Year: 1961
Director: Daniel Petrie
Country: US
Language: English
When it first opened on Broadway in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was the first play to open on the Great White Way written by a black woman. It was also the first directed by an African-American. The show was such a success that Hollywood demanded a film version be made just a mere two years later. Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee made the transition to film from the stage version along with most other cast members.
In this, a substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
The issues tackled by the film are worthwhile and never less than engaging, revealing the spectrum of social pressures faced by a working class black family not far removed from an oppressive past. There is a generation rift between Lena and Beneatha, with the latter veering into social and cultural interests deemed unthinkable by her traditional mother. Almost every scene and every exchange quickly escalates to a heated dispute about race, ambition, God, heritage or money.
Patriarch of the family Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier) is a powder keg ready to explode. He's sick of being exploited by the white man, tired of being treated as an inferior and wants much more in his life. The claustrophobia of the apartment, the only set this film has, is closing in on Walter Lee and mocking his life, which he views as a predetermined prison.
Reprising their roles from the stage, much of the acting is loud and over-the-top. The screenplay is littered with profound emotional moments that create keynote statements. Some feel that this is too much emotion; I feel that its just about right. The film may be extremely passionate, but it gives a great glimpse into the desperate minds of our characters. Overall its quite the ambitious picture that translates very well the Cinema.
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