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Reviews
The Glass Menagerie (1973)
Average Film
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a play about a small family, the Wingfields, growing up in a small apartment in St. Louis. The main character and narrator, Tom, is an unhappy man working at a factory. Tom is forced to stay home in order to pay for his mother and "crippled" sister Laura. Tom and his mother fight almost constantly the entire movie. This leads him to enough rage to leave his home, abandoning his family. The only thing that happens in the movie is a man coming over for dinner, who Mrs. Wingfield tries to set up with Laura. Plot gets a 2/5 star.
Acting in the Glass Menagerie was an element that really was done well. Amanda Wingfield was played perfectly, she talks the entire movie. By about midway through the movie she should be strangled for how annoying her voice gets. Not only Amanda, but also Tom, you can really feel Tom's desire to get out of his house. He almost sounds suicidal during the movie because he shows true hatred for his current life. Acting gets 4/5 stars.
The overall direction that this movie took compared to what was expected after reading it is very intriguing to analyze. It was anticipated that Mrs. Wingfield would be a very, very, talkative women. However, I don't think it could have been expected that she could be THAT talkative. It was very hard to sit through the first section of this movie. Another odd direction this play took was how it portrayed Laura, Tom's 'crippled' sister. She is a very awkwardly shy girl who has a brace on her leg. She seems to have some kind of mental illness as well. I did not think that Laura would be played like that. I thought she would be more physically impaired than mentally. The director had other intentions however.
A Doll's House (1973)
Don't Bother, Read it Instead
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, was originally a play, but then later made into a movie. The movie being a 1973-film really exposes the poor qualities of early American films and plays.
The play starts off with the main character, Nora, playing the role of a typical wife during the era. She is treated as if her husband owns her, this is exemplified when he gives her some of 'his' money as if he's giving her an allowance. We then find out that she signed a loan statement in her father's name in order to get money to save her husband. This then comes back to bite her in the bum when her husband finds out, he becomes furious at her. This is when you realize that Nora is not just the typical wife of the 1800's we had believed her to be. She comes back at him with rage of her own and then decides to leave him and her family. The play ends with a door slamming.
The play itself I found to be rather bland, containing one of the worst conflicts in any movie ever. I know that it was written in an earlier time, when I'm sure this was a rather exciting play. In the present context however, I would compare it to the plot of one of those low-budget parody films like Epic Movie or Scary Movie. A conflict, in my opinion, should have more severe consequences than a scolding from a husband. As for the plot, the side story with Mr. Krogstad and Mrs. Linde was alright. I couldn't really ask for more because the play can only be so long. I think the most valuable thing that this movie did was expose the patriarchy, a social norm at the time. The patriarchy, in a nutshell, is the idea that the father rules the household and the mother is beneath him. This is important because it was the first of its kind, it really exposed this social system for what it was, immoral.
As for the play itself, not the story, I think it was well made for the most part. Unfortunately it wasn't a very high budget production. When you look at it compared to say The Godfather (1972), it does not look that bad. As for the acting I thought the actress playing Nora, Claire Bloom, did a very nice job portraying her character.
With a bad production value and a ridiculous conflict, I conclude that the only reason to watch this play would be to capture the true themes of the play. To appreciate what it was like in a household during the 19th century.