January 11th, 2017

​Not a Movie Review
Several weeks ago I saw the movie “Fences” starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis and need to share the experience with my readers, not as a movie review but as a writer.  While I find movies entertaining I strongly prefer live stage performance.  We subscribe to our local professional theater, attend several American Players Theater productions every year and support amateur civic theater when possible.
The movie was originally a stage play by August Wilson based on a series of 10 plays he called The Pittsburgh Cycle.  Each play is set in a different decade and relates the black experience in northern cities (Pittsburgh and Chicago).  “Fences” covers the decade of the 1950’s and was first produced at the Yale Rep in 1985.  “Fences” as won the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, and the Drama Desk Award.  Both Denzel Washington and Viola Davis appeared in the Broadway play and in the current movie.  Their experience with their roles comes through vividly in the movie.  Denzel Washington also directs the movie version.
Washington plays Tory, a garbage man living in the inner city – not poor – he owns his own home but not yet middle class.  Tory is flawed and as an audience member found him difficult to like and the character does not make any transition.  At the close of the movie it is Tory’s inability and unwillingness to change that transforms him into a tragic character.
August Wilson has a talent for presenting black lives and their struggles in a way that is understandable and sympathetic.  He is also able to move through time by the dialogue.  One of the most riveting scenes in when Tory tells his wife he has been having an affair with another woman by announcing to her in the kitchen that he’s going to be a father.
Wilson’s writing is both universal and specific.  It is specific to the time period and experience of African Americans while at the same time universal to any time period or group of people.  Many times the pace of the dialogue is very fast and I had to lean forward to capture every word.  Washington is able to develop a cadence to the dialogue that captures you for more than two hours.  For about 2/3 of the movie Viola Davis portrays a submissive wife doing what she feels is right while knowing her “place”.  With the birth of Tory’s daughter from another woman (who dies in childbirth) Davis catapults out of her submissive life to be extremely strong and independent as she agrees to raise the child as its mother because the child is, of course, innocent.
The writing is intriguing because Washington’s character believes with his whole heart that he is doing what is right and expected by being “responsible” for his family – a roof over their heads, three square meals a day and clothing.  In a unique plot twist he uses his accomplishments in fulfilling his responsibility as an excuse for his extra marital affair.
“Fences” is simply excellent writing and I would encourage readers to read the play and or attend a live production or the movie version.  It will change your life.