476 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, United States, 1958. Dir. Richard Brooks.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

476 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, United States, 1958.  Dir. Richard Brooks.

Big Daddy Pollitt owns 28,000 acres of the richest land this side of the Nile Valley.  And $10 million in cash.  Which is the equivalent of $93.5 million in cash today.

His older son, Gooper Pollitt, has done everything Big Daddy asked him to do.  He became a lawyer--in this case, a "corporation lawyer," or what we would call a corporate lawyer.  He got married.  He had children.  Five children in fact, with a sixth on the way.  He moved to Memphis.  He opened a law office there.

Gooper is the firstborn.  He is responsible.  He is proliferating.  It is important not to be impotent.  He is perpetuating the pedigree by propagating and thereby providing the the patriarch with progeny. 

And he and his wife Mae have already drawn up their plans for how they will run the corporation once Big Daddy dies and they take over.

How thoughtful.

The younger son, Brick, was a track and football star.  We know because he started the movie trying to run hurdles on the field of the local stadium, drunk at three o'clock in the morning.  He broke his foot and he now has a crutch.

Brick has lots of crutches.

1) The wooden crutch upon which he hobbles and which he uses to justify his staying upstairs in the big house.  2) Football.  Or the memories of it.  And the regret of never achieving his potential.  3) The mechanical clicks he needs to hear in his head in order to feel peace inside.  4) Alcohol.  Or namely, the whiskey he drinks that leads him to hear those mechanical clicks.  5) His best friend Skipper.  6) And the guilt in which he indulges over Skipper's death and what led to it.

"Skipper is the only thing that I've got left to believe in."

"I could lean on him, in school and out of it."

Skipper and Brick used to be inseparable.  Even Brick's father Big Daddy is jealous of their friendship.

"If you wanted someone to lean on, why Skipper?  Why not me?  I'm your father."

Brick and Skipper played football together, and Brick believed Skipper was good enough to turn pro.  And when you are the son of Big Daddy Pullitt, then you have the ability to start your own pro team.  The Dixie Stars.  They never made money.  But Maggie, Brick's loving and long-suffering wife, believes Brick did not do it for the money anyway.  He already had Daddy's money.  No, he did it for the cheers, those glorious cheers, and in order to make his friend Skipper into a professional football player.

The only problem was that Skipper was not good enough.  "He fumbled and stumbled and fell apart.  On offensive he was useless.  On defensive he was a coward."

Maggie makes it clear to Brick.  "Without you, Skipper was nothing."

And as it turns out, Skipper knew it too.  He loved Brick.  Brick did not love him back.  Not like that.  Not the way Gooper understands it.

"Gooper said that Skipper was . . ."

And that night that Skipper told Brick how he felt about him, Brick hung up on him.  And crushed him.  And has felt guilty about it ever since.

He also wonders if Skipper and Maggie ever did anything.  After all, she was in the hotel room in Chicago that night.  That portentous night.  That night he fell, or jumped, or somehow ended up out the window.  Falling.  And . . .

He cannot think of it.  And yet he does nothing but think of it.  And drink.  And drink.  And drink.  And punish Maggie for it.

She asks him, "How long does this have to go on, this punishment?  Haven't I served my term?  Can I get a pardon?"

Because of his guilt, and his resentment, and his alcoholism, Brick refuses to sleep with his wife.  And they have no children.  She has been to the gynecologist.  She has been declared healthy.  She can have children any time.  And as many as she wants.

But in the Pollitt family being childless is a curse, with Old Testament implications.  Like Sarah before Isaac.  Like Rachel watching Leah.  Like Hannah.

So Big Momma begins to resent Maggie, this daughter-in-law, this non-blood-member, this person who has failed to give her a grandbaby.

And Mae Pollitt, Gooper's wife, herself an in-law but who with children acts like blood, reminds Maggie of their differences in status every chance she can get.  Maggie has no children.  Mae has five.  And a sixth on the way.  Maggie's husband is a wash-up alcoholic.  He has lost his job as a sports announcer.  He no longer works.  He does not provide.  While Mae's husband, the elder son, the good son, does everything right.  And has put himself in position to inherit the land.  All of it.  And all the wealth.  To manage it.  And to cut out Brick and Maggie.  Once and for all.

Unless Big Daddy has something to say about it.  Brick just might be his favored son.  And Big Daddy might actually not be dying so soon.  It might not be a tumor after all.  It might be merely a spastic colon.  Nothing more.  At least that is what the doctor has told him.  And it makes all the difference in the world.  With this new report, Big Daddy feels as strong as a bison.  And he says he will outlive his own children.  And that will solve the inheritance debate.

"I'll outlive you.  I'll bury you.  I'll buy your coffin."

That is the kind of trash talk the Pollitt family dishes out.  To those they love.

And speaking of love, everyone in this family longs for love.  Not just desires it.  But longs for it.

Big Daddy longed to be loved by his boxcar hobo tramp daddy.

Big Momma longs to be loved by her husband Big Daddy.

Gooper longs to be loved by his father Big Daddy.  And he feels slighted by his younger brother Brick.

Brick longs to be loved by his father Big Daddy.  And he feels slighted by his father's money.

Skipper longed to be loved by his best friend Brick.

Maggie longs to be loved by her husband Brick.

Brick pretends not to care about his wife Maggie.  And he says so.  And dares her to leave him.

But he only pretends because he loved his friend.  And is punishing himself for his friend's death.

And if you watch closely enough, you will see that Brick loves his wife Maggie as well.  Loves her deeply.  He just has not gotten over that guilt which he indulges.  Or the suspicion which he nurtures.

After one of their arguments.  One of those times she pleads with him to love her.  To show her love.  And he pretends not to.  He goes into the bathroom and shuts the door.  And clings to her nightgown hanging on the backside of the door.  And buries his face in it.  And holds it to himself.  And caresses it.  And weeps.  As if to say, "I love you so much.  If only I were worthy of you.  If only you were faithful to me.  If only, if only, if only."

If only he knew he could be free of all this self-indulgent flapdoodle with the simple act of forgiveness.

Forgiveness.

Forgive others.  Forgive yourself.

And heal.

Maybe he will.  One day.

Meanwhile, there are speeches to make.

And pain to feel.

And alcohol to drink to try to drown out that pain.

So what is a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie comes up with the term when she tries to explain to Brick how she is feeling.

"You know what I feel like?  I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof."

Her situation seems impossible.  She can neither jump nor stand.  If she jumps, she will fall off.  If she stands, she will burn her feet.

Brick encourages jumping.

"Then jump off the roof, Maggie.  Cats jump off roofs and land uninjured.  Do it.  Jump."

What does he mean by that?

"Take a lover."

But she cannot.

"I can't see any man but you.  Even with my eyes closed, I just see you. . . . I'm more determined than you think.  I'll win all right."

"Win what?  What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?"

"Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can."

And somehow, with Elizabeth Taylor delivering those lines while standing there, and with the determined look of love in her eyes, one believes her.  She is the truth in a family full of "lies and liars."

Through all of it, she remains true.

In a world of mendacity, a family full of mendacity, a play replete with the word mendacity--a word used in the film fourteen times--Maggie remains true.

The words "true," "truth," and "trust" together appear thirty-six times in the film.  Clearly it is an important theme.

Maybe truth will win.

Maybe love will win.

Maybe forgiveness will win.

Sarah and Rachel and Hannah were barren.

But were they always?

Or did something change?

The story will have a climax.  And climax leads to life.