A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway Play and Movie)

1021 Words5 Pages
Everyday, millions of people honor actors, writers, directors, and producers by giving attention to their works. Some study and observe these performances for entertainment. Others do so for research. Some even go to movies or a play with the sole purpose to criticize and scrutinize. In the process of completing this project I have executed all of the above. In addition to reading the page-turning play, I saw the multi-award winning film, and greatly enjoyed it. However, despite the fact that the film and the play were both very successful, I found that there are a few considerable differences between the two. When the New York theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire was transformed into a film many changes were made. Part of this was due to the fact that movies have to be presented differently from play. Another reason was because theatre dialogue is extremely different from movie dialogue. An argument could even be made that the theater presentation, word for word, would be too crude, inappropriate, or risky to put into a movie plainly because such realistic material wouldn’t be in accordance with the types of movies presented at that time. The biggest change was the character of Blanche. In the play, Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) portrayed Blanche marvelously. However, when producers decided to make a film, they insisted that Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind) play Blanche instead because she would be able to attract viewers to see a film full of actors who weren’t widely known. Regardless of the fact that Vivien Leigh succeeded admirably in luring audiences, she portrayed Blanche in a much different way. Jessica Tandy was a very tall, broad, and beautiful leading actress whereas Vivien Leigh was short, pretty, and soft-spoken. Tandy played Blanche as a very shallow, vain, controlling, frustrating, and victimized woman. She constantly

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