another example of Cinema at its peek when so much more was expected from actors other than their good looks of fame. Here we see Brando in one of his early characters as a wandering young man looking for something but not knowing exactly what or where that is. Magani was also a wonderful Actress to complement his character of loss & bewilderment.
It also reflects the southern small town drama which centers around the small elite who cal the shots is such typical settings. Brando like Magani is not suited to to this enclosed setting & there can be only one outcome.
Tradagy & finally death are the sum total of such an explosive combination.
Once more Brando is seen wandering lost And still a sad figure reflecting his real; life in many ways. October 30, 2007

Extremely poignant and captivating!

Tennessee Williams was a stunning writer for the theater... The impact of his plays can overwhelm an audience with its superior force...

Written in 1957, "Orpheus Descending" is a reconstruction of Williams' 1940 "Battle of Angels," filmed under Sidney Lumet's direction as "The Fugitive Kind."

Williams subtracted elements of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Euridice to examine the sadistically patriarchal Southern Gothic town and to create a violent plot, involving ruined love, weakness, sex, betrayal, vengeance and lingering hatreds... "Orpheus Descending" shows how social prejudice threatens the lives of identified outsiders...

This classic play is not quite his masterpiece... "A Streetcar Named Desire" is... It lacks some of the regretful charm of "The Glass Menagerie" and the entire impact of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." Nevertheless it is a deeply moving work of art...

Williams was known for his compelling dialog and themes that - for their time - often seemed strange or shocking... He vividly suggested the sexual tensions and prevented violence of his tormented character, usually with compassion as well as irony...

The film focuses on a handsome drifter from New Orleans, named Val Xavier, wearing a snake skin jacket - Williams' trademark of a rebel, non-conformist - Val is a "fugitive kind" who comes in off the highway... He is a rural Orpheus who descends to rescue his love, not in Hades precisely, but among the intrigue, chatter, and violence of the hot-tempered town of Two Rivers, Mississippi... He is a wandering guitar player who embarks on an affair with a lonely frustrated unhappy storekeeper's wife Lady Torrance...

Anna Magnani is intelligently sensual and charming as Lady... Joanne Woodward is the hungry grotesque drunken Carol who tries to seduce Val in a cemetery... Both women are so intense, that they force you to become involved with them...

The genuine community provides also interesting watching: Victor Jory, positively magnetic as the brutal oppressive husband Jabe Torrence; the vindictive sheriff R. G. Armstrong; and the soft-hearted Vee (Maureen Stapleton).

Lady Torrence is a study of the immigrant woman who has acquired a patina of resilient toughness but who slowly admits her sensuality... She catches perfectly contradictory emotions of one who is wary of the stranger but who longs for his healing touch...

With handsome magnetism, Brando is no less compelling... He is quite convincing avoiding all the clichés of the drifting Don Juan... With some kind of lucid intensity, he mixes his character's predatory and uncivil arrogance with flashes of sweet tenderness...

The film (definitely worth seeing) is extremely poignant and captivating... The direction is excellent and the action moves very smoothly, never allowing you to relax...

December 31, 2006

Great Movie, Terrible DVD

I'd love to see a decent DVD transfer of this wonderful Marlon Brando movie, cause this MGM disk ain't it! Poor quality, non-anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer just sits there in the middle of my new widescreen set with a fine, yellow line down the left edge of the picture. Hard to watch but still, somehow compelling. Joanne Woodward is great. Come on, studios! This is Brando here. How about some special editions of the great movies from one of the biggest superstars of world cinema? Surely there's a market for them... December 15, 2006

Fake Widescreen - Buyer Alert!

The aspect ratio is fake.
The top and bottom of the regular full screen version has been cropped out of the picture to give the illusion your getting a widescreen - what your getting is less picture!
The studios should label the DVD's as they did when they cropped VHS video picture " this film has been modified to fit you tv screen" as in modified to fit a 16x9 tv in this case.
You have already lost one third of the picture when it was modified to full screen, now you loose an additional one third to one fourth of the movies image!
The reason leterbox and widescreen has a demand, is that the audience or consumer wants to view the Movie as it was filmed and framed by the filmaker, and not loose out on portions of the movie that the director intended.
In other words the idea to release in widescreen was for the intention of showing MORE not LESS of the movies image.
The studios believe they can get away with this, since the average buyer does not have a full screen video version to compare with, or the consumer is just unaware.
I compared this DVD to a full screen VHS version, and in many cases where some DVD's come with both Full & Wide Screen on a flip disc, compare them before watching, many of the widesreen sides are just chopped versions of the full screen.
The picture quality is great on this and most DVD's, it is unfortunate though that it has to be a conciliation for cropped picture.
June 21, 2006

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