Movie: Fences

Fences: one of the ten August Wilson Pittsburgh Cycle stories.  This one takes place in the 1950’s.  Wilson penned a play for each decade of the 20^th century.  Each play portrays an African-American family’s experience while telling the larger story of what was occurring in America during that decade.  If you haven’t seen an August Wilson play, you’ve missed experiencing the work of one of America’s greatest artists.  When you see this movie, you will understand why Wilson is compared to Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neil.  Wilson, who died in 2005, is given sole credit for the screenplay.  Tony Kushner, who is only listed as a co-producer, wrote additional dialogue.  The play itself runs more than 3 hours.  The film, directed and starring Denzel Washington, runs 139 minutes.  I usually don’t spend a great deal of time discussing a film’s script but seldom will you experience dialogue as realistic and as strong and powerful as is present in Fences.  The cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen captures and provides an excellent sense of what life looked like for a Negro blue collar worker in Pittsburg during the mid-1950s. Washington’s direction at times is stagy, still camerawork that used to be common, but allowing the dialogue to dominate.  Troy Maxson (Denzel) is a garbage collector with a past.  Early on we learn that Troy was a successful baseball player in the Negro League but is bitter about not having had the opportunity to play in the White Major League before he turned 40.  Later we learn that prior to his baseball career, Troy was in prison for killing a man during a robbery.  Denzel’s performance is Oscar quality, which is matched by Viola Davis who plays his wife, Rose.  I will be quite disappointed if Davis does not receive an Oscar nomination for her performance.  The actor who is truly brilliant is Mykelti Williamson.  He portrays Troy’s WW II damaged brother Gabriel, who believes he is a messenger of God and needs to play his trumpet to open the pearly gates.  Believably portraying a mentally injured individual is never an easy task but Williamson’s performance allows us to fully consume Gabriel’s reality.  The three other principal characters are Cory (Jovan Adepo), Troy and Rose’s son, Lyons (Russell Hornsby), Troy’s adult son from a previous marriage, and Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson), Troy’s best friend who he met in prison and with whom he now works on the garbage truck.  All are all excellent.  The principal actors all appeared as the same characters in the Tony award winning 2010 revival of Wilson’s play.  As in Wilson’s other Pittsburgh Cycle stories,  Fences focuses on family relationships while also commenting on what was happening in general society during the story’s decade.  The baseball references are not simply sports talk.  They speak to Troy’s unfulfilled dreams, which significantly impact on how he reacts to his Cory’s goal to obtain a football scholarship.  Throughout this story Wilson never loses sight of Rose, who has some of the strongest dialogue.  This is a remarkable film.  It tells a real story with actors who truly deliver.  I strongly recommend this film.