1961 Directed by Daniel Petrie
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
Un lunar en el sol, O Sol Tornará a Brilhar, Sort solskin, Särkynyt illuusio, Un raisin au soleil, Ena stafyli ston ilio, A napfény nem eladó, Un Grappolo di sole, Rodzynek w sloncu, El sol brilla para todos, 태양의 계절
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1961 Marathon - Film #11`
”Nobody in this house is ever gonna understand me.”
Brilliant writing and performing from a special era when those words really meant something. This is an incredible stage-play presented as a film, but just imagine what it would have been like to see this script and these actors live on a stage. Electric.
By the way. is there anything more disconcerting and awkward than hearing Piglet say, “you people” over and over again?
”I’m sorry it went like this…”
“Just… leave.”
This film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's play is not one that feels far to distant from its theatrical roots - and although Daniel Petrie's adaptation is one that exemplifies that quality above all else, it still reaffirms the resonance left behind by the original play.
In telling the story of a struggle faced by an African-American family, what makes Petrie's cinematic take on A Raisin in the Sun work its wonders can be felt through how the cast (the same people who had performed these characters onstage) puts their life into every role. Every member of the Younger family feels like you've known them so closely, but it also helps that you can still feel the claustrophobia present within the…
"That's the way the crackers crumble."
Ruby Dee as Ruth Younger
Ruby Dee is sensational. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I hung on her every word. A Raisin in the Sun is film adaptation of the famous play written by Lorraine Hansberry. She also wrote the screenplay. I thought surely she must have been nominated for an Oscar for adapted screenplay. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she wasn't. In fact A Raisin in the Sun received zero nominations. I thought at least Sidney Poitier would have received one. After all he was nominated a couple years earlier for The Defiant Ones and would win in 1964 for Lilies in the Field. I got to thinking what…
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.Or does it explode?
- Harlem, Langston Hughes.
Very special, very important and still just as relevant today, A Raisin in the Sun is the perfect transposition from stage to screen of Lorraine Hansberry's Pulitzer prize winning play of the same name, a production that was the first play written by an African American woman to appear on Broadway and by retaining much of the cast of the original show, as well as…
I wasn't so sure I was going to like Sidney Poitier as Walter Younger. From my experience of Poitier's acting, which admittedly is still from just a small fraction of his body of work, he usually plays characters that are subdued, as well as playing largely very likable characters. I wasn't concerned about him playing a more morally complex character, one who unintentionally becomes his family's antagonist (though let's be clear the real antagonist of A Raisin in the Sun is racism, capitalism, and how they intersect in the lie of the American Dream). I just wasn't sure Poitier would work in such a physical and manic part. As the film progressed, I realized how wrong I was. I have…
I can just listen to Sidney Poitier's rants for 2 whole hours and I wouldn't be bored by it. He definitely steals the show especially towards the end.
The Criterion Challenge 2022: Round 2
Undeniably powerful and moving, Daniel Petrie's adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun encapsulates the tension of Black-American life, with woes ranging from financial to social. A spectacular cast, including one of the greatest actors to ever live, a perfectly-adapted screenplay by Hansberry herself, and direction which visually translates performances, themes, and atmosphere superbly. Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, and Diana Sands are all phenomenal – each act their asses off, delivering every single monologue and conveying every single emotion flawlessly, of which there are a whole lot of both.
One of the few times Hollywood optimism doesn't feel tired, but rather earned.
The Criterion Collection - Spine #945
While watching A Raisin in the Sun, I was reminded of how much I miss watching Black films on a regular basis. It’s no one’s fault but my own. I can watch more if I choose to. But this film reinforced the necessity of seeing Black people live, and occasionally, overcome the Black experience in America.
A Raisin in the Sun made me think about my Grandfather, Willard Davie Sr. I’m sure that his experience wasn’t that much different on a surface level from that of the Younger family. He moved from the deeply segregated South to the North, eventually settling in Pittsburgh, PA, in order to escape the rigidity of Jim Crow. Anti-Black…
I don't think enough can be said about this film. It is superb.
Extremely powerful and moving. This is a must see.
Α masterclass in passionate and moving acting, if there ever was one. Rest in Power Mr. Poitier <3
