Fresh and Exciting

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Based on the play "Orpheus Descending" by Tennessee Williams directed by Sidney Lumet with an exceptional cast: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton and Victor Jory. I saw it for the first time when I was still in my teens and I had an opaque, sticky memory of the film so when somebody suggested to see it on DVD I knew we were in for an opaque, sticky evening but, as it happens, I was dead wrong. "The Fugitive Kind" is riveting with an opening monologue by Brando that is astonishing. A 1960 Brando when he had still, I imagine. hopes to be the actor, the man he wanted to be. There is an animal innocence in his eyes in his moves. The magnificent Magnani, who learned her lines phonetically because she didn't know English presented Brando with a challenge as an actress and as a woman. I hear it wasn't pretty but the result is a feast for the eyes and the ears. The film may not be perfect but I don't think the original material was either so what we got here is a unique opportunity to see this enormous artists giving their whole. That alone makes it a collectors item.

There are two kinds of people in the world says Val Xavier (Marlon Brando) - buyers and those who get bought. He immediately qualifies that somewhat by including those who have no place to be at all. It's his perfect description of himself, purposely trapped in a run down, racist small town in which his unforced, smoldering sexuality begins to take it's toll on the film's inhabitants.Xavier 'Snakeskin', at once shiftless and ambitious, arrives with an inconsolable lament - "I'm not tired. I'm just fed up." Those who get close to Xavier are put on notice that he's a 'peculiar talker', and Tennessee Williams' brilliant screenplay explores all manner of insightful dialog. When Brando's Xavier launches into his 'birds with no legs, sleeping on the wind' symbolism, he provides further insight into his directionless character, while confounding Lady Torrance (Anna Magnani) with his subversive sounding language. What's to make of this drifter with a guitar as his life's companion? As fascinating as the story line is, this isn't one that will lead to a happy ending. The movie is filled with a stark desperation, exemplified by the county's scandalous Dolly Cutrere (Joann Woodward), who at one point despairs, "I tried to pour oblivion out of a bottle but it wouldn't come out". The principal characters are all off and running into their own personal train wreck without ever seeing it coming.It appeared to me that the film's principal theme had to do with Xavier's quest to determine if existence by itself makes any sense at all. His affair with Lady doesn't require passion or love but mere convenience, while her desperate need to be loved plays out in ultimate tragedy for both. The imagery of Dolly disappearing following the destruction of the confectionery is eerily striking, and is it more than ironic that in death, Val Xavier finally sheds his snake skin?

The Fugitive Kind is a film that stars Marlon Brando,Joanne Woodward and Anna Magnani.The movie was written by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams that was based on the latter's play Orpheus Descending.It was directed by Sidney Lumet.The story has Marlon Brando as Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier,a trouble- prone drifter who wanders into a deliciously Williamsesque Mississippi town. Here he becomes involved in the problems of alcoholic Carole Cutrere and unhappily married and sex-starved Lady Torrence.Then,he also runs afoul of Torrence's vicious and cancer-stricken husband. Sexual symbolism abounds in this tempestuous drama. It could have been a great movie considering the talent that surrounds the production such as Williams,Lumet,Brando,Magnani and Woodward but it turned into an slightly above average film. It drags for a while and it mundane for most part.It was probably more suited for the theater rather than cinema.What saves the movie is the excellent performance of Brando.Nevertheless,it still is a must-see for his fans.

Marlon Brando is "The Fugitive Kind" in this 1960 film based on the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending." Williams adapted the play for the film.Brando plays Val Xavier, a drifter from New Orleans who rolls into the small southern town of Two Ribers, Mississippi with his life's companion, which is his guitar, and a snakeskin jacket. Like William Holden in "Picnic," his very presence shakes things up. He gets a job in a store owned by Jabe Torrence (Victor Jory), who is ill, and his wife, Lady (Anna Magnani), an immigrant. Lady is very unhappy and lonely, and the two embark on an affair. Joanne Woodward is Carol, a drunk who has been banned from most places in town. She's attracted to Val so she keeps hanging around. And Maureen Stapleton is Vee Teasdale, a kind woman who is encouraged in her painting by Val.The fireworks spark between Brando and Magnani, two magnetic, intense performers who come together with a backdrop of violence and bigotry. They are an excellent match, as both are such compelling performers. Joanne Woodward is problematic. She is completely over the top. Where Magnani and Brando choose their moments of outburst, Woodward is overdone and trying too hard throughout. It was up to Sidney Lumet, the director, to temper her performance, but let's face it, he probably had his hands full with Brando and Magnani. Maureen Stapleton gives a great performance as Vee.The film was made in a small town on the Hudson River and gives this dark film a gloomy, dangerous atmosphere.Apparently what went on behind the scenes could have been a film as well. Magnani fell hard for Brando -- and he is absolutely at the height of his looks and sexiness here -- but Brando wasn't feeling it. Apparently he rejected her. Then he started mumbling his dialogue, and since Ms. Magnani didn't actually speak English well and had learned her lines by rote, it was hard for her to pick up her cues. Fun set.Well worth seeing for the acting, but don't watch it if you're feeling even a little depressed. And if you live on a high floor, lock the windows. A real downer.