Who's Afraid?

I was trying to figure out why I love two of the most vicious movies every written: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Boys in the Band. What I've come to understand after watching the movies dozens of times is that they are about people who are evenly matched. What I mean is that George and Martha are equals. At first you think George is put upon and Martha is in control verbally beating George to a pulp, but by the end George comes roaring back and the evening ends in a draw. Edward Albee's writing is spectacularly vivid. You could argue that Nick and Honey aren't at their level so are victims of their bullying attacks, but you get the idea that Honey and Nick's marriage is built on the kind of shaky ground that could turn them into George and Martha. All four actors were nominated for academy awards but only Elizabeth Taylor walked away with the statue. She and Burton are radiant as they verbally parry and thrust their way to dawn.
The same is true for Boys in the Band. You feel that you've entered a conversation that is so advanced and quick that you'll never catch up. It's a tough world with mean, self-hating gay men in the 1960s. Written by Mart Crowley the film centers around a group of gay friends but, in the end, boils down to just two: birthday boy Harold and party giver Michael. One accepts that he is gay and the other does not. It's not the self hatred I find riveting, it's how everyone is struggling to find their way. They verbally circle each other, stab, duck, hit and miss.

The other thing I love about both the films is that I always ask the same question at the end of the films. Is there a son in Woolf and is the ex-roomate really gay in the case of Boys. That's how strong an impression they leave after every viewing. I know there's no son and the ex-roomate isn't gay, but I still question because the film does.

Both films were based on hit plays from the 1970s. There's just not that much at stake anymore in films pumped up on visual steroids. We've plumbed the psyche and have turned to external forms of terror like serial killers, the fetish of mental illness, 24-hour crime and terrorism.

But a well-matched psychological bludgeoning on screen can teach us something about how people that love us are capable of real bloodless destruction.