Tennessee Williams - Wounded Genius part 4

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

[Resenbrink]

Sad.

[animalmother16]

sometimes critics dont think for themselves, they rely on each other to give good reviews or bad ones

[stoic1009990283]

@stoic1009990283 yes!

[stoic1009990283]

FC GINSINS EN INTERRRRRRRRRREEEERE

[stoic1009990283]

hahaha funny

[myloverisbillmurray]

its hilarious how everone in this documentary has their own impression of Williams. its charming really i suppose!

[whatanightmare1]

Critics could be a bit less caustic in their descriptions of plays, movies, music...even actors. Sure, if something stinks, say so...but you don't have to completely castrate the poor soul that wrote it. Sometimes negativity begets negativity....and I think that is part of what happened to Tenn later in life. The more critics said, the more he drank, the more bad plays he wrote. 

[wisesatyr72]

he got killed by his gay lover..

[chelle329]

Isn't that Candy Darling on his left?

[rockies74]

He lost his talent, then whined for the rest of his life, about falsely being persecuted by critics.

[MrTennessy]

I love it!

[PeterBluth]

@JSC1401 Yes, they do criticise. But, they have to be jerks about why they didn't like something. Calling a play a monster is ridiculous even if it wasn't any good. Call it bad, no need to be cleaver, just say it and end it.