Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Maybe man and woman were never really meant to marry...or at least George and Martha never were...or at least that's what Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? would have us believe. George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) are an aging history professor and daughter of the head of the university in New Carthage, respectfully--although "respect" as we know it doesn't figure much into the machine gun rapid fire blitzkreig of beratements, badgering, and verbal bloodbath that the two generals in this private war waged upon one another. Their unprepared houseguests Nick (George Segal) and "Honey" (Sandy Dennis) are drafted as pawns into George and Martha's homefront of mind games.
|
|
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is directed by Mike Nichols, and adapted from the play by Edward Albee (of the same name) by screenwriter Ernest Lehman. Watching the film, it is still recognizable as having its roots in the theater; but while some films adapted from plays come across as "staged" with droning talking heads and contrived sets, this film has what I consider to be the best dialogue in any film--riveting, biting, and terrifyingly destructive and clever. Lines burn into your cerebellum, and are shocking not just in the language itself--Martha's vulgar language was considered especially coarse by 1966 film standards--but in how purposeful they are in the tug-of-war of a marriage where the barriers of kindness and tenderness appear to have been smashed to powder. "If you even existed, I'd divorce you." Ouch. The betrayals and humiliations that George and Martha inflict upon one other are what George refers to as the two of them "exercising what wits they have left". Martha invites Nick and Honey over--although it is already in the wee hours of the morning after 2am--for more drinks (the alcohol flows very, very freely in this house, loosening tongues, slaying inhibitions). However George does not refuse the invitation; in fact, although George and Martha banter independent of guests, it becomes clear that they do enjoy an audience--or victims--or they fancy themselves as a perverse pair of coaches, rubbing away the slick veneer of civility and decency for the new professor and his wife, introducing them to their New England underworld, their collegiate bog in New Carthage. George and Martha are a kind of yin and yang, George being comparatively reserved and even subdued, with Martha a whirlwind of anger and energy. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a film which benefits from repeat viewings, because just as George and Martha exploit via their guests, there is a good deal lurking behind the personae which the unhappily married couple conceal--from their guests as much as the world, from us, even themselves, perhaps. There is the taboo subject of their son, a sixteen year-old with eyes of a debatable color, who is a sensitive subject for the both of them. Martha discloses her son to Honey privately, while George and Nick (who goes unnamed in the film, though) become acquainted through a terse exchange, a revelation which infuriates George; and yet, George was the one to "warn" Martha not to bring him up. It is only later that it becomes apparent that, like Martha, this is a calculated play in their elaborate chess game of domestic one-upmanship. Are George and Martha, in fact, cruel people, or has time and circumstance made them cruel? Perhaps they are not, and their performance is a kind of pantomime, a display to caution Nick and Honey against becoming "like them". When Honey gets sick from an unfortunate combination of spinning and brandy, Nick and George share a revealing exchange of confessions about their spouses on the lawn, a moment that is both one of bonding and posturing, during which George shares a heartbreaking story about a young boy who accidentally killed his parents, but juxtaposed with a comedic story about his mistaken ordering of "burgin" in a bar. The sad story echoes some personal tragedy for George, but in the end, George emerges the most in control of his emotions...at least compared to Martha. But this experience--like the others that allow for George and Martha to become fully-fledged, like turning pages in a book, uncovering chapter after chapter--eventually solidifies that the two of them are not only made for each other--they need each other.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a comedy, yes, and the discourse and naked honesty and marital carnage is funny in a twisted way. The back and forth is not unlike a tennis match, a volleying of provocation, riparte, and domestic jabs with the periodic and climactic triumphant right hook. But the film also has genuine tender moments of introspection and invites us to sympathize (at differing times) with George and Martha. George has shattered dreams and the sharp fragments cut him where it is most tender--his heart, and perhaps, as he puts it, a more "private part of the anatomy". Martha, too, has been discontented with life, and this induces a frenzied mania in her. Both parties use their vindictiveness as a kind of defense against the harshness of the world, and the sorrow it has brought them. Both George and Martha hurt inside, perhaps for different reasons, or maybe some shared ones, and prop each other up like a house of cards. But even, using that same metaphor, the cards rely on applying an equal amount of pressure unto one another to keep from collapsing, hence their mutual marital skirmishes. And perhaps they are in fact so intimate with one another--a kind of intimacy that is not possible in a relationship built on small talk and pointless gestures--that what appears to us as a dysfunctional marriage is merely the harsh, honest behavior of a couple who no longer need to lie, who no longer want to play the games of courtship and foreplay...no, those games are retired. For George and Martha, for better or worse, in sickness and drunkenness, they have only one game left to play.
Recommended for: Fans of stage-to-screen films--and, baby, they don't get much better than this. For fans of dialogue so venomous and toxic, you better wear a HazMat suit.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a comedy, yes, and the discourse and naked honesty and marital carnage is funny in a twisted way. The back and forth is not unlike a tennis match, a volleying of provocation, riparte, and domestic jabs with the periodic and climactic triumphant right hook. But the film also has genuine tender moments of introspection and invites us to sympathize (at differing times) with George and Martha. George has shattered dreams and the sharp fragments cut him where it is most tender--his heart, and perhaps, as he puts it, a more "private part of the anatomy". Martha, too, has been discontented with life, and this induces a frenzied mania in her. Both parties use their vindictiveness as a kind of defense against the harshness of the world, and the sorrow it has brought them. Both George and Martha hurt inside, perhaps for different reasons, or maybe some shared ones, and prop each other up like a house of cards. But even, using that same metaphor, the cards rely on applying an equal amount of pressure unto one another to keep from collapsing, hence their mutual marital skirmishes. And perhaps they are in fact so intimate with one another--a kind of intimacy that is not possible in a relationship built on small talk and pointless gestures--that what appears to us as a dysfunctional marriage is merely the harsh, honest behavior of a couple who no longer need to lie, who no longer want to play the games of courtship and foreplay...no, those games are retired. For George and Martha, for better or worse, in sickness and drunkenness, they have only one game left to play.
Recommended for: Fans of stage-to-screen films--and, baby, they don't get much better than this. For fans of dialogue so venomous and toxic, you better wear a HazMat suit.