Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf Movie Review Roger Ebert

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Summaries

• A biting, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a deplorable night.

• George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) are a centre-anile married couple, whose charged relationship is defined by vitriolic exact battles, which underlies what seems like an emotional dependence upon each other. This verbal abuse is fueled by an excessive consumption of booze. George being an associate history professor in a New Carthage university where Martha's male parent is the President adds an extra dimension to their human relationship. Tardily one Sat evening afterwards a faculty mixer, Martha invites Nick (George Segal) and Beloved (Sandy Dennis), an aggressive young biology professor new to the university and his mousy wife, over for a nightcap. As the evening progresses, Nick and Beloved, plied with more than alcohol, get caught up in George and Martha'south games of needing to injure each other and everyone around them. The ultimate corruption comes in the grade of talk of George and Martha's unseen xvi-yr-old son, whose birthday is the following day.

• History associate professor George (Richard Burton) and his boozy married woman, Martha (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), render late 1 Saturday night from a cocktail party at the habitation of the university president, Martha'south father. Martha announces that she invited another couple, newly appointed instructor Nick (George Segal) and his timid wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis), over for a nightcap. When the younger couple arrive, the dark erupts into a no-holds-barred torrent of marital angst and exact tirades.

• Psychological realism and foul language: George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Matriarch Elizabeth Taylor) are as far from the bourgeois 1950s perfect married couple as you can get, alternatively badgering, berating, abusing, and loving each other, both alone and accompanied by the naïve young married couple that have come over for a nightcap. The fun and games in which George and Martha involve Nick (George Segal) and Dearest (Sandy Dennis) are a lacerating look at the older couple's beingness, where the emotional brutalizing fill an unspeakable void at their eye, and a troubling preview of what the younger couple'south life could go. Combines the bland, the vulgar, and the poetic.

• I literate and profane night in the pathological marriage of two tortured souls, a middle-aged New England associate professor and his carping wife. Turning the underbelly of conservative academia into a microcosm of human relationships in all their arduous complexities, it's a harrowing descent into the private lives and painful secrets of ii couples thrown together for an evening. George (Richard Burton) is an acquaintance professor of history who has turned to alcohol to deal with his vituperative, cruel married woman Martha (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), whose appetite for administering corruption knows no premises. Invited to the couple's home for late-night drinks are new professor Nick (George Segal), and his naive married woman Dear, where over the class of the evening, the polished veneer of the hosts tarnishes grotesquely. The witty repartee of consummate sophisticate Martha degenerates into increasingly violent verbal abuse of both her husband and guests, while George'south stoic façade crumbles both physically and emotionally. The horrified Nick and Honey (Sandy Dennis) initially come off every bit happier foils to the misery of the older married couple, only the guests are before long mirroring George and Martha in their mutual antagonism, giving voice to buried resentments and alcohol-fueled revelations of repressed injuries.

Spoilers

The synopsis below may give away of import plot points.

Synopsis

• Set up on the campus of a small-scale New England college, the film focuses on the volatile relationship of a middle-aged couple: associate history professor George (Richard Burton) and his alcoholic wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), the daughter of the academy president.

  It's 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and they accept returned from 1 of her male parent's Saturday night gatherings. Martha announces she has invited a immature couple--Nick (George Segal), a immature, adept-looking, newly appointed teacher, and his mousey wife Honey (Sandy Dennis)--to join them for late-night drinks. George is disturbed because she did so without consulting him first, prompting Martha to launch into the showtime of many loud and lengthy tirades during which she taunts and criticizes him. Knowing his married woman is drunk and quite lewd, he asks her to behave herself when they go far, and when the doorbell rings, he warns her to refrain from mentioning their child to their company.

  Overhearing Martha'south rough retort every bit the door opens, Nick and Beloved immediately feel sick at ease and quickly find themselves caught in the middle of a exact war zone when their efforts to engage in small talk gear up off a volley of insults between their hosts. Martha begins to flirt lewdly with Nick while his meek wife tries to pretend she is unaware of what is happening.

  While Martha is showing Honey where the bath is, George tests Nick's exact sparring skills, merely the beau is no match for his host. Realizing he and his married woman are becoming embroiled in the eye of marital warfare, he suggests they depart, but George cajoles him into staying.

  Upon returning to the living room alone, Dear innocently mentions to George she was unaware he and Martha had a son on the verge of jubilant his 16th birthday. Martha reappears in a new outfit--form-fitting slacks and a revealing blouse--and when her hubby makes a snide remark most the ensemble, she begins to demean his abilities as a teacher, then escalates her seduction of Nick, complimenting him on the trunk he developed as both a quarterback and an intercollegiate country boxing champion while criticizing George's paunch. She informs their guests about a past incident when George refused to engage in a friendly outdoor boxing match with his father-in-law and Martha put on a pair of gloves and punched him in the jaw, knocking him into the bushes. Equally she relates the story, George aims a shotgun at the back of her caput, causing Honey to scream. He pulls the trigger, which releases an umbrella, while he tells his married woman she'due south expressionless.

  Honey again raises the subject of George and Martha's son, prompting the couple to appoint in a chat Martha quickly tries to terminate without success. To counterattack George'due south relentless comments nearly the boy, she tells their guests her husband is unsure the child is his ain, although he most assuredly is. They argue about the color of the boy'south eyes until George threatens to expose the truth about the boy. Furious, Martha accuses him of existence a failure whose youthful, idealistic plans for the future slowly deteriorated every bit he came to realize he wasn't aggressive enough to follow in his father-in-constabulary's footsteps, leaving her stuck with a bomb. George cuts the diatribe curt by spinning Beloved around and mockingly singing, "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" a joke the shrewd Martha had made herself during the party earlier that evening.

  Inebriated and on the verge of throwing up from George's spinning, Dearest rushes from the room. Martha goes to the kitchen to brand coffee, and George and Nick go outside. The younger man confesses he was attracted to Honey more than for her family unit'due south money than passion, and married her only considering she mistakenly believed she was pregnant. George describes his own union as one of never-ending accommodation and aligning, so admits he considers Nick a threat. George likewise tells a story about a boy he grew up with. This boy had accidentally killed his mother. Years later, George claims the boy was driving with his father. He swerved to "miss a porcupine" in the road, and the resulting accident killed his male parent. The boy ended up living out his days in a mental infirmary.

  When their guests suggest leaving, George insists on driving them dwelling. In the car, the talk returns to George and Martha'southward son. They approach a roadhouse, and Honey suggests they stop to dance. While Honey and George watch, Nick suggestively dances with Martha, who continues to mock George and criticize his inadequacies. George unplugs the jukebox and announces the game is over. In response, Martha alludes to the fact he may take murdered his parents like the protagonist in his unpublished, non-fiction novel, prompting George to strangle Martha until Nick manages to pull him away from her.

  George convinces the possessor to serve them one more round earlier closing and suggests that, having played a game of 'Humiliate the Host,' the quartet should now engage in 'Hump the Hostess' or 'Get the Guests.' He so tells the group about a 2d novel he allegedly has written about a young couple from the Midwest, a expert-looking teacher and his timid wife, who marry because of her hysterical pregnancy and then settle in a small higher town. An embarrassed Dearest realizes Nick indiscreetly told George almost their past and runs from the room with Nick in pursuit.

  In the parking lot, George tells his wife he cannot stand the style she constantly humiliates him, and she tauntingly accuses him of having married her for just that reason. Their rage erupts into a proclamation of "total war." Martha drives off with Nick and Honey, leaving her hubby to follow on foot.

  When George arrives dwelling house, he discovers Honey passed out in the car's back seat and realizes his wife has taken Nick upstairs to their bedroom. When Martha accuses Nick of being sexually inadequate, he blames his impotency on all the liquor he has consumed. George mentions his and Martha'due south son, prompting her to reminisce about his nativity and babyhood and how he nearly was destroyed past his father. George accuses Martha of engaging in destructive and abusive behavior with the male child, who oftentimes ran away to escape her sexual advances. George then announces he has received a telegram with bad news--the male child was killed the previous afternoon on a state road when he swerved to avoid hitting a porcupine and crashed into a tree.

  Every bit Martha argues with George that he "can't practise this" and begs him not to "kill" their son, Nick suddenly realizes the truth--Martha and George had never been able to have a baby, for reasons that are unexplained. Instead, their game together is to imagine they have a son and invent situations and stories of him. By declaring their son expressionless, accordingly, George has "killed" him (There are hints of this throughout the movie that become articulate in retrospect--for example, when George and Nick were sitting by the swing waiting for Honey to stop throwing up, George comments quietly that Martha never had any pregnancies).

  The immature couple departs quietly, and George and Martha are left alone every bit the day begins to break outside. They speak quietly, and in the last lines Martha answers the title question with "I am, George, I am."

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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/plotsummary

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