#67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

#67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Nick: I'm tired, I've been drinking since nine o'clock, my wife is vomiting, there's been a lot of screaming going on around here!

George: You're a monster.  You are.
Martha: I'm loud and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to, but I am not a monster.  I'm not.
George: You're a spoiled, self-indulgent, willful, dirty-minded, liquor-ridden -
Martha: SNAP!  It went SNAP!  I'm not gonna try to get through to you any more.  There was a second back there, yeah, there was a second, just a second when I could have gotten through to you, when maybe we could have cut through all this, this CRAP.  But it's past, and I'm not gonna try.



I didn't like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at all.  It felt like watching a play (a pretentious one).  Since it's based on a play, that shouldn't be surprising, but I don't think it was adapted for the screen well at all.  Some big changes would have been needed to make it work as a movie.

It takes place during one night and centers on two couples, Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis), and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and George (Richard Burton).  They're all messed up human beings.  They screw around, drink, shriek, hurt each other, and spout dysfunctional nonsense:

George: You can sit around with the gin running out of your mouth; you can humiliate me; you can tear me to pieces all night, that's perfectly okay, that's all right.
Martha: You can stand it!
George: I cannot stand it!
Martha: You can stand it, you married me for it!

I'm not sure why it has garnered so much acclaim.  I thought the acting was over the top and far more suited for the stage (though all four main actors were nominated for Oscars, and Taylor and Dennis won, so what do I know?).

The most interesting component is that of the fictional son that Martha and George have created, but this is never fully explored or explained.

And I still don't get the title: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  What does that mean?

I suppose I just didn't get it.

It actually makes me think of something a character from Tootsie (Jeff, a screenwriter played by Bill Murray) said: "I don't like it when people come up to me after my plays and say, "I really dug your message, man."  Or, "I really dug your play, man, I cried."  You know.  I like it when people come up to me the next day, or a week later, and they say, "I saw your play.  What happened?""

If that's what they were going for in this case, mission accomplished.

What happened?