It was never going to be easy. How do you actually capture the chaos of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor? You don't. You just try to survive the blast radius. When the BBC produced the movie Burton and Taylor back in 2013, people weren't sure what to expect. Helena Bonham Carter doesn't exactly look like the most photographed woman in the world, and Dominic West isn't a dead ringer for the Welshman with the voice of God. But looking back on it now, that 90-minute snapshot of their 1983 revival of Private Lives gets something right that most biopics miss entirely. It captures the exhaustion.
The movie focuses on a very specific, very messy sliver of time. It’s 1983. They’ve been divorced twice. They’re older, they’re sober-ish (or trying to be), and they’ve decided—against all logic—to star in a play together. It’s a meta-disaster. The play itself, written by Noël Coward, is about a divorced couple who meet again and realize they still love and hate each other. Sound familiar? It was basically a documentary for them.
Why the movie Burton and Taylor skipped the Cleopatra years
Most directors would have gone straight for the 1960s. They’d show the "Le Scandale" on the set of Cleopatra, the yacht, the Krupp Diamond, and the paparazzi chasing them through the streets of Rome. But the movie Burton and Taylor chose the twilight years instead. Honestly, it’s a better choice. By 1983, the glamor had worn thin. What was left was the bone-deep reality of two people who were addicted to each other but couldn't live in the same house for more than an hour without a fight.
Dominic West plays Burton as a man haunted by what he could have been. He was the greatest stage actor of his generation, but he traded Shakespeare for blockbusters and booze. In the film, you see him reciting King Lear in his dressing room, trying to reclaim a dignity that he felt he'd sold off for a few extra carats for Elizabeth. Then you have Bonham Carter. She nailed Taylor’s weird mix of vulnerability and absolute, steel-trap control. She’s late for rehearsals. She brings a parade of assistants and tiny dogs. She’s "Liz Taylor," a brand that even she can’t fully escape.
They were essentially playing versions of themselves playing versions of Coward’s characters. It’s layers of artifice. William Ives, who wrote the screenplay, leaned heavily into the idea that their public persona was a cage. The movie Burton and Taylor isn't about a romance; it’s about the aftermath of a legend.
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The 1983 Private Lives disaster in real life
You’ve got to understand how bad the actual play was. The critics hated it. Frank Rich of the New York Times famously called it a "theatrical museum piece." People didn't buy tickets to see Noël Coward; they bought tickets to see if Richard and Elizabeth would have a screaming match on stage. Sometimes, they almost did.
The movie highlights this beautifully. There’s a scene where Elizabeth is struggling with her lines, and Richard is visibly vibrating with rage. He’s a pro. He’s a classically trained titan. She’s a film star who works on instinct and charisma. That friction was real. Elizabeth was reportedly dealing with significant health issues and a dependency on pain medication during that run, which the film touches on with a surprising amount of empathy. It doesn’t mock her. It shows the physical toll of being a global icon for forty years.
- Burton was increasingly frail; he died only a year after this play closed.
- Taylor was actually late for almost every single performance, driving the production team insane.
- The play was a massive commercial success despite being a critical failure because the public’s obsession with "Dick and Liz" never truly died.
The chemistry problem
Some people complained that West and Bonham Carter didn't have "the spark." But that’s sort of the point. By 1983, the spark was a forest fire that had already burned the woods to the ground. They were tired. In the movie Burton and Taylor, there’s a quietness to their interactions that feels incredibly human.
Richard wants to be respected. Elizabeth wants to be loved. Those two things were constantly at odds. There is a specific moment in the film where they are sitting together in a quiet room, away from the fans, and for a second, they’re just two aging people who miss their youth. It’s heartbreaking. If you watch the real footage of their 1983 interviews—like the famous one with David Frost—you see that exact same dynamic. They finish each other’s sentences while simultaneously rolling their eyes.
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Fact-checking the 2013 production
Is it 100% accurate? No. Biopics never are. But compared to the Lifetime movie Liz & Dick starring Lindsay Lohan (which came out around the same time), the BBC's movie Burton and Taylor is a masterpiece of historical accuracy.
Director Richard Laxton focused on the psychological truth. For instance, the scene where Burton learns about Taylor's engagement to Victor Luna is handled with a specific kind of understated bitterness that matches Burton's private diaries. He was a prolific writer, and his published diaries reveal a man who was perpetually obsessed with Elizabeth’s movements, even when they weren't together. The movie reflects that obsessive tether perfectly.
The production design also deserves a shout-out. They managed to recreate the 80s aesthetic without making it look like a parody. The shoulder pads, the heavy jewelry, the claustrophobic hotel suites—it all creates a sense of being trapped. They were trapped in their fame, and they were trapped in their history.
What we can learn from their final act
Looking at the movie Burton and Taylor today, it serves as a warning about the cost of living your life for the public eye. They were the original influencers, but without the "off" switch.
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If you want to dive deeper into what actually happened during those final years, here is what you should do next. First, find a copy of The Richard Burton Diaries. It is one of the most honest, brutal, and beautifully written accounts of fame ever put to paper. It puts the movie into a much sharper context. Second, watch the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It’s the peak of their professional collaboration and shows exactly what the 1983 revival was trying (and failing) to recapture.
Finally, understand that the movie Burton and Taylor isn't just about two actors. It’s about the difficulty of letting go. They tried to move on. They both married other people. But they always came back. Not because it was healthy, but because no one else in the world understood what it was like to be them. That’s the "actionable insight" here: fame is a lonely business, and sometimes the only person who can stand to be around you is the one who helped you build the pedestal in the first place.
To get the full picture of this era, check out the following resources:
- The Richard Burton Diaries (Edited by Chris Williams) – Essential for understanding his internal monologue.
- Furious Love by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger – The definitive book on their relationship.
- The 1983 David Frost Interview – Available on various archives, it shows the real-life chemistry the movie tried to emulate.
The movie Burton and Taylor stands as a rare biopic that respects its subjects enough to show them at their worst. It doesn't need a happy ending because the real story didn't have one. It just had an ending. And in the world of Hollywood legends, that’s about as honest as it gets.