Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Director: Mike Nichols
- Writer: Edward Albee; Ernest Lehman
- Producer: Ernest Lehman
CGiii Comment
It won 5 Oscars - Taylor's (un)deserved second.
It has been hailed as a masterpiece by many, the play possibly is - if you are inclined to stick to unrealistic humourless, realism that Albee is so fond of...a black comedy minus the comedy.
This is a beautifully shot, ugly film - the script is ponderous and, ultimately, lame, even lamentable.
Albee aficionados are screaming to the heavens - but, truth be out - listen to it - PEOPLE, simply, DO NOT SAY THESE MORONIC THINGS!
It may be viewed as an adult version of Lord of the Flies - which makes it as palatable as acrimony - drunken intellectuals behaving badly - how terribly white, terribly middle-class and it amounts to GUFF.
If a young writer presented this to the world now - it wouldn't have a rats chance of being produced - pity, it wasn't the same back in the 60s - what this amounts to is the death of entertainment - an arduous 2-plus hours of slogging hard-labour.
Important?
Not anymore - and, really, it never actually was.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
George and Martha are a middle aged married couple, whose charged relationship is defined by vitriolic verbal battles, which underlies what seems like an emotional dependence upon each other. This verbal abuse is fueled by an excessive consumption of alcohol. George being an associate History professor in a New Carthage university where Martha's father is the President adds an extra dimension to their relationship. Late one Saturday evening after a faculty mixer, Martha invites Nick and Honey, an ambitious young Biology professor new to the university and his mousy wife, over for a nightcap. As the evening progresses, Nick and Honey, plied with more alcohol, get caught up in George and Martha's games of needing to hurt each other and everyone around them. The ultimate abuse comes in the form of talk of George and Martha's unseen sixteen year old son, whose birthday is the following day.
Cast & Characters
Elizabeth Taylor as Martha;
Richard Burton as George;
George Segal as Nick;
Sandy Dennis as Honey;
Agnes Flanagan as Roadhouse waitress;
Frank Flanagan as Roadhouse manager