A Streetcar Named Desire [DVD] | ![A Streetcar Named Desire [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21AKD4JX1FL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: Glenn Jordan
Actors: Alec Baldwin, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Diane Lane, Frederick Coffin
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: £11.86
Buy New: £11.59
as of 23/11/2009 16:48 GMT details
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New (5) from £11.59
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 24824
Format: PAL
Languages: Spanish (Original Language), German (Original Language), English (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), French (Original Language), German (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled), Norwegian (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), German (Dubbed), Italian (Dubbed)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: P452540
EAN: 4010884525403
ASIN: B0001FM1JW
Theatrical Release Date: 1995
Release Date: March 4, 2004
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Refurbished Streetcar rides better than the original January 28, 2006
Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I was age two in 1951 when Tennessee Williams#x27;s A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE had its first Silver Screen incarnation. I don#x27;t recall seeing this film during the 50s as part of a twenty-five cent, Saturday, kiddy matinee double feature. Well, we would have been bored with such grown-up tempests-in-a-teapot anyway. As an adult, I can now view both the original and this 1995 version, and reap the benefit of improved film-making technology and relaxed censorship, though both versions are substantively identical - no surprise, since they#x27;re both working off the same script. pBlanche Dubois arrives in post-WWII New Orleans from Mississippi to visit her younger sister Stella, who#x27;s married to Stanley Kowalsky. Both women were the products of a genteel, Southern upbringing, and Blanche is appalled by Stanley#x27;s brutishness and the sweltering, seedy, French Quarter apartment in which her sister happily lives. Early in life, Blanche was psychologically devastated her young husband#x27;s death. He#x27;d committed suicide after Blanche had discovered his homosexuality and confronted him. Stella having departed the family estate, Belle Reve, for the Big City, the widowed Blanche was left to deal with the deaths of parents and the eventual loss of Belle Reve to creditors. Now, at the edge of sanity, Blanche perceives herself as a classic Southern lady fallen on hard times. But she has another side which Stanley, a male "pig" if there ever was one, immediately perceives. It#x27;s their tense interaction over several months that provides the story#x27;s conflict and seals Blanche#x27;s fate.pHow do the players compare? pAlec Baldwin#x27;s 1995 Stanley is more than adequate. OK, he doesn#x27;t have the animal presence of Marlon Brando#x27;s original, but at least the former doesn#x27;t talk as if through a mouthful of cotton. And if I hear the 1951 Stanley screech his high-pitched "Stella!" one more time, I#x27;ll lose it.pThe role of Blanche is better served by Jessica Lange than Vivien Leigh. To me, Leigh#x27;s version came off with a touch of spoiled brat, while Lange#x27;s embodied more of the vulnerability and residual gentility that comprised the essence of Blanche. In that persona, Leigh#x27;s illusions and delusions seemed overacted, while Lange#x27;s seemed inherently genuine. (Do I suffer from being too infatuated with Jessica#x27;s role in TOOTSIE?) pJohn Goodman as Mitch, who becomes smitten with Stanley#x27;s sister-in-law, is more of a flawed-yet-sympathetic figure than was Karl Malden#x27;s original. Perhaps it#x27;s because Goodman#x27;s more massive physique contrasts better with his (initial) gentleness. pPlayed by Diane Lane (1995) and Kim Hunter (1951), Stella is a toss-up. I give Ms. Lane the nod simply because she#x27;s a superb, contemporary actress that I fondly recall from LONESOME DOVE and UNFAITHFUL.pPurists will rage, but if I had to recommend one version over another, it would be this one. Filmed in color, it provides more atmosphere and depth than the BW original. And the viewer no longer has to cope with the early-1950s censorship that muddied dialog and scenes having to do with homosexuality, rape and nymphomania. This is a half-century later; let#x27;s move on for Chrissakes! After all, the "classic" story is Williams#x27;s original play. (Who knows? In 2050, a third screen edition may do it even better. Perhaps it#x27;ll be a holographic presentation.)pFor me, the best scene in both is at the end when Blanche is gallantly treated like the lady she believes herself to be, and she poignantly remarks, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." To get through life, we all do.
 This remake was a poor idea. January 21, 2007
Jorge Broa (Portugal)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Somehow this movie made just feels lost. Good work of the actors ,thats not in question. To someone younger,who not felt all the intensity breaktrough displayed in the original Streetcar, and see this picture as the 1st time he/she hear about it, it is an interesting one.
br /And that is not about purism.In all art creations the original is purest,cleanest ,closest to the intention of its creator.Crucial point.
br /One could say anything about Baldwins/Kovalsky or Blanche or the movie photografy, but that is filtered by the 21th century social concepts now accepted.Try imagine 'East of eden' or 'Ben-Hur' remake in the 2000's.Can you?
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