Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of those Hollywood classics that only get better and gain more significance as time goes by. It's based on a play by Tennessee Williams and, as usually in his plays, many references and unmentioned taboos can be found, such as homosexuality. Both the director and the script writer, Richard Brooks and James Poe, knew what kind of volatile and controversial issues were hidden in the play. But by highlighting different aspects and using professional actors with whom the audience was already familiar, they succeed in making a big commercial hit which, by all means, doesn't mean that its cinematographic or artistic value would be any lower.
Paul Newman plays Brick, an alcoholic injured ex-football player, who rejects the affections of his wife, Maggie, played by Elizabeth Taylor. When Brick's father who is dying of cancer pays a visit, painful and hidden secrets from the past start to reveal themselves. Such as the odd relationship between Brick and his football buddy, Skipper, who has committed a suicide.
Most of all, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a story about father son relationship but it drills down deeper. Homosexuality, the relationship between Brick and Skipper, is an unmentioned taboo. In the 1950's even the pronunciation of the word was forbidden and censored. So Brooks had to find a substitute for homosexuality, something that wouldn't harm the play but something that the audience was able to accept. He highlighted the emotional immaturity of the protagonist. The film needed a reason why Brick would turn Maggie down but it couldn't be homosexuality, never. Brooks, together with the writer, solved this issue by one extremely charged scene. The scene, where Brick threatens Maggie with his crutch, because she's seducing him. From her arms Brick escapes to the bathroom where there is Maggie's bathrobe. Brick takes the bathrobe and embeds his face in it. The bathrobe, of course, symbolizes Maggie herself and the scene proves that Brick still truly yearns for her.
The film's explanation for Brick's rejection of Maggie is his emotional immaturity. He is unable to grow up and face the challenges of adulthood. This is also the basic reason for his devotion to Skipper who has encouraged his desire to stay as a boyish football hero. Brick wants to believe that Maggie is responsible for Skipper's death; he rejects Maggie because the death of Skipper means the death of the boyish world in which he lived together with him. The theme of emotional immaturity was already a part of Williams' play but Brooks had to highlight it to hide the homosexuality even deeper. The suicide committed by Skipper is one of those hidden secrets that lie in the plays by Tennessee Williams. The secrets which rise to the surface in the climax where the characters have to face them.
But, to my mind, homosexuality is just one of the layers of this multidimensional film which can even survive the toughest analyses regarding stylistics. In the aesthetics of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof nature and material meet each other; the garden and the indoors. The storm and the quarrel become comparable. The film starts with a sunny weather. It's Bid Daddy's (Brick's father) birthday, who has had cancer for some time but now everything is supposed to be just fine, he's getting better. Until it is revealed that the doctor was lying. Big Daddy is dying of cancer after all. Suddenly rain, thunder and darkness descend over the mansion. The weather is, of course, metaphorical to what happens inside the house and, in the end, the rain stops. The storm didn't do much harm to the garden, unlike indoors; to the human relationships.
In addition to its description of father son relationship and homosexuality, it's a film about materialism and the illusion of bourgeois peace and happiness. Big Daddy has tried to fix the mistakes he has done in his life by material, by giving things to his family he never got from his father. Materialism, wealth and loveless love characterize the film as none of the characters really love each other: Brick rejects Maggie, his relationship with Skipper seems quite possessive, Brick's brother's relationship with his wife is artificial to say the least, and even Big Daddy admits that he hasn't really loved Brick's mother -- the bourgeoisie doesn't love each other, not even themselves. The facade of idyllic life and the American dream is stripped down from all its illusionary form to reality of anxiety and depression.
Such conventional issues like alcoholism, depression and stagnation are everyday life for the characters. But in the life of the bourgeoisie it's just hidden below the surface. These themes culminate brilliantly in the scene where Brick runs outside of the mansion with his father. He tries to drive away, drunk, but the car's wire sticks to the mud. It's impossible to move, to live and to actually love. Desolation, loveless love and decay of morality hide in every corner. The spoiled children of Brick's brother, unfulfilled dreams, misfortune and desperation. The children of capitalism meet reality, which isn't glamorous nor pretty at all.
Paul Newman plays Brick, an alcoholic injured ex-football player, who rejects the affections of his wife, Maggie, played by Elizabeth Taylor. When Brick's father who is dying of cancer pays a visit, painful and hidden secrets from the past start to reveal themselves. Such as the odd relationship between Brick and his football buddy, Skipper, who has committed a suicide.
Most of all, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a story about father son relationship but it drills down deeper. Homosexuality, the relationship between Brick and Skipper, is an unmentioned taboo. In the 1950's even the pronunciation of the word was forbidden and censored. So Brooks had to find a substitute for homosexuality, something that wouldn't harm the play but something that the audience was able to accept. He highlighted the emotional immaturity of the protagonist. The film needed a reason why Brick would turn Maggie down but it couldn't be homosexuality, never. Brooks, together with the writer, solved this issue by one extremely charged scene. The scene, where Brick threatens Maggie with his crutch, because she's seducing him. From her arms Brick escapes to the bathroom where there is Maggie's bathrobe. Brick takes the bathrobe and embeds his face in it. The bathrobe, of course, symbolizes Maggie herself and the scene proves that Brick still truly yearns for her.
The film's explanation for Brick's rejection of Maggie is his emotional immaturity. He is unable to grow up and face the challenges of adulthood. This is also the basic reason for his devotion to Skipper who has encouraged his desire to stay as a boyish football hero. Brick wants to believe that Maggie is responsible for Skipper's death; he rejects Maggie because the death of Skipper means the death of the boyish world in which he lived together with him. The theme of emotional immaturity was already a part of Williams' play but Brooks had to highlight it to hide the homosexuality even deeper. The suicide committed by Skipper is one of those hidden secrets that lie in the plays by Tennessee Williams. The secrets which rise to the surface in the climax where the characters have to face them.
But, to my mind, homosexuality is just one of the layers of this multidimensional film which can even survive the toughest analyses regarding stylistics. In the aesthetics of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof nature and material meet each other; the garden and the indoors. The storm and the quarrel become comparable. The film starts with a sunny weather. It's Bid Daddy's (Brick's father) birthday, who has had cancer for some time but now everything is supposed to be just fine, he's getting better. Until it is revealed that the doctor was lying. Big Daddy is dying of cancer after all. Suddenly rain, thunder and darkness descend over the mansion. The weather is, of course, metaphorical to what happens inside the house and, in the end, the rain stops. The storm didn't do much harm to the garden, unlike indoors; to the human relationships.
In addition to its description of father son relationship and homosexuality, it's a film about materialism and the illusion of bourgeois peace and happiness. Big Daddy has tried to fix the mistakes he has done in his life by material, by giving things to his family he never got from his father. Materialism, wealth and loveless love characterize the film as none of the characters really love each other: Brick rejects Maggie, his relationship with Skipper seems quite possessive, Brick's brother's relationship with his wife is artificial to say the least, and even Big Daddy admits that he hasn't really loved Brick's mother -- the bourgeoisie doesn't love each other, not even themselves. The facade of idyllic life and the American dream is stripped down from all its illusionary form to reality of anxiety and depression.
Such conventional issues like alcoholism, depression and stagnation are everyday life for the characters. But in the life of the bourgeoisie it's just hidden below the surface. These themes culminate brilliantly in the scene where Brick runs outside of the mansion with his father. He tries to drive away, drunk, but the car's wire sticks to the mud. It's impossible to move, to live and to actually love. Desolation, loveless love and decay of morality hide in every corner. The spoiled children of Brick's brother, unfulfilled dreams, misfortune and desperation. The children of capitalism meet reality, which isn't glamorous nor pretty at all.