Review of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (67)

Plot
A professor and his wife turn an evening of cocktails into an unrelenting onslaught of wrenching disclosures and bellowed epithets. Soon the couple's guests - a junior professor and his wife - get sucked into the vortex of the warring duo's unbounded fury and endless antipathy.

Jason's Thoughts
I'm not one who likes to arrive at a party late when all of the people there are already drunk.  It bothers me mainly due to the fact everyone there is having a great time and I have to play catch up.  It really ruins the whole mood of the night.

Walking in to 'Who's Afriad of Virginia Woolf?' is a lot like coming into a party late.  Everyone is already three sheets to the wind and are rambling on incoherently about nothing in particular, but they are all angry for some reason.  For two hours we get to see two couples argue and bicker and then argue some more about their relationships and personal choices, whether or not they have any truth to them.  Basically the kind of enlightening conversation that occurs when people have had too much to drink and talk into the wee hours of the morning.

The film is one of the few on the 100 Years... 100 Movies list that I hadn't seen or at least heard about, which is strange considering it is held in such high regard and was nominated for 13 Academy Awards of which it won five, including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.  One of the awards it was nominated for was Best Picture, though looking at the 1967 nominees, is in good company with other movies that I haven't heard of such as 'The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming,' 'Alfie,' 'The Sand Pebbles,' and the winner, 'A Man for All Seasons.'

In seeing all of the positive reviews of the movie I thought 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' would be a lot better than it was.  Maybe I am missing something that the critics and fans of this movie saw, but to me it was about four highly unlikeable characters acting irrational and lashing out on one another after having too much to drink.

It is hard for me to rate a movie with one star unless I really hated it.  This movie earned that rating with flying colors.

Crystal's Thoughts
There are many, many words to describe this movie.  Let's just start with the alphabet, letter A - awful and annoying.  It was so annoying that I, admitting here I was in a grumpy state, had to walk away from the movie after 45 minutes.  After a good night's rest and some relaxation time, I knew we had to finish it.

I think the worst part was the storyline itself.  Even after watching it all the way through, I had to Google it to find out just what exactly the storyline was.  I'm still unsure.

One thing I am sure of, though, is the horrendous acting in this movie.  While I have never seen another movie with Elizabeth Taylor, I was expecting so much more based on the hype that surrounds the woman.  What a disappointment.  Anyone can act crazed and drunk and that is pretty much all she accomplished in her part for this film.   The only reason I can fathom that this movie scored big was per this excerpt I found about it on Wikipedia:

Jack Valenti identifies the film as the first controversial movie he had to deal with as president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The movie was the first to use the word "screw" and the phrase "hump the hostess" on screen.

While I would watch this movie again over A Clockwork Orange, I do not recommend it to anyone who doesn't have to watch it, unless you have a good pair of earplugs or mute Ms. Taylor.  Perhaps it is better with subtitles, but I prefer to not waste another two hours on it.

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