Super Intense
I've heard about this movie over the years, but never really felt compelled to watch it. I finally sat down last night and gave it a shot. While the subject matter is not great, the acting is superb.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor play a middle aged couple, George and Martha. They define the term "love/hate". George is a professor at a small college and Martha is the daughter of the president of the college. They spend the entire movie verbally (and sometimes physically) attacking each other. I can't imagine bullets or knives cutting deeper than the verbal salvos with which these two gut each other. For some reason, they've invited a young married couple over for late night drinks, Nick and Honey (played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis). Nick and Honey are at first appalled by the behavior of their hosts, but eventually get drawn into it. They are amateurs and are easily tricked into playing the older couples' mind "games" which leads to unflattering details about themselves.
Burton and Taylor are amazing in this. Burton goes against type and plays a beaten down, whipped husband. His character mumbles some of his best lines out of the earshot of his wife perhaps because he's afraid to take on her wrath (i.e., "Martha is 108... years old. She weighs somewhat more than that." as told to Nick away from Martha). Taylor also goes against type by playing a frumpish 50-something housewife who thought she was marrying a man intent on going places and only realizes too late her husband has no aspirations of glory. Segal does well as the do-gooder husband who gets drawn into the night's events a bit too easily. Dennis earned an Oscar for her role (as did Taylor) but I am less convinced by her performance. Her Honey is played as mousey and I guess she got the role down pat, but I didn't really feel any significance to the character. Her presence in the film doesn't drive the plot as much as the other three so I don't see how this garnered the award.
The movie has some seriously acerbic dialogue between two people who are supposed to love each other. If you've seen the film, War of the Roses, the interaction in WAOVW between spouses makes WOTR look like Love Story. My interpretation of this is that each spouse represents a mirror into the other's psyche and they don't like the reflection. Martha is a constant reminder to George that he could have achieved things if he had the guts...which he knows he doesn't. George is a reminder to Martha that she is from a privileged class and has never had to earn anything on her own. Its not so much they hate each other as much as they hate that the other knows them so well.
The ending left me a bit perplexed. George and Martha refer to a child throughout the film only to reveal that the child was a "game", an imaginary child they created because they could not conceive. When George is pushed to his breaking point, he "kills" the son off with a story about a telegram announcing the death of their "son". I didn't get it. I could understand making up the son, but I don't understand why it became something to fret over. Perhaps it was the last bastion of their marriage to hold on to and killing their son symbolized the final end of whatever held them together. I just didn't really grasp this plot point or its significance to the proceedings.
For character and dialogue driven movies, few can top this. The acting is top-notch. If you can stomach the amount of hate and desperation the characters display, you can see how this is such a revered film. Just be warned, that its not a date movie.
My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.