Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on a cold night, as Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and George (Richard Burton) make their way back home from a party. They are seen strolling, arm in arm – and apart from a few mutterings, the middle-aged couple is silent. This peaceful, unimposing opening comes directly before the movie erupts in true theatrical form, as the film’s characters start to take shape. Almost the moment they step in the door, tired and drunk, Martha finds the opportunity to squeeze George for some juice. This triggers a violent downward spiral, as they plunge into the depths of domestic hell.

And when George pours himself a drink, attempts to escape from the madness, Martha announces that she has invited a few guests from the party – a young, handsome couple – who they are obliged to entertain with conversation and post-party drinks. This is the beginning of the story. Essentially, Mike Nichols has re-constructed a stage on which his actors argue, drink, ponder, lament and despair – for Nick and Honey, played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis, a potentially awkward drink turns into the strangest night of their lives.

The first half of the film takes place indoors. Taylor is fantastic, but Burton is at his finest. His voice rises above Taylor’s screams, and Martha’s demonic transformation is tempered by George’s furious contempt for his own life and those around him. His hardened intolerance reveals the innocence in Martha’s intoxicated dramatics. He is both arrogant and insecure, and Martha i s his greatest weakness. George’s quiet contempt is most obvious in the film’s first half, while he remains controlled, challenging his guests, ridiculing his wife – in one brilliant scene, George confronts Nick while the two women have left the room. He blames Nick – a biologist – for developing “chromosomes” that will inevitably wipe out art, music and culture in general. Nick’s reply is simply, “You don’t know much about science, do you?”

In the second half, perhaps starting from the moment George runs from the house with a bottle of Scotch in his hand, the film changes course. Following the second conversation he has with Nick, one which contrasts with their first in the sense that it is brotherly and intimate – but fuelled by a mutual hatred towards themselves, their wives and their lives in general — the four drunks head out, drive around, dance in empty diners and then return to their lair, more filled with disgust than ever before. Perhaps one of the best scenes in the film is the bar scene. Martha approaches an old jukebox and presses play before the film fills up with sixties psychedelic pop music; to which she and Nick dance, while George glares at them with menace, hatred and envy. Honey rocks her head back and forth and moans in a stupor.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? climaxes at the height of desperation. The characters are worn out and crazed, sickened and drowning in self-loathing. In the early hours of the morning, the younger couple disappears into the night, leaving George and Martha alone in their filth. And then they resign; they simply return to what the viewer imagines must have been their lives before the film began.

External links

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at IMDb

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Wikipedia

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (awards won and nominated for) at IMDb