Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were the cinema's official Golden Couple of the sixties. Even today, two years after Taylor's death and nearly thirty after Burton's, they still live on in the popular imagination as one of the most famous and glamorous couples of the twentieth century, outdone in that respect possibly only by John and Jackie Kennedy and King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. This film, made for the British TV channel BBC Four, does not tell the full story of their relationship (there is a great film to be made on that subject!) but concentrates on their last joint acting venture in 1983, seven years after the second of their two divorces.
The venture in question was a theatrical production in New York of Noel Coward's play "Private Lives", a production advertised under the slogan "Together Again!" On the one level, that slogan could be taken as a reference to Coward's principal characters Elyot and Amanda, a former husband and wife who meet several years after their divorce and realise that they still love one another. The theatre management obviously realised, however, that their advertisement could also be taken as referring to Burton and Taylor themselves, another former husband and wife meeting several years after their divorce. The production was not a great hit with the critics, but was very popular with the theatre-going public who loved the parallels between Elyot and Amanda and the actors portraying them. There was even a curious coincidence in the fact that Elyot's new wife in the play is named Sybil- the same name as Burton's first wife whom he left for Taylor
The fictitious Elyot and Amanda might end by rediscovering their love, but this does not quite happen to their real-life equivalents. Certainly, the film implies that Elizabeth Taylor was still very much in love with her ex-husband and was hoping to marry him for the third time. (If a second marriage can be described as the triumph of hope over experience, what does that say about a third marriage, especially a third marriage to the same party?) Burton, however, was less keen, partly because he had fallen in love with Sally Hay, who became his fourth wife (and does not appear in this film), and partly because the reunion with Taylor reminded him forcibly of just why they split up. By this stage of his life Burton, once one of Hollywood's most notorious hellraisers, was now recovering from alcoholism, whereas Taylor was still drinking as heavily as ever. The two clash repeatedly during the production, largely because Burton believes that Taylor is not taking the play seriously, deliberately overacting and playing to the gallery.
Making filmed biographies of the great actresses of the past, particularly those who were famed for their beauty, can often be a thankless task because of the difficulty of finding a modern actress who bears sufficient resemblance to the woman she is portraying. Helena Bonham Carter, although a very attractive woman, would probably not rank very highly in an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike contest. Her voice, mannerisms and gestures, however, are sufficient to convey an impression of Taylor's personality, an impression convincing enough to persuade us to overlook the lack of any real resemblance. (Michelle Williams was able to perform a similar feat with her impersonation of Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn").
Dominic West, however, is unable to do the same for Richard Burton. Part of the reason is that he looks far too young. It is not just the disparity in their chronological ages; West is 44, whereas Burton would have been 58 in 1983. By this stage in his life Burton was ageing and in poor health, looking older than his 58 years. He may have fought gallantly to overcome his alcoholism, but years of excess had taken their toll, and he only had another year to live. (He was to die in August 1984). There is no real hint of this in West's performance, and he comes across as a healthy, vigorous and youthful-looking man in early middle age (despite a few grey hairs). It also does not help that he looks very different from Burton and lacks his deep, mellifluous voice.
I felt that "Burton & Taylor" would have been more interesting if it had tried to tell the whole Burton/Taylor story, using the "Private Lives" production as a framework and relating the story of their life together in a series of flashbacks. Perhaps BBC4 (a fairly small network) lacked the resources to try something so ambitious. The film we actually have, telling no more than a small postscript to that story, is too static and dominated by talk. The sight of Bonham Carter and West getting into yet another blazing argument may occasionally be entertaining, but we are left with the feeling that there must have been more to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor than that. 5/10
