A Raisin in the Sun

[charliechaplinfan]

Please excuse me for starting another thread about a Sidney Poitier movie but after recommendations I rented this movie form the rental service. This movie, as with A Patch if Blue is completely new to me, so it's power has not dulled over time.

I love filmed plays done well and I felt this one was, much of the film took place in one cramped apartment in Chicago. The way the story unfolds I found it hard not to have sympathy with every single person in that family, a family that is in danger of disintergration despite Ma's/Lena's attempts to hold it together. Lena has a cheque from the insurance company, $10,000 dollars, the insurance on her husband's life, a man who worked himself to the bone for his family and found a pride in the appartment and furniture he had provided for his family. Lena and her husband had come from the South and had dreams of moving on from the appartment but these were never realised, 40 years on finds Lena's family still in the same apartment, only now it is cramped with the grandson having to sleep on the sofa and no privacy and a dash for the bathroom every morning. The apartment has become a prison for Ruth the daughter in law and Walter Lee her son, Walter Lee a chaffeur at the white man's beck and call. This is a different generation from Lena's, they accepted their lot, her children push against it, her daughter in law puts a down payment on an abortio rather than bring another baby into the cramped apartment, her daughter flirts with the idea of returning to Africa with a man she has befriended and wants to become a doctor and Walter, he has his dreams of setting himself in business and making a good living for his family, dreams that the women don't listen to, they are more grounded with the reality of day to day life, he feels stifled both by them and the reality of life as a black man in Chicago.

The film centres on the $10,000 that Lena is getting, she is unsure what to do with it, she wants to do the best for her family but is unsure what it is, so puts a downpayment on a house with a garden, the only snag is it is in an all white area but Ruth is delighted, she can hardly contain her joy at leaving her prison. Walter sees it as stifling his ambition for ever and turns to the bottle, sinking in even depper when he discovers Ruth is pregnant. Lena, with her good heart gives Walter the rest of the money, telling him to bank his sister's share and do with the other what he wants. It's with this new responsibility that the family comes together again, Walter is reborn as hte head of the house and a man who can be proud.

When moving day comes the family receive a visit from the neighbourhood community who want to buy the family out of their new home, they don't want blacks although they say it in the nicest way. There's no deal, heartbreakingly, Walter had invested all the money in the business venture he was desperate to set up, many nights he'd spent planning with two friends only to have one friend take off with all the cash. Walter has come apart at the seams in front of his whole family, he's lost his sister's college money, taken her dreams, he's threatened the family's move. He invites the neighbourhood community man back to accept the offer but then after a rousing speech from his mother he finally steps into his father's shoes and tells the man they would move after all.

It's such a moving film, Sidney Poitier plays a different character here, not the authoritive type I've see in other movies but a man in despair and clutching desperately at the one thing he thinks will get him out of it, only the money isn't his and ultimately, the dream does not exist. He's little better than a slave in his head at the beck and call of a master, at home, no privacy and he's not head of his own house because Mama has very strong views and airs them frequently. He desperately wants to provide for his son, yet the one bit of prosperity they have comes from his father, he cannot give Travis the security of his own home. His father he is being constantly measured to and he fails, one thinks he will never hit his father's standards. His only bright moments come with the talk of money, he's unable to react when told about his wife's pregnancy, it's like he's impotent to act, to help whereas in nature he's not impotent and that has brought another problem. Lena is desperately trying to keep this together, she has a kind heart, she tries every tactic to keep her family together, even telling her son about his wife's pregnancy, going to the bar to hau lhim out and giving him the money that makes him the real head of the family, when he loses the money and effectively crushes everyone's dreams, Lena gives Beneatha a speech about loving and how a man needs loving more when he has failed.

It felt a very knowledgable film, about human nature and deprevations, about understanding and having patience with the younger folk and about teaching the youngest generation valuable lessons. Yet running through the whole movie and what eventually unites them is the pride in being black and their heritage. They shun the offer to be bought off the estate were they have bought a house, what problems this will bring them, who knows but until people like them move into the neighbourhoods they want to live in, it feels like they won't be able to move forward.

Can you tell I liked this movie. I'll be back too when I've thought of more to say.

[charliechaplinfan]

When I watched this I was reminded of The Killer of Sheep which I watched some time back, both deal with the working class black man, although KOS is a later film, hope in both flims is hard to find, the worth of the black man is hard for him to sustain. I guess I'm coming at this from a British perspective, it's not directly my history and I feel I'm venturing into something slightly new by watching these movies. Yet I can feel the same hopelessness in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, there are many others I could name, so perhaps it's just as much the despair of the working man.

Women are deciding Walter's future, not only is he slave to his employers but he's also a slave to his mother, wife and sister. He can't have all his mother's money for a business venture, his sister needs to be educated, his wife is having another baby, his mother just wants to do the best for everyone. He's a innocence when looking at the world, he wants to branch out and is full of optomism which leads him to be parted from money, which has been the only thing he's been talking about.

Mama who lives her live according to God's teachings has a daughter who doesn't believe and a son who is worshipping money. Only Ruth her daughter in law seems to understand, she is the most empathetic, trying to get on with everyone, putting her head down and just getting on with her drudgery, only once she voices her opinion only to realise that she's stepped on her mother in laws menory, what she sees as a drudge hole is a treasured home full of memories for Ma, it might be bursting at the seems but the memories are there.

Finally the plant, reflects Mama, she hopes they both have more sun and a better life.

[CineMaven]

Lorraine Hansberry wrote:

"What happens to a dream deferred.
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun..."

[charliechaplinfan]

It came to me that life is a series of dreams that have to be altered to fit into life, the trick is to realise that this is what life is and not get hung up on it.

Having said all that, how sorry did I feel for Walter Lee Jnr

[Mr. Arkadin]

Perhaps the main reason the film works so well is the fact that they used the original Broadway cast, who honed their characters over many performances, whereas many film actors only have a chance to play a role once.

There was supposedly a big rift between Poitier and Claudia McNeil over whose character should be the main focus of the play/film. While Sidney felt that the theme should be Walter's growing maturity, McNeil countered with the idea that Lena is the lynchpin, holding the family together. Both are valid arguments as the high point of the film is Walter's breaking voice as he introduces his son to his soon to be neighbor, but it is Lena who entrusts the money into his care and gives him the freedom to fail, which is what leads to his maturity and eventual "coming into his manhood" as head of the family. Were they both right? I think so.

[charliechaplinfan]

I think so too. I thought watching this that Poitier is quite a gracious performer, the biggest ame at the time, he easily faded into the background in some of the scenes and let the rest of the players have room in their scenes. Does that make sense?

Lena showed a great deal of wisdom by givig him the money, even though she probably knew what he would do with it, I don't think she envisaged the fraud but I don't think she had a sense that Walter wolud make a success of his venture.

It's one I'll watch again, I had sympathy with everyone, even Beneatha, she's young and full of herself, watch her lolling around whilst her sister in law works her fingers to the bone.