On Sunday April 10th Turner Classic Movies held a retrospective of Elizabeth Taylor's films. I chose to watch Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Taylor's last great performance and a film I had always been meaning to watch.
Based on the successful Broadway play by Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is not a pleasant movie to watch. It is two hours of drunken people shouting at each other and spewing hatred and vitriol. The fact that it is so well done is a tribute to Albee's script and the perfect combination of Taylor and her husband and partner Richard Burton. The two were so adept at working together that they played these two people trapped in a drunken marriage perfectly.
George is a washed up History professor at an un-named University. His career has petered out and he will never be head of the department. His wife Martha is a brash, drunkard, with a roving eye, whose father is head of the University. One Saturday night after a late dinner party Martha invites a new handsome teacher (George Segal) and his wife (Sandy Dennis) back to their home for an after hours party. What ensues is a verbal duel so intense that the audience squirms while watching.
Time has aged the film. Society does not tolerate such drunkeness so openly. But while the film has aged, the performances have not. Taylor received an Oscar (her second and most deserved) for her outstanding work as the drunken Martha.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a hard movie to watch, but very much worth the effort.
At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars.
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