"The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" describes a poor southern landlord who died of a serious illness shortly afterwards. His two opposite sons, Blake and Cooper, took his wife to his 65th birthday party. Cooper was a lawyer and managed a large business; his younger brother Blake committed suicide because of his misunderstanding of his old friends, and blamed his wife for having an affair with a close friend, not having sex with him, becoming the laughing stock of his sister-in-law and unable to take over the industry. In fact, Blake didn't want to inherit the property, because he felt that everything in the world was hypocritical, but after the encouragement of his wife Maggie and the enlightenment of his uncle, he began to understand the meaning of life, so the whole family finally got what they wanted. The story focuses on a manor gathering of a family of six: a pair of aging parents, the greedy eldest son and eldest daughter-in-law, and Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, the second son and second daughter-in-law in a nervous relationship. The six main characters, with a dialogue-based plot, from an awkward and strange meeting to a relatively complete ending. This change is matched with the exploration of morals and the gloom of human nature. It is not at all the kitsch of general entertainment movies and the dullness of drama movies. One of the top ten blockbuster movies of 1958.
This is a very simple movie, as simple as an indoor drama that took two or three days to get out and cheat money. At the beginning of the movie, there was a disgusting vulgar atmosphere. Two women and a man are fighting for the inheritance of their terminally ill rich father who is about to die. You expose me, I stabbed you with scars, and fought with each other. Another man, Blake, the rich man's youngest son played by Paul Newman, didn't have the slightest interest in all this. He just hurt his foot (perhaps deliberately), locked himself in the room and kept drinking. What's even stranger is that he was completely indifferent to his glamorous wife Maggie, who kept tempting him, even extremely bored. He is like a wounded beast, tightly shrunk in his shell, not wanting to move. Contrary to him, his beautiful wife Maggie showed amazing energy. She is preparing to fight against the inheritance contenders headed by her sister-in-law. Not only does she want to win the inheritance, she also wants to win back her own man. At this time, the terminally ill rich man returned, and he brought a news that they hadn't expected. A bloated, vulgar, violent and domineering capitalist, two savvy women with eloquent tongues and abacus, and a man who has been traumatized and self-enclosed. The show just started.
The most surprising thing is that this movie, which was completed in only a few limited scenes, can show such a strong dramatic conflict. There is no dispensable dialogue in the whole article, and no extra scenes. The wonderful dialogues are endless, with puns, codewords, and metaphors everywhere. In several places, people even jumped up and applauded loudly. The more I look at it, the more I feel that this movie is a stage play. The highly concentrated drama conflicts, a short day and a night, and a limited number of scenes have created so many suspense and explained so many things. After a slow start, Paul Newman played a role in the film "Cats on Hot Tin Roofs" adapted from the classic drama after having stumbling over the choice of roles. After that, the dilemma came to an end. Relying on the film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Paul Newman's career was reborn. Not only did this movie become one of the top-grossing movies of 1958, the young Paul Newman also won his first grand prize nomination for his wonderful rivalry with Elizabeth Taylor. As director Robert Benton said later, Paul Newman had a temperament that the stars of the time lacked.
At that time, Paul, who was in his 30s, just interpreted the more than 30 decadent protagonists in the film, and Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most beautiful women in the world, was equally brilliant. The acting skills of the two proved that they are not only beautiful and handsome, but more proficient in acting. This movie is more like a warm family movie, condensing a lot of portrayals of our real life. Trust, the word is eternal, precious but rare. True love is equally precious and equally rare. And these elements are particularly vividly interpreted in this film. Perhaps the happy ending in the film is that the author Tennessee Williams is the last one to see a scene. This is one of the reasons why he hates this movie so much. Another thing that made the author Tennessee Williams upset was that Paul Newman's role in the play should be gay, but in that era, the expression was very subtle. After the director Richard Brooks put the novel on the screen, he also made changes and deleted all the ambiguous plots. So what we see now is a pure love story.
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", the moral emptiness and anxiety of the bourgeois family of hypocrisy and lies, can be said to be the originator of movies such as "American Beauty." But this movie is very different from the original script of Tennessee Williams. Although it also involves obscure allusions to homosexuality, the basic themes have been completely revised. The film adapted in this way focuses on frustrated men and The woman who can't get love becomes a Douglas Schick's popular drama. To be honest, the film has changed the foundation of the original script. In the original drama, the actor Blake’s friend died after realizing his homosexuality and failing to confess his confession to Blake. Blake's fall was due to self-blame against his friends and resentment against secular prejudices. The original script is actually not obscure at all, the whole logic is very reasonable, and the film has changed too much for in the closet to become incomprehensible. It is also worth mentioning that Judy Anderson, who played Paul Newman's father and mother, is also commendable. That era was really the era of producing powerful superstars.
Although it does not fully follow the great essence of the original work, in terms of form, this movie is still very much like a stage play. The environment is concentrated, the characters are closely related, and the bold lines seem to be happening in a big house. The next multi-act play. Through the relationship between father and son, husband and wife, and homosexual relationship, the internal contradictions of a manor family with Blake and Maggie as the center, the incomprehension between father and son, the mistrust between husband and wife, the prying eyes of money between children, and Some social problems, alcoholism, homosexuality, money inheritance and upstarts. Although there was a strong conflict in the middle, it finally returned to the traditional Hollywood track. The misunderstanding was cleared up, the prodigal son turned around and reunited. After all, the works produced in the conservative era are like this. They avoid homosexuality and try their best to maintain the traditional family relationship. These elements weaken the power of the original work and bring the deep-seated society to the traditional society arising from the rapid economic development. The contradiction between sex and morality only focuses on the individual's lack of moral value or self-enclosure. But only in terms of structure, the film is completely free from the rigorous narrative of the original, maintaining the tortuous and complete plot, and has a distinct sense of drama.
I really like this kind of photography that follows the characters, and the control over the scene and space is very prominent. Because there is no open space at all in the whole movie, the shots are mostly switched between close-ups of the characters and the mid-range that accommodates one to a few people. The technique is very natural and smooth. Most indoor scenes are dominated by light colors, which are dim and contrast with the characters. Therefore, the movement of the characters is very clear in the lack of changes in the indoor scene. It is difficult to define whether this is a movie or a drama. The overly neat style also makes it lack a bit of excitement. Compared with the rigorous and solemn style, the first shot is the most impressive. Blake swayed and ran alone in the empty playground, rushed towards the camera, crossed the first and second hurdles, and fell in front of his eyes. At the moment of crashing to the ground, he was extremely calm, silently containing tremendous power.
Before "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", all Tennessee Williams adaptations were black and white films, but when director Richard Brooks saw Paul Newman’s charming blue eyes, he made up his mind To be made into a color movie. Paul Newman’s love for the original drama is an important reason for his participation in this film, but in order to adapt to the Hollywood censorship system, the gay plot and dark themes in the original drama have been downplayed, and Paul Newman was depressed by this. For a long time. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor have never collaborated since "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor said Paul Newman: My knowledge of him is limited to a few TV shows, and most people will treat him as a Hollywood kid who feeds on his face. Only when you really come into contact with this person will you discover his uniqueness. His study of lines is the most hard-working of the actors I have ever seen. His rich life experience makes his performance appear solid, and he is a down-to-earth man. The actors also let me know that the rumors are all nonsense.
Tennessee Williams is one of the three greatest American dramatists of the 20th century (the other two are Eugene O’Neal and Arthur Miller), and one of the most important playwrights in the world. In 1948 and 1955, he won the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Award twice for his "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"; "Glass Zoo" and "Iguana Night" were also awarded in 1945. In 1952 and 1961, he won the New York Drama Critics Award. In 1952, "Rose Tattoo" won the Tony Award for Best Drama.
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