A Streetcar Named Desire · reception & legacy

1951 · Elia Kazan

How A Streetcar Named Desire has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A sensation from day one — it won three acting Oscars (a first for any film) — but the version audiences saw was trimmed to appease the censors; the 1993 restoration put back the cut material, and today it's remembered less as a controversy than as the moment screen acting changed.

What's debated

The perennial fan debate: Brando's Method electricity versus Vivien Leigh's old-Hollywood tragedienne — two acting eras colliding in one film, and film Twitter still picks sides.

Its footprint

'STELLA!' is one of the most parodied screams in movie history — Seinfeld and The Simpsons did it, and New Orleans holds an actual Stella-shouting contest — while 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers' remains endlessly quoted.

Where it stands

Bedrock canon: the 'before and after' film of American screen acting that every performance nerd is eventually told they must see.

★ Did you know? Brando, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter all came from the Broadway production, but Broadway's Blanche, Jessica Tandy, was replaced by Vivien Leigh — who had played the role on the London stage — and of the four leads, only Brando failed to win the Oscar, losing to Humphrey Bogart.