*Spoiler warning* This is a movie you can't take seriously, but you can enjoy all the same if you approach it with an awareness that it IS Tennessee Williams and it is lush and lurid, with gorgeous dialogue that is totally unbelievable coming out of the character's mouths. It is a fun and entertaining movie to watch, with emotions running high and emoting even higher. Kate Hepburn and Liz Taylor are both mesmerizing; Monty Clift didn't stand a chance, poor guy.
I thought that the final scenes with Liz over-acting her little heart out could have been more suspenseful had the script not given away Sebastian's secret so early in the movie. I also believe that some reviewers of this film underestimate just how much the first audiences viewing the film understood what was going on. Maybe it wasn't talked about openly, but it is my impression from histories and diaries I've read that most adults were aware of homosexuality and I suspect they caught on as quickly as we do today to just what Liz was talking about in that scene in the sun-room when she makes it clear that she and Violet were "bait" Sebastian used to get his hooks into kids.
I also disagree with the reviewer who said Sebastian's death was a "gay-bashing". I don't believe the boys killed Sebastian because he was gay. It was extremely common in those days (and maybe still today- I don't know for sure) for men vacationing in Europe to solicit sex from younger men in places like Italy and Greece.
I think the boys killed him because he was a mean, evil SOB. Catherine all but said so, at one point. He was clearly, like his mother, a user who took from others without giving anything back. I don't believe this movie is making a universal statement that homosexuality is evil and gay characters should die horrible deaths. I think THIS particular gay character, who was seriously screwed-up and all but emotionally suffocated by his mother, was killed because of the way he treated people, not because he was gay. True, a lot of movies at the time showed gays in the worst light possible; but I don't get the impression that Williams, in this, was saying homosexuality was evil, even if he was conflicted, himself.
Don't expect a work of art, going into this movie. The symbolism isn't subtle; it knocks you over the head again and again. There are a few boring moments where the dialogue tends to get repetitive and runs on a little interminably. Those particular moments I passed just enjoying Hepburn's and Taylor's acting, or over-acting as the case may be.
I thought that the final scenes with Liz over-acting her little heart out could have been more suspenseful had the script not given away Sebastian's secret so early in the movie. I also believe that some reviewers of this film underestimate just how much the first audiences viewing the film understood what was going on. Maybe it wasn't talked about openly, but it is my impression from histories and diaries I've read that most adults were aware of homosexuality and I suspect they caught on as quickly as we do today to just what Liz was talking about in that scene in the sun-room when she makes it clear that she and Violet were "bait" Sebastian used to get his hooks into kids.
I also disagree with the reviewer who said Sebastian's death was a "gay-bashing". I don't believe the boys killed Sebastian because he was gay. It was extremely common in those days (and maybe still today- I don't know for sure) for men vacationing in Europe to solicit sex from younger men in places like Italy and Greece.
I think the boys killed him because he was a mean, evil SOB. Catherine all but said so, at one point. He was clearly, like his mother, a user who took from others without giving anything back. I don't believe this movie is making a universal statement that homosexuality is evil and gay characters should die horrible deaths. I think THIS particular gay character, who was seriously screwed-up and all but emotionally suffocated by his mother, was killed because of the way he treated people, not because he was gay. True, a lot of movies at the time showed gays in the worst light possible; but I don't get the impression that Williams, in this, was saying homosexuality was evil, even if he was conflicted, himself.
Don't expect a work of art, going into this movie. The symbolism isn't subtle; it knocks you over the head again and again. There are a few boring moments where the dialogue tends to get repetitive and runs on a little interminably. Those particular moments I passed just enjoying Hepburn's and Taylor's acting, or over-acting as the case may be.