Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

A classic is always a life-saver. Whenever you desperately want to find a movie but can not choose which, there is always one, hidden in your archive waiting for the moment it will come out, again, as it had been for years and years; and Cat On A Hot Thin Roof is certainly one of those.

I have known the story of the movie for a long time; I had read the play by Tennessee Williams when I was 15 and seen the film version the first time about 7 years ago. The play had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 and the movie adaptation had been nominated for various academy awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Newman), Best Actress (Taylor), and Best Director (Brooks). It tells the story of a family in crisis, the wealthy Pollitts. While in the center, there is the unhappy couple Brick and Maggie 'the cat' Pollitt and their struggle with each other due to some issues revealed little by little as the play proceeds, around them is the whole family fighting over the conflict of each other's interests.

The play revolves around several themes; mendacity, a word that is often used by the younger son Brick to describe his feeling of disgust for the life he has been living in; lies running through the whole family, except for Brick, about Big Daddy's deteriorating health; and a hidden presence of homosexuality, between Brick and his friend Skipper, which is more dominant in the original play rather than the movie version in which it is more like an expression of mixed feelings, and a strong admiration. There is a continuous fight between and within the characters, as the inevitable death of the authoritarian head of the family, Big Daddy, is soon to happen and the long unspoken and waiting family issues can no longer be hidden for there is not much time left.

As an admirer of the classics, I must say that I did find the whole setting and the actings by the characters incredible, although they are quite theatrical; however, if you look at the movies of that era, you will find all of the movies are like so, different than today's characterizations that we find successful; rather than a complete correspondence to reality, a more or less exaggerated style that makes each a sculpturesque icon. And yet, this exaggeration does not take away the credibility, it even makes it stronger.

If you still have not watched Cat On A Hot Thin Roof, I would definitely suggest you do. Even if you do not like the classics, at least watch it in memory of a young and shining-faced Paul Newman, and for an admiration of beautiful 26 years old Elizabeth Taylor.