Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

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A night of fun and drinks for two college professors (one old, one new) and their wives turns into an emotional and psychological nightmare.

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Directed By: Mike Nichols

Written By: Ernest Lehman, Edward Albee

Starring: George Segal, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis

Genre: Drama

Country: USA

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? belongs to 100 collections

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
7	Pickpocket	3 _28th
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.
5	Magb	95 _94th
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 unbelievable 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.
5	PeaceAnarchy	93 _98th
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.
3	MartinTeller	96 _98th
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.
3	eveelun	89 _96th
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).
3	BattleToad	95 _97th
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!
3	TedDedon	96 _95th
I'm ashamed it took me so long to see this masterpiece. This is a defining achievement for an actor's movie. The performances, in particular by Burton and Taylor are some of the best ever caught on film. This a twisted thrillride with mixed emotions and an unbelievably riveting look at a failing marriage. The problem is that it's so hard to sympathize with one character over the other, and that's what makes it so brilliant.
3	jonquill	95 _98th
I fear how much of the emotion on screen stemmed from their real life marriage, Taylor and Burton realize their roles with horrifying accuracy.
3	KasperL	90 _97th
The brilliant screenplay and powerful acting make for one masterful movie.
3	WWallce4prez	92 _98th
I can't say anymore about the performances in this film..it has all been said. I cannot think of another film that literally made me tired. No, I was not about to fall asleep, rather it was a feeling of exhaustion. Martha and George get under your skin and take away your energy.
3	DougReese	100 _96th
Combining the banal, the vulgar and the poetic for a masterwork screen adaptation of a fantastic play - clashing together the theatrical with the cinematic to bring on a style all of its own. Nothing can prepare you for the impact that comes in a nice sadistic package called "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".
2	willofgaia	93 _82nd
Fantastic by all four, and extremely funny and dramatic, often at the same time.
2	CCLZA	85 _89th
Quite possibly the best acting by an ensemble you'll see in your entire life, it's really amazing to see how all 4 are perfect in their roles, specially Taylor in the performance of her life.
2	heandhishair	95 _97th
It's only the film that started Mike Nichols' film career, got Elizabeth Taylor an Oscar, and changed the way people viewed obscenity in modern cinema. Why wasn't this on here until I searched for it?
2	Farzan	91 _90th
An absolutely fantastic screenplay driven by incredible performances by Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. This look at a failing marriage is brilliant, although maybe taken to extreme levels. It is the ending, and that backstory that really clicked with me. It is more than just a story about a failing marriage, there are also psychological elements as well. And what is interesting about this film, is there is no side to pick, both are despicable characters, but are they for the right reason?
2	caiman	55 _18th
Listening to despicable people drunkenly bicker for 2 hours is the only fair way to describe this movie. I recognize the quality in Taylor's performance, but that didn't make her annoying character any easier to tolerate (in fact it probably made it harder). This movie has a unique style and is well shot, but it's utterly obnoxious and relentlessly unpleasant.
2	Spunkie	86 _98th
This is one of the best smoking dialogue treats I've seen.
2	Bitch Alert	100 _97th
A staggering look at a dysfunctional marriage and how its problems begin to unravel and become some sort of a perverted social experiment. The actors are of course astonishing - even Sandy Dennis' somewhat dim character has enough layers and depth to explain her strange, childish behavior. Watching Virginia Woolfe is a haunting experience, reminiscent of, let's say, Rosemary's Baby. It is much more frightening than any of the modern crappy Hollywood horror.
2	Murray	65 _13th
The movie says everything, but none of it means anything. Do you want to watch an irrational couple argue pointlessly for two hours about the stupidest game ever?
2	kevinjoseph	79 _97th
Four people lie, yell, and drink a lot. Naturally, it's one of my favorite films.
1	fudgieb	93 _83rd
Just watched this for the first time. I finally understand why Elizabeth Taylor is such an icon. Weird and discomfiting. The drunk blonde girl really kept me on edge the whole time.
1	Moribunny	38 _23rd
If there are two things I like about this movie, it's the premise and Richard Burton. But as was the case with 1962's A Long Day's Journey Into Night, I consider this another well-meaning movie adaptation of a lousy play. The dialogue is way too over-the-top and the characters wear their psychologies on their sleeves. It might have been good if it was layered and had subtlety, which would have lent more excitement to all the fighting.
1	gleeb	86 _95th
A horrible, hate-filled nightmare. I can't stop watching.
1	CinematicESP	93 _93rd
Tremendous performances, beautiful cinematography, outstanding dialogue, one truly intense experience.
1	twincinema	95 _96th
"She never cooks, she keeps a filthy house, and she talks profanely! She's the queen of the harpies!"
1	Stain	90 _86th
Wonderfully dark and disturbing drama. Those of you who think Liz and Dick were boring need to check this one out. Working-class families beat on each other physically; those higher in station beat on each other verbally and emotionally
1	JooJoo	7 _99th
The greatest romance ever put to film.
1	Freder	65 _47th
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.
1	soliloquist	85 _85th
One of the only movies (or plays, for that matter) that can make me nauseous yet leave me in ecstasy.
1	muutanet	93 _98th
A great masterpiece with stunning script and acting. Both Taylor and Burton were brilliant in the characters and Sandy brought a good facial acting. The viewer is tangling nicely between the truth and the fiction. For me the story was not about a grumbling marriage, but a couple who faced the scene/play perioidically. They were evidently in love though there was something underneath that made her eat him alive. The fear of truth.
1	bellamyr	96 _99th
If you've just got engaged give this a miss otherwise this is spectacular. A loving, brutal, painful and disfunctional relationship between Taylor and Burton make this film as compelling as a car crash. You know you shouldn't watch but you've just got to. Brilliantly painful and funny in equal measures a tour de force from all four leads and a film you just have to see.
1	TreyAtwood	54 _16th
Awful. I was wondering how long it could possible take for the film get to the point, until I realized that there wasn't any.
1	geohawk	95 _94th
I loved this as a play when I saw it as an 18-yr-old. But then again, I didn't know what an associate professor of history was, or for that matter, what the emotional stakes were. Setting this in a house that looked real and lived in (rather than an expansive stage) makes everything more claustrophic and unsettling. The photography is amazing, and, now that I am older than Burton and Taylor were when they made this, I can say that I am astounded by the acting.
1	purgatos	93 _94th
This is just an incredibly well executed film. Sharp, witty dialogue that never feels 'real', but it all works perfectly here. Keeps you on the edge of your seat without needing any sort of action set-piece, just words.
1	graveyardtan	80 _57th
Lehman and Albee's script is extremely tight for the first two thirds of the film, but just as the movie begins to climax, it loses some of that glorious nuance in favor of broader theatrical notes that, while interesting, don't ring quite true to life.
1	Mechatigger	100 _91st
A cinematic feast thanks to Nichols's astute debut as director; Taylor's towering portrayal as the foul-mouthed Martha (Academy Award); Burton's magnificent portrait of the tortured professor; Dennis's Oscar-winning performance as the nervous young wife.
1	JohnSandwich	95 _98th
extremely well-acted and a good script
1	DavidBlast	40 _28th
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.
1	jodamico	95 _99th
Quite possibly the greatest play of the 20th century, only enhanced by the transition to film. Liz Taylor and Richard Burton's interpretations of their characters are striking, unpredictable, and quite brilliant. They humanize them past the words. Sandy Dennis, too, is stellar in a thankless but pivotal role.
1	Noblet	93 _97th
The dialogue is spectacular, it just flows from one screaming rant to a quiet monologue and then back to the ranting again and again. The four actors are all great in their roles, especially Taylor and Burton. What surprised me most about this film is it's striking cinematography. The framing, lighting, shadows and use of close-ups really make this a great looking movie, instead of just a boring flatly filmed play.
1	goremeat	80 _76th
Never have I been so pleased to share absolutely no experiential reference with a film. It's quite marvellous, but it speaks with a language I gladly do not yet understand.
1	W00DY	90 _95th
It's always a huge risk to bring a masterful piece of drama to the screen, but thankfully Nichols took that risk. The script is adapted perfectly to capture the biting bickering and wicked humour. The cast are all excellent but it's Taylor who really stands out in her portrayal of a drunk.

Average Percentile 73.56% from 2034 Ratings