Suddenly, Last Summer is a dark tale involving a New Orleans matriarch whose twisted relationship with her only son results in his murder. The matriarch is willing to spend millions in order to rewrite her son's history, and those millions are earmarked to go toward lobotomizing her niece, who knows the truth.
The dysfunctional relationship between Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) and her late son Sebastian is apparent during her initial consultation with a neurosurgeon, played by Montgomery Clift. She speaks of Sebastian in the present tense, and it becomes obvious that Sebastian, rather than her late husband, was her primary love interest.
Elizabeth Taylor portrays Catherine, Ms. Venable's niece, who was with Sebastian when he was killed. Catherine is well aware of Sebastian's sexual preferences and her statements to that effect provide the impetus for Violet to insist on ensuring her silence. She first has her admitted to a private sanitarium that has a "no visitors" policy; then she contacts Dr. Cukrowicz and insists that Catherine needs a lobotomy in order to be "at peace." In the end, Cukrowicz puts the pieces of Catherine's alleged "hallucinations" together, injects her with truth serum and allows her to tell the story of Sebastian's death, hinting that the reason he was killed was because of his sexual involvement with one or more of the young men he used Catherine to attract.
Freudian imagery abounds throughout this movie, which is something that may be lost on modern audiences and may well offend those who are gay. The Freudian concept that homosexuals are made, not born, by being in the presence of an overbearing, controlling female is reinforced in several scenes: Violet maintains a Venus flytrap that she pampers in a glass house while feeding it live flies; Violet describes a journey to the Galapagos Islands during which "flesh eating birds" attack newly hatched sea turtles and devour them. Violet embodies the devouring female archetype, and the fact that she followed Sebastian to Asia when he decided to become a Buddhist monk instead of remaining with her dying husband makes this even more clear.
Overall, the movie is well made, although Clift's character tends to be more subdued than would be expected and it's difficult to make Taylor's character less than glamorous. It makes no judgments toward homosexuality; rather, it depicts how the denial of reality can destroy those who insist on whitewashing the truth.
The dysfunctional relationship between Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) and her late son Sebastian is apparent during her initial consultation with a neurosurgeon, played by Montgomery Clift. She speaks of Sebastian in the present tense, and it becomes obvious that Sebastian, rather than her late husband, was her primary love interest.
Elizabeth Taylor portrays Catherine, Ms. Venable's niece, who was with Sebastian when he was killed. Catherine is well aware of Sebastian's sexual preferences and her statements to that effect provide the impetus for Violet to insist on ensuring her silence. She first has her admitted to a private sanitarium that has a "no visitors" policy; then she contacts Dr. Cukrowicz and insists that Catherine needs a lobotomy in order to be "at peace." In the end, Cukrowicz puts the pieces of Catherine's alleged "hallucinations" together, injects her with truth serum and allows her to tell the story of Sebastian's death, hinting that the reason he was killed was because of his sexual involvement with one or more of the young men he used Catherine to attract.
Freudian imagery abounds throughout this movie, which is something that may be lost on modern audiences and may well offend those who are gay. The Freudian concept that homosexuals are made, not born, by being in the presence of an overbearing, controlling female is reinforced in several scenes: Violet maintains a Venus flytrap that she pampers in a glass house while feeding it live flies; Violet describes a journey to the Galapagos Islands during which "flesh eating birds" attack newly hatched sea turtles and devour them. Violet embodies the devouring female archetype, and the fact that she followed Sebastian to Asia when he decided to become a Buddhist monk instead of remaining with her dying husband makes this even more clear.
Overall, the movie is well made, although Clift's character tends to be more subdued than would be expected and it's difficult to make Taylor's character less than glamorous. It makes no judgments toward homosexuality; rather, it depicts how the denial of reality can destroy those who insist on whitewashing the truth.