Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

davidcarniglia A memorable drama, with superb performances by Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives. The undercurrent of Taylor and Newman's wrecked marriage energizes the plot; they "occupy the same cage" as Taylor's Maggie puts it. She relentlessly tries seduction, but Newman could care less.As others have pointed out, Brick's brother is presented as a hen-pecked mediocrity, his family fairly trashy, while Brick and Maggie are the 'cool couple.' Actually, Gooper is a solid citizen, and Brick is a bitter alcoholic. It's amusing how Ives' Big Daddy shows no respect for Gooper's family, dropping sarcastic bombs all over them. Nonetheless, he's even more upset by Brick's non-conformity. It would be interesting to have a sort of prequel in which Brick's relationship with Skipper is shown, instead of just referred to. That would've been impossible in the 50s. In fact, it's surprising that the gay theme was explored in such depth, even if inferentially. Big Daddy is consumed by Brick's inclination; he can't understand it, for him it's a problem that should have a solution.Still, he shows considerable sensitivity to Brick. He never insults Brick, as he does everyone else, Maggie excepted. "We even love your hate" as Big Momma aptly puts it. He goes through a huge effort to shoo everyone away when he wants to talk to Brick. "Now that I'm straightened out, I'm gonna straighten you out!" Big Daddy tells him. Brick's alcoholism is the buffer between the way he is, and the way he's expected to be. The thunderstorm breaks, literally, just as they bring up Skipper. While Skipper was losing control, just before his suicide, Maggie wanted to go bed with him in an ironic attempt to keep him away from Brick by trying to 'fix' him. Interestingly, Big Daddy shows concern for Skipper, realizing that Brick is partially responsible for Skipper's death. Big Daddy has sensitivity, but lacks love.After Big Daddy discovers that he will die, the family argument over the estate rivals Brick and Bid Daddy's earlier argument for its intensity. It succeeds in pointing out Gooper's greed and shallowness. The climactic cellar scene telescopes the show's themes adroitly; Brick and Big Daddy finally do understand each other, and each other's strengths and weaknesses. The last scene, however, seems artificial, as though Brick can change his nature through an act of will.Cat On a Hot Tin Roof is an excellent movie, very passionate and very intelligent.

frankwiener Unlike many screen adaptations of Tennessee Williams plays, I experienced a peculiar detachment from the central character, Brick Pollitt, in this instance. There was a missing connection for me, but I can't exactly put my finger on it. Perhaps it was the fact that I just wasn't very convinced of Paul Newman as Brick Pollitt. Either Newman grew tired of the role somewhere along the way, or I lost interest watching him perform as a former high school jock who had a peculiar fixation with his former buddy, Skipper, for whose death he holds himself responsible. According to the IMDb trivia page for this film, the role of Brick was refused by Presley, Mitchum, Clift, and Gazzara. As Tony Franciosa and Don Murray were also considered and as James Dean tragically died before this movie was produced, that would mean Newman might have been the eighth choice, or were there even more possibilities in front of him? Why so many? Was it the potential professional stigma surrounding the obvious undercurrent of Brick's strongly suggested homosexuality in the highly homophobic world of 1958 that was at risk? If so, then Newman deserves credit for the courage that others did not possess. Without the powerful performances of Burl Ives and Elizabeth Taylor, this film would never have been so successful. Ives, who had been thought to be "just some folk singer" when he was chosen as "Big Daddy", is nothing short of magnificent in his role as the self-made patriarch who is dying of cancer and who seriously reflects upon the true meaning of his life, which is plagued by "mendacity" and pretense on all sides. Taylor, who had lost her beloved husband, Mike Todd, in a sudden plane crash just before production, seems to express her grief through her art as Maggie Pollitt, the frustrated (and gorgeous!) wife of Brick. Her interactions with the brood of "no neck", spoiled brat nieces and nephews, who invade the family estate for an unbearable and seemingly endless period of time, are hilarious, especially the unforgettable ice cream scene. Why the servants left ice cream out in the Louisiana summer heat is beyond me, but so be it. Her several exchanges with Brick reach a very high level of intensity, even though I felt that at least some of the couple's extended verbal wrangling could have been condensed.Both Madeleine Sherwood and Judith Anderson play very disagreeable members of the Pollitt family all too well. I found them both very difficult to watch for long, but that's what the script demanded. Jack Carson is perfect as Goober Pollitt, the pathetic, older brother who has dutifully adhered to all of the established family rules but who receives in return no respect from anyone.I can't blame playwright Williams for disliking this very murky screen adaptation of his very serious creation. He should have at least been grateful for the casting of Ives and Taylor because they both soar to the skies here, redeeming what otherwise might have been a dreary disaster.

Rich Wright I think considering the amazingness of this feature, I can overlook the blatant animal cruelty espoused in the title.People are fragile things. Even the smallest incident can cause the most sturdy amongst us to break. Man, the people we see here have some SERIOUS issues. There's Paul Newman, as a permanently soused retired sports star, who seems to not only have given up on his dreams, but his life too. Elizabeth Taylor his wife... she stays with him, tries to help him... even though he can't stand her. Why? An unfortunate incident involving Newman's best friend. You'll see.Also along for the ride are Newman's dad, a wealthy landowner who might have millions in cash but doesn't give a hoot about things like love. He appears to have a terminal illness, which inevitably causes friction between Newman and his brother... a decent sort of chap, but utterly dominated by his harridan of a missus, who seems to be bringing up the five most obnoxious children in existence (all used as parleying chips to get Big Daddy's land and money, of course). Actually, it would be more truthful to say it's Taylor who cares about the inheritance... Newman is content to just live out his days staring at the bottom of a bottle.As our troubled cast argue and bicker, coming to terms with the past and trying to see a brighter future, I was mesmerized by every aspect of this production. What seem to be quite simple individuals are quickly revealed to have many hidden depths, and it's this level of complexity which makes watching this so pleasurable. People CAN change and grow in the course of one evening, particularly if they're intelligent enough to talk it out like adults and see where they went wrong. There isn't a single wasted line of dialogue here or a scene that feels unnecessary. Paul Newman is outstanding, Elizabeth Taylor is luminous, and the rest embody their roles with the sort of professionalism you'd expect from a classic Silver Screen feature. Which this clearly is.Spectacular. 8/10

JohnHowardReid I tend to be a bit suspicious of pictures that came to our shores after a great deal of overseas pre-release ballyhoo. True, movies like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" did take in a wonderful amount of money, but usually not enough to match their domestic gross or land them in our top twenty. Word-of-mouth usually turned against these movies too. Whilst they often chalked up respectable city seasons, they usually died in the suburbs and ended up playing to empty houses in rural areas. My latest estimate: Boring. A few sexual references may have titillated patrons in 1959, but they certainly don't keep this dreary, photographed-stage-play alive more than fifty years later. Despite sterling efforts by most of the players, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" emerges as a dull, slow-moving picture, peopled with dull, painstakingly torpid caricatures mouthing dull, tediously uninteresting dialogue. We don't care a hoot why Newman isn't shacking up with Taylor. She's such a relentlessly brow-beating, yakkety-yakking shrew, we don't blame him for taking refuge in the bottle.The photographer tries hard to make Liz look glamorous, but he has his work cut out for him. Brooks' relentlessly routine direction with its monotonous parade of gormless close-ups doesn't help either. Nor do the very limited production values perk up any interest. Except for a few minutes of location filming, this picture is unadventurously tied to the Hollywood sound stage. The movie's theatre origins are also all too obvious. And then, to add insult to injury, what M-G-M has done is to take the guts right out of it. Symbolism is used with all the subtlety of a meat cleaver. Music is no asset either. The composer missed a grand opportunity to send the whole thing up by playing "That Old Feeling" under Taylor's constant whinges and "Ida" under Anderson's melodramatics.Finally, the ending. After Newman's endless talk of the sins of "mendacity" (don't worry, the word is defined for the benefit of those picturegoers who are not walking dictionaries), this ridiculous, negating-everything-that-has-gone-before-cop-out of a conclusion really puts the lid on this Cat.