By: Nia Nelson (’19), Staff Writer
Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s Fences brings the story of a patriarch’s racial and familial struggles to the big screen, starring prominent Black actors of our time such as Washington himself as Troy Maxson, and everyone’s favorite, Viola Davis, as his fiercely passionate wife, Rose. While the film captured gripping imagery of inner city Pittsburg in the 50’s and many passionate and moving monologues from multiple characters about growing pains, racial disparities, lost passions and familial issues, it faces the short-comings that many film adaptations have face – it felt simply like a filmed play on a cinema screen, and in turn, it didn’t do the dynamic characters of the play justice as August Wilson had intended. While the film was indeed moving, many aspects of it were flawed.
There were only so many changes Washington could make without sacrificing too much of the original script, but the adaptation remained a little too theatrical to capture the intensity of emotions and imagery that typically come from cinema performances. The film was very dialogue heavy with not too much happening on the actual screen, as the scenes barely deviate from the setting of the Maxson’s backyard. The speaking parts seemed to be monologue after monologue with bits of dialogue in-between for transitional purposes, which made the sequence of events not as fluid and difficult to follow. Fortunately enough, I had read the play before seeing the film, but I imagine that if I hadn’t, the film might have been difficult to follow as it was easy to miss a lot of details that came from the dialogue.
But with that said, I am careful not to undermine the powerful theatrical performances of the actors within the film, and that power lies heavily in the many monologues delivered by the characters. We see an outstanding performance from Viola Davis in the climax of the film, as she delivers her riveting and emotional monologue to Troy (of course, crying from her nose, which intensifies her delivery even more). Overall, the film did what it needed to do: bringing notable playwrights like August Wilson to the big screen.
