Big Screen Peter: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie. Enjoy.

review by Peter Lewis

The thing that immediately sticks out about “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is the stark audacity of the film. Yet, the opening sequence is bucolic. With serene musical accompaniment, the shot follows a couple as they make their way through tree-lined pathways back to their home at the end of the evening. As the front door is opened, the audience is transported from a world of seeming contentment to one of pure turbulence.

Written by Edward Albee, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” premiered on Broadway in 1962 to great acclaim despite its controversial nature. It tells the story of Martha and George, an unhappy couple living in New England. George is a professor of history at a small university that is presided over by Martha’s father.

Though George’s father-in-law is never actually seen, his presence lords over the relationship. Martha sees George as a failure in comparison to her revered father, while George is simply worn down by the constant abuse. Nick, a new biology professor, and his wife Honey come over for late evening cocktails with Martha and George. Albee’s volatile play was converted to the screen in 1966 and starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as George and Martha.

As a point of reference, the casting of Taylor was a surprise. Martha was a middle-aged shrew and at the time Taylor was considered the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. To fit the character, she packed on 30 pounds. And lord, did she ever fit the character. Her performance as Martha is arguably the finest of her career. From the outset of the film, with her classic scene quoting Bette Davis (“What a dump!”) in Beyond the Forest, Taylor dominates the film.

While Taylor certainly owns the film, the other three cast members proved to be perfect compliments. Burton excels as the browbeaten George, periodically emerging with venomous verbal thrashes like a trapped beast.

The couple is a stunted and unhappy inversion of the American Dream, the Lynchian truth behind the curtain of supposed success. George Segal and Sandy Dennis, as Nick and Honey, unwittingly enter into this alcohol-soaked pressure cooker dressed up as a functioning domesticity. Youthful and bubbly, they are the counterpoint to the broken existence of Martha and George, perhaps even the embodiment of their promising past, before the expectations and aspirations of youth broke down around them.

Honey’s winsome naivety and Nick’s earnestness are a seeming match, but as the night wears on and the drinks pile up, the passive-aggressive comings and goings of Martha and George poke holes in the fabric of the relationship. While the film is certainly a portrayal of Martha and George’s relationship, in Nick and Honey, the film also perfectly illustrates the delicacy of the gossamer strands that band two people to one another.

The bulk of the film revolves around these cynical portrayals of the human condition. Each member of the credited cast was rewarded with Oscar nominations (the first film to ever gain that distinction).

What elevates the film from a great remake of a play to a truly great film is the work of Mike Nichols as director and Haskell Wexler as cinematographer. The tight direction and visionary cinematography frame the myriad of emotions that course through the work.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” clicks on all cylinders and is one of the true gems of American cinema.

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