DVD Review By Brittany Burchett

There are three very good reasons for me to review the 1968 movie made from Edward Albee’s classic play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”  First, it’s on the AFI list of best movies (and on my personal list of best movies, too).  Second, Elizabeth Taylor died this past March, so it seems fitting to recognize her and her watershed performance here. And starting November 30^th, PlayMaker’s Repertory Company in Chapel Hill will be performing the original play.

You can’t really say much about the plot of the movie. You don’t watch this movie; you experience it, the same way you don’t just “watch” a childbirth.  (That’s a hint.)

It starts out simply. George and Martha, a middle-aged married couple, are returning from a late-night party Martha’s father hosted. Martha’s father is also George’s boss, and this has caused years of latent resentment. Martha then announces that her father wants them to befriend the new professor and his wife, and so she has invited them over for post-party cocktails. All four are drunk, and George and Martha’s relationship, which was funny but slightly mean-spirited in the opening minutes, shows a dark side: a predatory, vicious, almost sadomasochistic interaction style which involves picking at all the other’s most fragile wounds, calling it a “game.” The other couple watches in horror until they become the focus of the game. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, the one thing George and Martha both love is speeding towards destruction. To say more about that is central to the plot, so I will leave it there.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” might sound like a nasty experience, but it is not, for several reasons. The first two are the genuine feeling of love and desperation and the unexpected humor in the film. The movie gets those from its four brilliant actors: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as George and Martha, and George Seagal and Sandy Dennis as their young, unnamed guests. All got Oscar nods for this film.

To play George and Martha requires a lot of teamwork. You have to put a lot of energy and emotion into the rapid-fire dialogue and hope that your scene partner will give the same. Casting made a perfect choice. Burton and Taylor were a powerful and dramatic couple both in real life and in the roles they played. In their scenes together, they can sustain the energy to make this fight last all night long. But it’s important that the whole relationship not be built around hate. When we see Martha alone, she is a lonely, angry woman, and for most of the movie Taylor makes that anger her dominant feature. But in throwaway lines or a gentle gesture Taylor indicates that her anger consists of disappointed love. I look forward to seeing Julie Fishell’s take on the role when I see the PlayMaker’s performance, because Taylor’s seems so definitive to me. Burton’s George, on the other hand, lets us sense his character’s sadness and loneliness from the beginning. He’s so picked apart by Martha that our hearts go out to him; early in the show, he’s the easiest to like and identify with. He masks his anger, and so when it erupts, twice, it is shocking and destructive. Seagal and Dennis do well as a couple trying to make sense of the insanity, with Dennis in particular adding wonderful funny moments.

Albee’s writing, which is always a blend of the funny, the dark, and the beautiful, is another reason. His script compels us such that we’re never outside the film. We are always in the moments, taking side with one person and then the other. His dialogue style requires you to focus because the jibes are rapid-fire,  coming like bullets – and then suddenly George and Martha slow down, begin to speak quietly, or in monologues, and we see the bitterness and pain that all that fighting hides. Another mark of Albee’s unusual style is the party song, “Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolf?” which earlier that night had been changed into “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” George and Martha keep returning to the joke, placing more meaning on it each time they do. Albee is making a point about the couple’s fear: it speaks to his talent and creativity that he makes it in such a unique way.

I want to make one last comment, about the last scene. This is the only movie ever to have no closing credits at all. Director Mike Nichols didn’t want to sully the strength of the last close-up (which was not in the play).  It’s a beautiful moment – perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel for George and Martha – he wanted us to leave with that impression.

You have to get all the elements right to make a great film. Edward Albee’s remarkable screenplay, the investment and energetic performances of the actors, and Mike Nichol’s careful hand with the directing all combine to make this piece extraordinary.

  Brittany Burchett is a freelance writer for Boom! She graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from NC State University and has two complete, unpublished novels. If you would like to recommend something for her to review, offer an opinion on a review, ask a question about her novels, or just say hello, her e-mail address is britt.burchett10@gmmail.com.