Parents' Guide to

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

'60s drama about dysfunctional marriage has drinking, sex.

Movie NR 1966 131 minutes
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

See all
age 13+

Based on 2 parent reviews

movierater2020_racism
movierater2020_racism Adult
July 10, 2020
age 16+
Joe J.
Joe J. Adult
March 9, 2017
age 10+

Killer script, great performances by Taylor and Burton. Just a little too long.

See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? invites us into the lives of bored history professor George (Richard Burton) and his dissatisfied wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) at two in the morning after a faculty party hosted by her father, the university's president. We observe their long, chronically dysfunctional, alcohol-soaked marriage now based largely on a combination of mutual contempt, abuse, and sado-masochistic role-playing. Every sentence serves as a derisive reference to old wounds and grievances, or as an opportunity to re-engage in such longstanding conflict. She offhandedly calls him a cluck, a simp, a swamp, and a sourpuss. He calls her a subhuman monster. In short order, as the animosity rises and the level of discourse sinks, one can't help but agree with them both. All of this unpleasant harpooning is a sampling of the couple's private game, a game that maintains their marriage, both foundering and steady as a rock, deadly and alive at the same time. The private game has private rules and when one breaks a rule, all the previous vileness pales in comparison to what is unleashed next. The mixture thickens as a smug new biology professor (George Segal) and his seemingly clueless wife (Sandy Dennis) stop by and are immediately infected by the foul atmosphere, the alcohol, and the sexual subtext. Does the older couple have a mysterious 16-year-old son or is he a fiction representing unfulfilled dreams? Is their relationship truth or an illusion? Stay tuned.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2):
Kids say: Not yet rated

This dark tale is a classic for a reason, but it's still a tough film to watch. The pairing of the famously real-life battling, hard-drinking, glamorous couple -- the Burtons -- in Albee's shattering comic drama may have exposed the talented couple's tendencies toward overacting. But that is a minor gripe. For 1966, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was an unusually raw, earthy, and carnival-like exposition on what can go wrong in human intercourse. We are instructed, in no uncertain terms, that really smart people, university professors no less, are as apt as anyone to mess up their lives by marrying the wrong people, by thinking that money can solve their problems, or by assuming that lots of alcohol can lubricate squeaky relationships. Sometimes the performances border on kitsch to the degree that the movie feels like a horror movie about marriage. The open hostility that makes the central marriage run, the raised voices, the disrespectful speech, and nonstop drinking and cigarette smoking in and of themselves make this more than iffy for kids. So much innuendo and so many references to buried and complex slights and disappointments will probably go over the heads of most young viewers, and it's doubtful that kids will be the least bit interested. Taylor and Dennis won Best Actress and Best Supporting actress Oscars, respectively.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the different ways in which people like the characters in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? cope with their disappointments. Do you think it can be useful to live in fictional fantasies if they ease people's pain?

  • Why do you think the young couple did not leave when things turned nasty? Did alcohol play a role? Did flirting play a role? Did egomania and self-regard play roles?

  • If you could remake this movie, how would you do it and who would you cast?

  • Are the movie's themes still relevant? Why or why not?

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended movie lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate