Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | | Cast : | Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives | | Director : | Richard Brooks | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | September 20, 1958 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Content
 | A classic movie showing Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman's acting chemistry. Although there is frequent sexual reference, it is done in a most tasteful and colorful way without bad language or graphic scenes. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 01, 2005 | | Summary | Death brings healing to a dysfunctional family | Content
| Superior and passionate acting performances highlight this screen adaptation of an award winning Tennessee Williams play.
Burl Ives is magnificent as self made multi millionaire and patriarch of a Southern plantation empire, "Big Daddy" Pollitt. He has just returned home from a medical clinic where although he doesn't yet know it, is dying from terminal cancer. His family, except for mom Ida, aware of the prognosis has descended on the palatial family mansion to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th and ostensibly final birthday.
Paul Newman, the youngest son Brick, is an alcoholic ex football star and sports announcer. He and his wife Maggie, "the Cat" played by a ravishing Elizabeth Taylor make a stunning couple. Newman however detests his wife and rejects her sexuality believing her to have had an affair with his best friend Skipper. Feeling himself to be a failure, he drowns away his sorrow with a bottle.
He is filled with guilt as a result of the suicide of his friend and fellow footballer Skipper, refusing to come to his aid. Both Newman and Taylor were deservedly nominated for Oscars for their portrayals. Although Ives was equally deserving, he nonetheless won an Oscar that year for his role in "The Big Country".
The dim witted eldest son Gooper played by Jack Carson and his loudmouthed porcine wife Mae played by Madeleine Sherwood have arrived with five obnoxious kids in tow, to carve up the Pollitt empire upon Big Daddy's demise. They all must break the bad news to the airheaded "Big Momma" Ida played nicely by Judith Anderson.
Newman, the son favored by Ives, has never gotten along with his father. Ives, while an excellent provider has always relished in his role as the boss, never showing love to his family. This has been all the sensitive Newman has ever craved. In a poignant scene in the basement of the mansion, father and son are finally able to talk and reveal their innermost feelings. Despite the revelation of Ives' doom both father and son gain new insight into each other and begin to forge a relationship anew. Newman also rekindles affection for his attention starved wife Maggie.
Richard Brooks did a wonderful directing job in adapting this emotionally charged play into a very effective movie. The overall acting performances were nothing short of superlative. It's unfathomable that this flick was denied best picture of the year by the musical "Gigi". |
| Rating | | | Date | May 25, 2005 | | Summary | Cat in the Hot Tin Roof | Content
| I never expected to like this movie this much. I have no idea what the movie was all about except that it stars Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Both actors were superb, after watching this movie I searched the video store for all Taylor and Newman movies. So this is really the movie made me a fan of the two.
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Some of the sensitive topics of the original play were toned down to pass censorship I am not really familiar with the original play but I know that Brick's (Newman) latent homosexuality was altered and at some point because of that the dialogue seemed a little awkward especially the big confrontation scene with Maggie (Taylor) and Big Daddy (Ives). In this version Brick's grieving for the death of his male best friend was purely platonic (some say there's still latent homosexual subtext to it but Brick was sexually attracted with his wife as evidenced with how he stare at her in the first few scenes of the movie and the finale). Somehow it damaged the structure of the movie in a way.
Some of the characters were also "caricaturish" and probably would suit better theatrically particularly the character Mae (Madeleine Sherwood), she's so in your face and two dimensional. Big Daddy was also a little "caricaturish", do you really treat your grandchildren that way. I mean even if you don't like them you don't normally act it with big gestures as if you want to announce it to the whole world.
But in the end this is really Newman and Taylor's film, electrifying chemistry and just played their scenes perfectly especially when together. And you've got to see the final scene, a very satisfying conclusion.
Grade: A |
| Rating | | | Date | May 20, 2005 | | Summary | I Guess I Just Don't Like Tennessee Williams... | Content
| I watched this film because it is a classic. I had never seen an adult Elizabeth Taylor film nor had I watched a Paul Newman film. I was excited to see them in a film but was somewhat disappointed. Elizabeth Taylor plays Maggie, an unhappy woman in a marriage to Brick, an alcoholic played by Paul Newman. They were certainly beautiful, especially Taylor who in this film is reminicient of Marilyn Monroe's radiant beauty in The Seven Year Itch.
Their acting was not bad. In fact, it was excellent. I liked the characters and I related to them.
The problem was the script. I had seen A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams before I saw this film. I had not liked that one either. The problem with his stories is that nothing too exciting ever happens. The scripts are just character analysises. The movie is simply a random succession of events that are not exciting enough to keep one's attention for an hour and forty-eight minutes. Still, it is considered to be outstanding by many, mostly due to the ambiguous and tense dialogue.
If you like Williams' other work, then see this film. If you like character analysis, see this film. If you're looking for an exciting story, skip it.
NOTE: PLEASE VOTE REGARDING THE QUALITY OF THE REVIEW, NOT WHETHER YOU AGREE WITH IT. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 28, 2005 | | Summary | A deservedly classic | Content
| Certain TV-stations and DVD/VCR-distributers label a film "a classic" based on that it is produced in black and white or have starnames on the credits. Disney even label their upcoming releases as "A Disney Classic!".
Well the term "classic" must only be used on products that have stood the test of time. If a product is timeless and of TIMELESS appeal in production values, performances and storywise - then we may have a classic.
Affectionate memories of films we loved when growing up, is based on love and the happy recollections we encountered during the time we saw it. Many of my reviews are based on that fact hehehe. I read that Rouben Mamoulian once said: "Time is the best critic!"
I can hardly disagree...
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof however is a classic. Because of the performances of Elizabeth, Paul and Burl, the set design, the music and the ever impressive poetry of Tennesse Williams.
Yes, the script playes down the homosexual element concerning Brick, but the innuendo makes it all for the better. Taylor was in the midst of this film when her husband, showman Mike Todd, was tragically killed when his plane, Lucky Liz, crushed to the grown. Taylor called upon her grieve in many a scene in this film; no wonder I think it represents a major personal hit for her(among many hits...)
She is deservedly, the Queen Of The Hollywood Movies of the last century. |
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