Given the situation, this is about as harsh as a film can get. Decidedly unpleasant, yet artistic.

You wouldn't think it was adapted from a play as it really takes advantage of the medium. There's a lot of stuff about the fear of facing reality (hence the title). It is also a film that, in a strange way, is about love. Richard Burton's and Elizabeth Taylor's performances are both incredible bringing a real intensity to the film whilst also making the film, particularly the first half an hour or so, really funny.

I fear how much of the emotion on screen stemmed from their real life marriage, Taylor and Burton realize their roles with horrifying accuracy.

an amazing working of edward albee's play put to film, with solid directing from mike nichols. but what shines here are the performances put on by all four main characters, especially liz taylor who probably played the role of her life here.

A complete masterpiece.

One of the only movies (or plays, for that matter) that can make me nauseous yet leave me in ecstasy.

The tight, razor sharp script full of incisive barbs and wry humor is wonderfully supported by remarkably rich and powerful performances by Taylor and Burton. Nichols' direction, while not as obviously brilliant as either the writing or acting, should not be overlooked, either: he captures the claustrophobic feel of the script wonderfully through his use of closeups and his remarkable manipulation of space (even the expansive lawn shrinks dramatically as Taylor appears in the background).

My god, the performances are simply DYNAMIC!!!

This is one of the best smoking dialogue treats I've seen.

A brutal, intense adaptation of Albee's brilliant play. When the film reaches its climax, we are as devastated by the events as the characters are. It's a terribly cynical look at marriage, and yet there's still a small ray of ambiguous hope at the end. Burton and Taylor are absolutely magnificent, Segal is fair, but Sandy Dennis isn't that hot. Perhaps it's just because her character is meant to be annoying, but her drunk acting (and this entire movie is drunk acting) doesn't ring true.

Great acting! BUT: This belongs in the theatre, with all the other overwrought, pretentious, actor-slash-self-indulgent crap that those kind of hell holes produce. There's nothing cinematic about this kammerspiel in which 'intelligent' people scream at each other for 2 hours, only to reveal a plot-twist that is God awfully stupid. If I could ever splice Christian Bale into any movie, I'd want him in that house going "I'll kick your ass if you don't shut up for a second!". Fucking ass.

Tremendous performances, beautiful cinematography, outstanding dialogue, one truly intense experience.

A pretty good movie but I found it generally painful to watch.

This is intense stuff, and I enjoyed it a lot. I can never tell which way I'm going to go on these high-octane chamber dramas with few characters. Some work, some don't. This one does. Even though the characters are completely unbelivable and the dialogue is far, far too witty and on-point that they could possibly be making it up on the spot, I really believed this film. By the end I cared deeply about what would happen to the characters. The main reason for that must be the excellent acting.

extremely well-acted and a good script

Burton and taylor ripping it up.pure spectacle.

The brilliant screenplay and powerful acting make for one masterful movie.

Absolutely one of my favorite films of all time. The acting is superb from all leads and Albee's script (torn almost to the letter from his play) is razor-sharp. Incredible film, absolutely amazing.

With outstanding performances by each actor and a very well adapted screenplay, this movie version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf shows the aversion of reality and psychological complexity just as well as any stage performance could. It's like it was meant to be made this way, and Elizabeth Taylor was born for the role of Martha, the seductive and often scary wife of an overborne college professor. Awesome!

Life is hard when you're married apparently. Total bomb and supremely overrated. They never give you a reason to care and how can you? All the characters are idiots. Acting is good but the material sucks. I just hate when movies are obviously plays before they are converted to films, if you don't care about the characters then there is nothing left for you. No interesting shots, no cool editing, just idiots talking, talking, talking. God, they really talk a lot.

Edward Albee's only true mainstrean hit gets a straightforward adaptation by Nichols; the question is how long can you watch fireworks before they become boring. Liz and Dick certainly must have worked out some agressions on this picture, for all the good it did them.

Amazing performances by all four leads make for an incredible movie about love, hate and dysfunctional relationships. It gets a little too absurd near the end but the acting is so flawless that you don't really care.

a great movie with great actors and a great play.