Tennessee Williams - Wounded Genius part 5

This episode of Biography series calls itself Wounded Genius and tells the story of famed playwright Tennessee Williams as his early hurts mount with depressing rapidity: his hard-drinking man's man of a father taunted him for being a sissy; his mentally unstable, puritanical mother loved him, but controlled him; his older sister, companion and "soul mate," suffered a mental breakdown and was institutionalized for life while they were both still in their teens. This 50-minute video makes the case that his early years gave him the material for his meteoric rise to success in the worlds of stage and film, but also laid the groundwork for the personal problems that would eventually be his downfall. Many viewers may know Williams for his successful works, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but this documentary also deals with his subsequent 20-year slide. His brother, biographers, and friends shed much light on his life, as do several television interviews of Williams himself.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Tennessee
• Williams
• Wounded
• Genius

[bawoman]

As a struggling actress,Williams inspires me 100 times more so than any great actor.If I have any bouts of giving up,I just read one of his plays and I feel that old adrenaline kick in,that feeling of needing to express whatever it is he may be writting about.

He was a genius.

[rivestalex]

You have to have the spark of genius, which he had.

[stoic1009990283]

Pour ceux qui regardent cette vidéo:

Vous travaillez beaucoup trop!!!!!!!!!

[soros250]

Whenever people criticize America for lacking in CULTURE, I refer them to T. Williams for surely he is one of the most insightful geniuses of the 20th Century, up there with the greatest Europeans and Russians.

[bawoman]

@jhop9898

huh?Whats that?Im sorry,Google translator isnt working for some reason.

[bawoman]

@jhop9898

I´m terribly sorry,but I´m not sure how to respond to this,I´m just not very fluent in Imbecile.

[ThingsTerrestrial]

@jhop9898 : He was a fruitcake.

[ThingsTerrestrial]

The military tanker jets deliver aluminum oxide (the cause of Alzheimer's disease), strontium & barium salt. American & coalition soldiers who were in Iraq during Operation Desert Shield and beyond will die prematurely from excessive exposure to radiation & pathogens.

[tookiepretzel]

thanks so much for uploading. i am performing one of blanche's monologues for a drama exam and it was great to get some background information.

[megaswenson]

I just realized they didn't mention Suddenly Last Summer! How could they resist?

[stevevandien]

Williams was perhaps the greatest poet of the 20th-century American theater. (I'd argue that the only contender for that title was August Wilson.) He wrote two masterpieces, "The Glass Menagerie" and "Streetcar," plus some very good plays: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Sweet Bird of Youth," "Night of the Iguana" are among my favorites. And if one has written two great plays and a few quite good plays, one has achieved MUCH more than at least 90 percent of all playwrights --

[bawoman]

@JSC1401

your right.All great artists speak about themselves and in doing so they speak about us.That was his beauty and his genius,you sad sad little man.