A Streetcar Named Desire

     When it comes to plays, whether I am acting in them or just reading them, I prefer not to see them on film or onstage until after I have read them and made up my own mind how a character is to be portrayed.  Most times when you see the movie or the play before reading it, you will always picture that actor's portrayal of the character from that point on.  If you see it before acting in it, you will unintentionally or intentionally act out that character the same way you have seen it acted out.  That just seems to be the way it is.
     With Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, I had seen neither of the films, nor had I seen it onstage before reading it.  I have since watched the film versions, both with Marlon Brando/Vivien Leigh and with Alec Baldwin/Jessica Lange.  I have to say that both Leigh and Lange played the character of Blanche DuBois a little more crazy than I would have thought.  True, she was a bit dillusional and was even more so after the assault by Stanley.  I just did not picture her as that downright batshit.  I will say that Leigh was much closer to what I had pictured.  Lange went over the top with the craziness.  The character of Stanley, on the other hand, was pretty much as I had seen him.  Brando, of course, doing the much better job of acting the part.  Baldwin had his moments and he is not a terrible actor, but he is no Marlon Brando.  On a surprising note, though I am a fan of John Goodman, I did not care for him in the role of Mitch.
     All things considered, though the Brando/Leigh film version was not quite as true to the original play, it is the much better film adaptation.  The acting was superior by far.  There is a great deal of merit to the newer version but the classic is still the best.  It is difficult to take on a role that has been done so well to be deemed a classic and still be able to make it your own.  I give Kudos to the cast of the newer version for trying but you just cannot live up to the original.