User Reviews

It's rare to see a film version of a movie, be as good as the play version, but 1961's 'A Raisin in the Sun' does that. Based on the play made in 1959 by an African-American playwright and painter Lorraine Hansberry. Raisin in the Sun was the first drama written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. Young Lorraine grew up in a Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood and her own experiences lead to the play's story. She got the title of the play by finding it in a Langston Hughes's poem book 'Harlem' which is quotes in the poem 'A dream deferred'. The title, 'Raisin in the Sun' referred in the original poem about the hundreds of African American slaves that work in the hot sun in the cotton fields whom dream dry up like a raisin. In the play and the movie, its symbolism the frustration of blacks working trying to make a better life for themselves, but in the end, their dream are forgotten or put off due to the mixer of racism and classism. The movie story is about a working-class family called the Youngers. Living in a lousy apartment for decades, they want to and wish to leave the place behind. The central idea of the play is concerned with fighting off the myth of black contentment. It shows the stress of being in poverty when the large family is crammed into a small apartment. The plot get going when the family finds out that Lena AKA Mama (Claudia McNeil) got an insurance check for $10,000. Each members of the family find themselves having their own version of what to do with an insurance check. Walter Lee (Sidney Poitler) a poor chauffeur, dreams of making a fortune by investing the money in a liquor business against the wishes of both his wife and the mother. Sidney Poitler does a great job as Walter. It's one of his best roles in my opinion. You can see the want in his eyes. The pain, he goes through when it doesn't come his way. Powerful. Beneatha (Diana Sands), his flighty college student sister also wants the money so that she can be a doctor and live in Africa with one of her two boyfriends. One is a boy, George Murchison (Louis Gossett), a wealthy Negro concerned with appearances and material, while the second, Joseph Asagai (Ivan Dixon), is a native African that inspires her intellectually and spiritually. Great symbolism with Beneatha's hair in the film. When the movie begins, Beneatha has straightened hair. Midway through the play, after Asagai visits her and questions her hairstyle, she cuts her Caucasian-seeming hair for the new radical afro represents her embracing of her African heritage. Beneatha's cutting of her hair is a very powerful social statement in the 1960's, as she symbolically declares that natural black is beautiful and wouldn't conform to the style society dictates at the time. It's become a symbol of her anti-assimilationist beliefs. The film dealt with the talk about racism, not only with whites and blacks, but also black against black. One of the first major allusions to any sort of racism appears with the character of George Murchison. When the wealthy George enters the picture, the Younger family sees the differences in race and grouped him with snobbish white people. Mama dreams of buying a home in all-white neighborhood with her money, but fears that they would be faced with racist neighbors, and people trying to buy them out to prevent the neighborhood's integration. One such person trying to buy them out is Karl Aka Mark Linder (John Fielder) whom openly states the racism present in the neighborhood that Mama wants to live. While he at first sugarcoats his words, he tells the Youngers that they are not wanted in the neighborhood because they are Negroes. Mama's choice soon become troublesome, as one choice can lead them into deeply poverty or salvation. A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives, both with happiness and depression. The movie follows a good amount of themes such as the need to fight racial discrimination in a powerfully demonstrates of the family strength. By having a strong family, it shows that the African American community, that the importance of family is key to success. One great thing about the movie is how little, they change from the play. Most of the movie takes place in the home. Was the bar scene really needed? Not really, the producers could had shown Walter's alcoholic nature, just with him coming home with a bottle, and we would get the same results. But by showing the audience how cramped the apartment is, we get how badly they are struggling. Plus, it's nice to see a movie with few cuts scenes. Director Daniel Petrie did a great job. I would had love to see more of Mama's plant. In the play, Mama's plant represents both Mama's care and her dream for her family. Still, the movie does a great job with dealing with other issues, such as abortion, greed, and the lack of religion. The movie follows the play very well. While, 2008's TV movie 'A Raisin in the Sun' does a good job as well. It's doesn't beat this movie by acting standards and scene delivery. While, one might label this as a 'black people' movie, I found its subject matter, universal. I think this film dealt with everything any common folk might have to deal with, and that's why I think the movie is so well-made.

It's hard enough to make it in this world as a white man without money, let alone being a black man on the outside looking in. For the superb Sidney Poitier, he's imploding inside his insecurities of being a failure in the eyes of his family and be able to truthfully call himself a man. He's married to the hard working Ruby Dee who loves him with all her soul, but a distance she doesn't understand has grown between them. Poitiers's sister (the enigmatic Diana Sands) is also striving to better herself, attending medical school and trying to "express herself" with a variety of hobbies she dumps once bored with them. A slap across the face from family matriarch Claudia McNeil after taking the Lord's name in vain only briefly wakes her up. This is a black family in changing times losing their way, and it's up to the no-nonsense McNeil to bring them all back together.

Repeating her Broadway role and commanding every moment on screen, Claudia McNeil is award worthy as the heart and soul of her family. She loves her two children unconditionally but no longer understands them. That's why she has made Dee her confidante and training to take over as head of the family. A scene where she sentimentally talks about her dead husband reveals the truth inside the soul, admitting the man's imperfections, but loving him long after he's dead just the same.

The plot line surrounds the fight over an insurance check McNeil is waiting for, with Poitier spending somebody else's money even before they get it. Poitier wants to buy a liquor store, while McNeil wants to buy a house so the family (which includes Poitier and Dee's young son, Stephen Perry) can move out of the slums. But this creates many issues, not of which the least is the white neighbor's desperate attempts to prevent them f on moving in.

A timeless tale of how dreams exist in everybody's life, no matter the age, this has had two hit Broadway revivals since the beginning of the millennium, spawned an unofficial sequel ("Claybourne Park") and even been musicalized. It is a powerful character drama where a man is revealed to have not really grown up, the women who strive to help him even when it seems that he's beyond help. McNeil may not like what her children become, but her nurturing heart pulls the family together. A climactic breakdown in Poitiers's character may be the wake-up call he needs to become a real man, just like a wake-up call that sobers up a drunk. This is one of the all time classics and one that deserved more award attention in 1961 than it got.

Lorraine Hansberry's screen adaptation of her own stage play is a powerful depiction of a black family's attempts to drag itself out of the ghetto with the aid of a $10,000 insurance pay-out following the death of the father. However, instead of providing the answer to their problems, it creates a new set that threatens to tear them apart.

Sidney Poitier got himself noticed with this flick, and it's not hard to see why. While it wasn't his breakthrough movie – he'd been around for years, and had co-starred with Curtis in The Defiant Ones a couple of years before – it was the film that led to him obtaining starring roles rather than supporting ones. He brings an exuberance to the screen here that few actors can match, and stalks the cramped set like a panther as he rages against his lot in life. His isn't a likable character, and yet it's a measure of Poitier's talent that, even though he tends to overact at times, he still manages to make the character a sympathetic one. Claudia McNeil, reprising her stage role, vies with Poitier for domination of the screen at times, but it is a contest that benefits the film rather than creating conflict, and both Ruby Dee as Poitier's long-suffering wife and the ill-fated Diana Sands as his feisty sister are overshadowed by the principle actors' performances.

Films like this require a level of compromise on the part of the viewer than doesn't come easy to me. While the film itself is undeniably powerful and the rare quality of the writing can't be faulted, the relentless emoting and dramatic expression of deceptively complex themes and ideas begin to wear one down after a while. By their very nature they can only fail to be representative of the people they depict because the ideas expressed are rarely more than passing observations to those who do not devote the deep thought to such matters that are necessary for the creation of such a literate piece of work. In fact, praise of the writing in a play/film like this is a double-edged sword when you think about it: the 'real' people represented by the Youngers may feel trapped in the same way as Hansberry's characters, but it's unlikely that they would be able to articulate their feelings in the way the Youngers do. In this sense then, such films are unrealistic, and too often the ultimate nobility of the characters – as witnessed in the concluding scenes in A Raisin In The Sun – fails to ring true. There are few people who would have not taken the white racist's money when faced with the hardship that the Youngers are about to endure, and it would be the easiest thing in the world for anyone to convincingly justify such an act. Perhaps that's simply a sign of the changing times, but something tells me otherwise, and for that reason, Walter's change of heart fails to convince. But then if he didn't have a change of heart, what kind of film – and message – would we be left with?

I have seen this movie a bunch of times and every time I see it I pick up something new. This movie is really about the American Dream and how there are bumps in the road getting there. SOME SPOILERS AHEAD Sidney Portier is riveting as the neer do well son. Ruby Dee play his wife. One thing I did not notice before is that the son is 35 years old. I always thought he was younger. To me that changes his character and the way I look at him. He is way too old to act the way he did. And I believe his mother babied him too much and made excuses for him. I wonder if that is also a lesson to be had. He has a wife who works like a dog a young son and a kid on the way and he acts like a teenager. He and the mother made me angry this time around. Another thing is the Diana Sands character, she is delightful. I think she was right in being very angry with her brother, I wanted to kill him. I loved her independence. It is a shame Diana Sands died so young, what a great loss. It was very interesting to see the neighborhood welcoming idiot. I know this happens, but I feel it is less subtle in real life. The real estate companies do all the dirty work for the white neighbors by not even showing black people houses in the white neighborhoods. The revival of the Broadway play with P Diddy has John Fieldler in it too I believe. This is a great movie to be seen by all.

RAISIN IN THE SUN (1961), was like THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1945) and CITIZEN KANE (1941). It was always on BILL KENNEDY AT THE MOVIES on Channel Nine here in Detroit. While my Father was putting down drop cloths and painting our rooms upstairs, I would skip downstairs in and out of the basement and catch snippets of it here and there between glasses of Kool-Aid and tuna fish sandwiches and playing Baseball. Of course it was considered a classic back then, and rightfully so. But being nothing but a kid back then, my idols were Jesse Owens and Willie Mays, and RAISIN IN THE SUN was too much Big Mama and indoorsy Drawing Room drama for somebody like me who simply wanted more Baseball.

As I grew older, I appreciated more what RAISIN IN THE SUN had to offer in illuminating the African American experience. Sort of in the same way I grew to appreciate MACBETH and HAMLET and JULIUS CEASAR, and stopped wondering why these dramas were on television so often. Forgive me if I still see RAISIN as essentially a woman's play, written masterfully by a woman with three of the strongest characters being women. Claudia McNeil as Lena Younger, is a paragon and archetype of feminine strength. She was a great actress, easily the equal of Ethel Barrymore or Margaret Rutherford, and her talent would have probably been more greatly appreciated in a wider diversity of roles. We knew Ruby Dee from her stint as Harriet Tubman on THE GREAT ADVENTURE; an American History Anthology TV series of the early 1960's, along with her husband Ossie Davis. She too was a great actress in films like NO WAY OUT (1950), where her husband Ossie Davis again starred with her alongside Sidney Poitier. I also remember her more vividly from THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY, naturally because it was all about Baseball and a Black Man breaking into the Major Leagues. But hers was as distinguished a career as many actresses thanks to she and her husband's association with Spike Lee where they did some of their best work. I find it hard to imagine anyone playing Ruth Younger better than Ruby Dee. Finally, there is Diana Sands, who plays Beneatha Younger. She was an acclaimed Tony and Emmy nominated actress, noted for her work on stage and in film.

Now, I realize as I write this, we are talking about three Queens of Drama, as much as I was considering three Kings of Comedy when I did my review for HARLEM NIGHTS (1989). Naturally, posterity recognizes their work as the beleaguered women of the Younger Family. Claudia McNeil as Lena Younger, the matriarchal foundation of the family, upholding its time honored traditions and workable truths. Ruby Dee as Ruth Younger, feeling the walls closing in on her and simply wanting more room and sunlight than their cramped apartment on the south side of Chicago has to offer. Diana Sands as Beneatha Younger, an intelligent young woman determined to become a Doctor, who has her choice between two suitors, one whom she considers an imitation White Man and the other who fancies himself an African Prince destined to sweep her away across the ocean to the Motherland.

That's not to say that the men are any slouches in this drama. Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger brings a catlike physical grace to the role that is a plus for this cinematic offspring of the play. This Chicago chauffeur with his dreams of running his own business has a visual dynamism that almost leaps out of the screen. Ivan Dixon as Joseph Asagi, is dignified and reserved as he offers his own oblique observations on how oppression and exploitation has arrested the development of this African American family. Louis Gossett Jr., as George Murchison plying also for the hand of Beneatha with Asagi, seems SHORT, and petty and mean, and you have to look close to see that he is actually taller than Sidney Poitier at 6 feet and four inches! Quite a feat for an actor. Joel Fluellen as Bobo also delivers as he poignantly conveys, along with Poitier, the anguish of Black Men attempting to make a mark for themselves in a world where all the rules are written by those who consider them nothing more than hired help.

I was fortunate enough to get a documentary record of RAISIN IN THE SUN when I was in my twenties. At that time, for the stage version that these records recorded, Ossie Davis played the lead role of Walter Lee Younger. I studied it the way you would study SPORTSMANLIKE DRIVING or the Bible. One thing I realized was that on the stage the human voice is the prime carrier wave of the emotional content of the drama, whereas in cinema it is physical motion. I can still hear Ossie Davis' voice thrilling and arousing the audience in that documentary record, just as I can vividly see Sidney Poitier spilling off the table in his living room, overcome with the intoxication of pride as he celebrates the greatest of the times.

Special notice should also go to John Fiedler as Mark Lindner, who bears the cross as the white token in a drama for once. Representing the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, he comes across convincingly as a nervous, frightened little man, who wants no trouble in his neighborhood, and timorously offers the Youngers a financial way out of his discomfort. You will remember him, perhaps, as just as effective and even brilliant in his turn as one of the jurors in TWELVE ANGRY MEN (1957).

There have been other film versions of this play, and you would probably do well to study them all for purposes of comparison and contrast. As for myself, I'll park this one as a keeper where Lorraine Hansberry has done the screenplay and provided the camera instructions for David Susskind. This is a worthy story of an African American Family making their Stride Toward Freedom and discovering what it means to be Young, Gifted and Black.