Please watch the 1989 filmed “A Raisin in the Sun” stage production / adaptation of Hansberry’s play. In your response, please comment on performance elements—that is, the ways in which the actors p

Graded Discussion #9—

compose a ~200-word response.

Please respond to two (2) posts from other students (~50-100

Discussion #

David

The 1989 film adaptation is more in line with the original play by Hansberry than the 1961 film adaptation. At 26:17 Bennie enters the room and goes on to ask what could be so dirty on that woman's rug that she has to vacuum them everyday. From there on it recites word for word the conversation between Ruth, Mama, and Bennie. This goes to show us the effectiveness the actors and actresses display as they are able to perform more sciences from the original play, giving more to the movie and what it has to offer. 

There is more of a straightforwardness to the 1961 film than to the 1989 adaptation. The 1961 version gets to more important points where as in the 1989 film, there is more to it. It displays more of the emotions that are expressed in the original playwright. For example, like the conversation between Ruth and Mama. At 23:04 Ruth expresses her excitement to Mama about get out of their "rat trap." This thus begins a conversation about Mama's late husband. This ends around 26:15. This conversation is powerful and emotional as it shows us that just like Walter, her late husband also had big dreams as well. She goes on to say that her late husband (whose name is also Walter) love his kids and always wanted them to achieve great things. Walter would say "Seem like God didn't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams but He did give us children to make those dreams worthwhile." Here we are given a powerful insight to the existential problems that Walter faced and that also foreshadows what young Walter goes through as well. 

Danilson

In Bill Duke’s 1989 screenplay for A Raisin in the Sun, Danny Glover delivers a moving performance when thinking about all that money his mother is going to receive from her late husband’s life insurance policy. Walter wakes up the day before the check arrives and keeps hounding his wife Ruth about what to do with the insurance money. Danny Glover’s portrayal of Walter in this scene displays a man who wants nothing more than to chase his dream. Even when his wife tries to deter him, he can’t help but push further into explaining his ambitions. Walter’s bulldog nature meets a dead end when Ruth deflects by telling him to eat his eggs. Glover’s delivery after being hit with a brick wall shows an excellent depiction of what it’s like to not be heard. Glover’s Walter goes on to say, “That's it. There you are.

Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. (Sadly, but gaining in power.) Man say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. (Passionately now.) Man say: I got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby! And his woman say---(In utter anguish as he brings his fists down on his thighs.).---- Your eggs is getting cold!”. Walter is looking for others to understand and realize his dream with him. No one wants to hear it and Glover does a phenomenal job of showing the swelling frustration within Walter’s mind.