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| Left to right: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor |
On paper, the concept of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? shouldn't have lead to its huge success with 13 Oscar nominations (5 wins) that also marked it as one of the few films to be nominated in every eligible category. Considering that casting real life couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as the tensest party MC's in film history could make it seem at times autobiographical, it's a miracle that director Mike Nichols' debut works as well as it does. While credit largely should go to the playwright Edward Albee (adapted to film by Ernest Lehman) for making such a captivating story, it's a rich story full of brilliant subtext not only about how relationships and lies can corrupt the psyche, but of the conflicting tides of the post-John F. Kennedy era of America where uncertainty and desperation seemed to run rampant. It's not a masterpiece solely because of its powerhouse dynamic. It's a masterpiece because of its ability to capture something personal about the era that has frankly never gone away after 50 years.
