I could have sworn I had seen this when I had netflix in the 00's, but I found a couple of clips on youtube and they don't look familiar at all! Especially Vivian Leigh as Blanche, who is just devastating. (I've only watched clips from the beginning so far, but it's still devastating watching her, knowing what's going to happen.) I must have been conflating it with a stage production I did see, that I thought was brilliant -- in college?? Later?? I was old enough that I was able to catch, or had been told about, the homosexuality elements.

(I met Marlon Brando first in the Godfather as well, so I always thought of him as a brilliant actor -- my other exposure to him has been in Guys and Dolls years later, where I was totally surprised to find out how hot he was, lol, and I have no idea what critics thought of that movie but I thought he was wonderful :D )

At the same time, it's disturbing to recall this film made his Stanley the 50s equivalent of a sex idol

...wow. I mean, I get it, he's super hot, but... ugh.

but the link from that to Blanche being condemmed to one night stands thereafter seems somewhat farefetched today.

Huh. I didn't think it was farfetched when I watched it, the idea of someone dealing with tragedy and emotional trauma by falling into sex without emotional commitment, but yeah, there's also all this claustrophobic sense of being trapped -- societally, economically, emotionally -- that runs through it in a way that -- well, it's not like people aren't trapped like that today, but it feels like (maybe because of the internet) there's a lot more awareness of ways to escape, I think. (But I also grew up in the South, so... like artaxastra says, maybe I was just like "yeah, that's how it is.")

Conversely, Blanche's reaction to seeing her sister's marriage with Stanley, her urging Stella to get out of it after witnessing Stanley beating her (and Stella is pregnant - btw, this is another case of film censorship, where we don't see the actual strike but have to guess from the reactions), today appears as the only sensible reaction to the situation.

Heh. Yeah, this. But Stella's trapped too (not least by herself), even if it's more visible today than it was when Williams wrote it.

Scarlett being a survivor who would have bought herself a pistol and shot Stanley at an early opportunity. Or got someone else to do it for her. But she would have gotten rid of Stanley.

LOL, I kiiiinda want this crossover now!

One last mercy Williams extends to Blanche is something that Billy Wilder later echoed in Sunset Boulevard: at last, Blanche manages to incorporate the doctor in her fantasies, and accepts his arm, exiting with her famous last line, "I always depended on the kindness of strangers". In the overall context of the play, of course, it's as dark an irony as you can get.

THIS. AGH. (Though I haven't seen Sunset Boulevard.)