Fences

The cinematic and theatrical space have always been used as platforms to explore different stories from different perspectives, and the black community have had several great stories told on screen and on stage. One such story was the 1985 drama stage play, Fences, which explored the unhealthy familial dynamic of a middle-class African American family living in 1950s Pittsburgh, and examined several familiar race-related themes and issues. It was a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award winning production created by American playwright August Wilson, whom many have credited for giving the best inside look into the black experience (even being called ”theatre’s poet of Black America”), and his work was prominent and successful enough that some made their way to the big screen, with Fences receiving one in 2016 distributed by Paramount and starring big name talent like Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

In 1950s Pittsburgh, a working-class black family are trying to make ends meet while living in a modest but sustainable household. The father, 53-year-old Troy (played by Denzel Washington) struggles with providing for his family  as a garbage man, and back on the home front, his wife Rose (played by Viola Davis) does her best to work as a comforting housewife for Troy, but his bitter attitude towards life as well as his strained relationship with the rest of his family, leads to a very miserable existence for all of them. Troy’s bad history with his father and failure in the baseball league has led him to grow cold and demanding, even preventing his teenage son Cory (played by Jovan Adepo) from pursuing his own football dreams due to believing they won’t let a ‘’coloured’’ man play in their ranks, despite Cory being scouted for a college football team. Unwilling to accept the changing times and that his restricted attitude is causing more harm than good to the people he’s supposedly fighting for, Troy continues to make bad decision after bad decision, often hurting his family in the process to the point where this stable home environment that he claims to be building, starts crumbling right before his eyes.

Met with critical acclaimed upon release and even a surprisingly serviceable box office for a slow, depressing period drama, Fences was nominated for four Oscars (only taking home one) and seemed to receive the same level of praise that its theatre production got years prior, but due to severely lacking a cinematic approach as well as a few basic issues, it struggles to do much outside of spotlighting really strong talent and a quality original source.

The story of Fences is actually part of a collection made by August Wilson, called the ‘’Pittsburgh Cycle’’ which comprised of ten separate stories all taking place in Pittsburgh sprawling over several decades, each depicting the African American experience in a way that raised awareness during a period where it wouldn’t have been common knowledge to the general masses. These plays included (in order), Jitney, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, King Hedley II, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf, and each did their part in routinely bringing an aspect of black culture into mainstream entertainment in a meaningful way. This is mentioned to highlight that Wilson was a talent that deserves to be remembered for his playwrighting skills and his achievement in keeping Black theatre alive for so many years, but maybe not all of his work translates so fantastically into film, as the ones that have made the transition (which alongside Fences includes the 2020 Netflix film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the 2024 Netflix film, The Piano Lesson) have attributes that don’t come across as cleanly through a cinematic lens.

This movie is sadly uncomfortably dull and meanders through a ton of dialogue and scripting that would work perfectly fine in a play where dialogue is the driving factor but proves to be an issue in a film where visual language and camera trickery can emulate more than words, which this film probably could’ve benefited from. It doesn’t feel like it takes advantage of being cinematic or even has that much interest in presenting it as such, with very little effort going into trying to bring a more dynamic display, with the shots being blandly composed, the dialogue feeling pretty rambling and aimless, the location feeling static and uninteresting to spend the majority of the running time in, and the story not exceeding its base level of drama or stakes to illicit any strong reactions. While it did make more money than expected for an Oscar-friendly period drama (probably from fans of the actors and Wilson’s work), it wasn’t enough to say it was a crowd favorite and it doesn’t really offer much that’d please casuals. On the other hand, the plot actually has some decent nuggets within its overwritten screenplay co-written by Wilson and Tony Kushner (who also acted as a co-producer) and the directing by the film’s lead star, Denzel Washington manages to make this relatively uninteresting sit less laborious due to good pacing, it just can’t get over the constantly nagging issue of feeling unnecessarily put on the big screen.

The characters feel pretty stock in nature, but to the credit of Wilson’s writing, they are given more dimension than what is expected of these blanket stereotypes and that not only would’ve been incredibly meaningful at the time of its conception but largely benefits this movie in general. A majority of the dialogue would honestly be pretty intolerable to deal with if not for the actors bringing a sense of authenticity and engagement to their parts, and thanks to the limited number of roles, time is given to flesh most of them out and make them memorable even if who they are and what they do in the story is nothing special for a down-to-earth familial drama. Both Denzel Washington and Viola Davis previously portrayed these characters in the 2010 revival of the play and were passionate about returning to reprise them again on screen, but it does feel slightly less interesting knowing they already handled these roles as best they could elsewhere only to return without much change.

Troy as a character is so horrible in this film and his actions make it hard to feel any sort of sympathy for him, but Washington’s performances manages to make him at least feel human, providing a portrayal of a man who may be truly broken and unpleasant, but is more than just a cliche and (at the time of its original conception) would’ve provided a multi-faceted look at a role not commonly given that kind of luxury. Similarly, Viola Davis’ role as the put-upon housewife pushed to the brink by her husband’s action is also pretty good, really allowing Davis the chance to showcase her ferocious strength as a performer during the critical breakdown moment that is amazingly delivered (and was clearly the moment that got her that well-deserved Oscar). These two are incredibly strong and respected actors of the time and clearly breeze through these performances without much hassle, which comes with its own pros and cons (it’s not truly shocking they give great performances given who they are and the fact they’ve earned accolades for playing them previously), but it does at least cement their talent and allow them to further push forward the work of a creative they highly respect. People like Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby and Mykelti Williamson bring life to their bit parts, and since the film is kind of strapped for variety and even pleasantry (with how miserable the leads are), seeing some livelier faces being interjected into this very sullen and morose story is appreciated.

Even though you can feel the strength of this material as a stage play, that doesn’t really translate to being a really strong movie, and whether due to strictly sticking beat for beat to the written word to keep faithful to the source (Denzel Washington took on the directing mantle to keep Wilson’s work alive in the modern era) or another outside factor that just wasn’t easy to fix in the translation process, it doesn’t do a lot to remedy this issue. Even excluding the pacing, script and performances, the technical aspects of this film also feel very stage-oriented, whether how its shot, how its visualized, how its edited and even how its scored. The music composed by Marcelo Zarvos is the most baffling of these elements, as despite most plays not having orchestral music backing them, most of the soft and slow piano and violin pieces featured somehow still feel meant for a theatrical production,

Most of the shots done by Charlotte Bruus Christensen are blandly staged and even with such a simple location to film in, isn’t able to show this singular environment off in a very or even defined sense. The audience is mainly stuck in this one solitary housing unit for the entire film, and yet nothing about the filmmaking presents it in a sense that gives character or insight into these people, with a lot of the camerawork feeling repeated and even like it’s actively avoiding parts of the house (very much like how a stage play will have a single set for a location and not much else). The production design by David Gropman, the set decoration by Rebecca Brown, and even the costume design by Sharen Davis, does its job at portraying this family’s living condition pretty nicely through the cluttered mess, the rugged dirty nature of their clothing, and the commonly domestic color palette of the house, but it doesn’t feel like it’s doing much above the expected minimum and doesn’t really stand out as impressive because of it.

Fences is a film that more than likely appeals to those that enjoy August Wilson’s work and appreciate what he did for African American theatre productions, as he was able to capture and portray their stories in a distinguished but still genuine delivery. As a movie, this story doesn’t feel like much of a stronghold, as its strengths are clearly in another medium that knew how to direct the acting, narrative, production, and atmosphere in a manner that worked for the stage, as they don’t really work that well for the screen (which seems to be an issue for a lot of Wilson’s other work). This movie is clearly not poorly made and is one that does have good qualities to it like the great acting and hints of interesting plot points, but the movie’s lack of cinematic purpose as well as how incredibly dull it can be makes for a very mixed experience. Build your own opinions about this movie and see how long you can stay with it before it starts to lose you.