Classic 60s Movie: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Jack McDonald.

Movie Title: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Year: 1966

Writer: Ernest Lehman (screenplay), Edward Albee (stage play)

Lead Actors: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis

Director: Mike Nichols

IMDb Plot Summary: A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.

Why I Think This is a Classic ’60s Movie: I don’t think anyone would dispute the classic status and enduring nature of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The film’s place in the canon is so secure, it would be more to the point if we asked why everyone regards it as a classic not just of the 60’s, but of film history in its entirety. There may not be another film that delves so thoroughly into the guts of a relationship, or provides a more thrilling and harrowing view of bonds of affection that have been twisted and soured — a voyeuristic experience, of course, but also a mirror to the ways in which we’re able to hurt and be hurt most by those we love.

Of course, we also have the towering, career-defining performances of Burton and Taylor (each icons in their own right and halves of an iconic, highly public couple) as well as the remarkable assurance of a singularly talented young man named Mike Nichols, directing his first feature in a body of work that would define an era. It also marks one of the first high-profile credits of cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who would go on to lens a number of key New Hollywood films in addition to his notable directorial one-off, Medium Cool.

And then there is the source material, which goes far beyond the highbrow battle-of-the-sexes that many perceive it to be. The script explores the nature of narrative in our lives and relationships, the games we all play that see us creating stories and characters for ourselves in a half-conscious, half-automatic attempt to find meaning and control.

My Favorite Moment in the Movie: It’s nearly impossible to separate one individual moment from the whole of Who’s Afraid… because the arc of the script has such cumulative power. It’s tempting to simply cite the heavy quiet of its final moments, in which we reflect on how to continue in the face of such total emotional devastation. In fact, each of the small handful of quiet moments are used for maximum effect by Mike Nichols, whose background in stage performance with Elaine May and the Compass Players must have made him especially attuned to the formal movements and pacing of Albee’s script. In each, the audience is invited to catch their breath and take stock along with the characters as the verbal sparring stops and Alex North’s gentle score comes in.

My Favorite Dialogue in the Movie: Again, a difficult call — the dialogue is the film’s centerpiece, and is generally regarded as some of the best ever written. Obvious highlights include any number of George and Martha’s barbed exchanges -

Honey: Oh, I don’t know, a little brandy maybe. “Never mix, never worry!”
George: Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?
Martha: Sure! “Never mix, never worry!”

or

Martha: I swear, if you even existed, I’d divorce you.

But one of the most memorable and loaded lines comes not from a back-and-forth but from within a maudlin monologue George gives about the futility of human endeavor: “You bring things to the saddest of all points, to the point where there is something to lose.” Taken on its own terms, that individual line speaks to an issue at the heart of the film’s conflict — it’s dangerous to care for people, dangerous to invest our hopes and dreams in these fragile, vulnerable human relationships, because only then, once one cares, can one be truly hurt.

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: Mike Nichols’ and Haskell Wexler’s use of the camera is subtly radical. The black and white photography belies the adventurousness of the shot selection and the ways in which the camera moves and follows the characters.

That said, the meat of the thing is in the performances and the tremendous, powerful script. Much ink has been spent on the intellectual and emotional power struggles contained in this film and how they relate to gender. While there’s much to discuss on that front, (it’s hard not to get a wry kick out of how Taylor sells “I am the Earth Mother and you are all flops”), a less-explored undercurrent is the vital strain of themes relating to class and status.

Martha is the daughter of the president of the university at which George works as an associate professor, a fact neither of them can escape. Both members of the couple frequently allude to George’s squandered promise and hopes of advancement. A reflection of the younger George’s aspirations is seen in Nick (George Segal), who also made what could be viewed as a strategic matrimonial choice in his marriage to Honey (Sandy Denny), daughter of a family made wealthy by religious evangelism.

Martha is obviously attracted to the youthful, athletic Nick, and George views him as both a symbolic and practical threat. He bullies the younger man with demonstrations of his intellect designed to go over his head, but rarely does more than underline his own inefficacy, his preference for talking over doing. He also refers to Nick and Honey’s home in the “Plain (both meanings) States,” attaching an additional set of expectations to their geographical background.

Every character is oppressed by sets of expectations outside of themselves: George by the expectation of professional and creative success and status, Martha by society’s expectations of her as a woman and a wife, and the younger couple by the expectation to settle into a life of domesticity — one that could so easily curdle into the spectacle to which they spend the evening bearing witness.

Thanks, Jack! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.

We have 31 volunteers. I have put in bold those who have already sent their guest post to me.

Ipsita Barik — Rosemary’s Baby
Ipsita Barik — Bonnie and Clyde
Mike Dobbins — The Sound of Music
Brandnewusedcar — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Markham Cook — Jules et Jim
Steve Cook — The Blue Max
JasperLamarCrab — 2001: A Space Odyssey
N D — Lonely are the Brave
Drew Dorenfest — Easy Rider
Rick Dyke — Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Rick Dyke — Fail Safe
Felicity Flesher — The Music Man
PaulG — Lawrence of Arabia
D.L. Gill — Zulu
Jeff Guenther — Cool Hand Luke
Kate Hagen — Repulsion
John Henderson — Night of the Living Dead
John Henderson — The Odd Couple
John Hörnschemeyer — The Graduate
Zach Jansen — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Will King — The Pink Panther
William Leitch — If…
Lisaisfunny — Blow Up
Jack McDonald — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nick — Lonely are the Brave
Daryl Powell — The Apartment
jprichard — Persona
Ally Shina — The Jungle Book
Mark Twain — The Loved One
Liz Warner — The Manchurian Candidate
Michael Waters — Dr. No

For those who have signed up, but have yet to email me your post, please do so ASAP. This is the last week for the series.

Thanks in advance!

For the original post explaining the series, go here.