Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry - Term Paper Example

Adapting a ic piece of literature into film is a sophisticated task. The adapter has duel responsibility. On one side, he or she has to preserve the originality of the classic and on the other, he/she must be able to communicate the real meaning of the piece of literature. Utilizing a verity of techniques Daniel Petrie, the director of the film , A Raisin in the Sun(1961) did not only preserved the originality of the play, but also successfully transferred this classic of Afro American literature into a highly commendable film. Let me first discuss those adaptation techniques briefly. There are seven ways in which an adapter can transpose a play into movie (Desmond and Hawkes, 2006). These are visualizing the set, lighting, casting, musical tones, symbols and motifs, camera angles, and shot length. However, a creative filmmaker would not rely upon just one technique and would employ a variety of tools to make a movie engaging. Daniel Petrie used creative frame composition and shot variation to communicate the strong and shared emotions within the Younger family. Further, he brings the climax of the movie by capturing facial expressions of the characters in a close up. Moreover, he added or omitted various scenes and dialogues during the process of adaptation in order to make the flow of the film . Similarly, he creatively used music to communicate the real feeling of the characters and to move his audience In A Raisin in the Sun, the strong shared emotions and relationship of the black family play an important role to the overall development of the plot. The director communicated this emotional empathy with a creative series of shots and compositions that visually represented the shared emotions. Through the employment of this technical cinematic method, Petrise actually emphasized many important scenes of the play in his film. For instance, in Act Two, Scene One of the written play, for the first time in film, he uses frame composition to share the collective family emotions. In fact this scene communicates a wide range of feelings. When Mama shares her purchase of the house in a better neighborhood, she herself and Ruth seems relieved and satisfied. Contrary to both the women, Walter not only seems angry and despairs but his dream of opening liquor shop seemed sunken. However, on the other hand Mama herself shows fear of the Walter’s possible reaction towards her decision. Screenplay script runs with an array of emotions and the filmmaker successfully expresses those emotions visually. The director utilized camera perfectly to capture those changing emotions on the actors' faces. For example, Walter mood changed from disbelief to dissatisfaction on hearing that the money has been used to buy a house instead of its investment in business. On the contrary, Ruth was extremely happy. But when Mama told them the location of the house, Walter became angry while Ruth’s frame of mind changed from joy to worry. Thus apart from dialogues, film depicts a vast spectrum of emotions through visuals. Petrise choice of using face-close-up is really effective. Petrise uses camera angle to create emotional effects. In Scene Three of Act two, he uses mirror to reflect Walter’s inner conflict . The camera cuts back and forth between Walter and Mr. Lindner. Through this technique, the director not only intensified the emotional meanings of the scene but also reflects Walter’s changing understanding of Mr. Linder offers. Film is a visual media therefore it is always preferable to rely upon emotions for the climax instead of dialogue (Duncan, 2006). Petrie's another smart choice is his exposition of climax through emotions rather than dialogues. These are the emotional moments when Bobo reveals about Willy’s run away along with their investment. This is disturbing news not only for Walter and Bobo, but for all the Youngers. During these critical moments Petrie’s framing Ruth into the scene is an ingenious choice as her reaction on such news is what viewers want to note. Moreover, the face of Walter is well-captured from two different angels. This multi-angler shot helps heighten the intense of emotions and locks the viewers’ attention. At the end of the scene, the frame turns highly dramatic and extreme in its emotional effect. Walter crumples to the floor in tears. Standing just behind him, Mama raises her fists to the ceiling in anger. Both the mother and the son weep and cry out and Walter rocks his body and Mama shakes her fists. This frame has high dramatic effect with the extreme emotions of all major characters. Choice of characters proved Petrie’s selection a great success. Many film critics owe the success of A Raisin in the Sun to its infusion into the black culture (Pounds, 1995). It is worth noting that all the characters except Mr. Lindner are black. Naturally, all those better represented the images and plights of a black family. Moreover the protagonist, Sidney Poitier, became a celebrity. Petrie’s selected to cut all other white scenes which raised some cynical voices. Some critics stated that he tried to soften the tone of Hansberry against racism and class system (Freydberg, 1998). There is a vast debate that why Petrie did omitted various scenes from the screenplay? Critics of Petrie present following argument. Hansberry herself rewrote the screenplay and not only emphasized the counter-racist style of the play, but also gave the camera instructions to present an intersectional critique. The critics say that the very opening of the original screenplay exclusively outlined the oppressions of the black in the south of the city. The writer directed the camera to capture the Southside Chicago city landscape, backyards, and boulevards. She also directed to show the lines from Langston Hughes’s poem, “Harlem” in Montage of a Dream Deferred the shots of Chicago. Later, the screenplay directs the camera to shot a series of scenes showing the Calumet Highway at night, the steel mills of Chicago, and other southern poor neighborhood of Chicago. Further the camera follows hopeless Walter Lee who is wandering the city oppressed by race and class system. The screenplay also direct to present panoramic scenes of Mama and Walter Lee at work by close-up shots of the four hands. The scene in the Holiday household opens with an “Extreme close shot of Lena’s hands fixing bedding,” and “Extreme close up of Lena’s hands working at buttons on a coat.” Similarly, in another scene Hansberry directs the camera to capture the well furnished dining room of Walter Lee’s employer where Mrs. Arnold, his employer’s wife is spending her leisure time. The screenplay states: “A woman in a dressing gown, seated at the table, is talking to a friend on the telephone leisurely over breakfast about shopping, theater, husband, children, etc. We do not see her face – only her voice, her gown, her manicured hand, tastefully jeweled…”( Hansberry and Nemiroff , 1992).Hence the critics establish that these cuts clearly defend white innocence and undermine the screenplay’s potential to render white complicity with racism visible(Lipari, 2004).Critics not only objected the omission of scenes from the film, but also the deletion of Afro-centric linguistic features of the screenplay. Following the tradition of Harlem Renaissance writers Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes, Hansberry used the African American Vernacular English. This use of the African American Vernacular English gave the play more authenticity. However, the team of Columbia Pictures took it as a disadvantage for the mass production of the play. They omitted all such features that represented African American Vernacular English in syntax or semantics . Despite all this criticism, the film was a great success. In my opinion what the director edited was the need of the filmmaking. There is always something went waste during the production. It is normally because of the process complications, time constraints or the situation at hand. For instance, a scene from the screenplay was cut because Diana San’s (Beneatha)hair was edited (Freyberg, 1988). Keeping the broder view of the audience, his omission of African American Vernacular English is a better choice. Otherwise, film would have been incomprehensible for the other linguistic and ethnic groups. Petrie’s Another cinematic technique is his use of non digenetic music in this scene to evoke strong emotion. In the scene when Bobo comes up with the disturbing news of Willy’s run away, the director employs music in an effective way. In those moments of hopelessness and helplessness, effects and music sounded rather thin and were not in the forefront of the mix. As Mama cries out, the music nods like a thunderstorm in the background. Then the scene gloomily turns dark, leaving the audience exploring the emotions of the characters. In conclusion, I would appreciate Petrie’s filmmaking skills which contribute a lot to make the film memorable. He not only made the film success by applying a variety of adaptation techniques, but communicated the feelings of the black to the masses. Work Cited A Raisin in the Sun. Dir. Daniel Petrie. Perf. Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee and John Fiedler. Columbia Pictures, 1961. Film Desmond, J.M. and Hawkes, P.J. Adaptation: studying film and literature. Michigan: McGraw- Hill 2006. Print Duncan, S.V., A guide to screenwriting success: writing for film and television. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Print Freyberg , E. Hadley., Review: A Raisin in the Sun: After 25 Years More Significant Than Ever. Feminist Teachers. Vol. 3, No. 2. pp. 24-27 (Spring 1988). University of Illinois Press. Web. 11 March 2011 Hansberry, L., and Nemiroff, Robert. A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay, ed. Robert Nemiroff . Michigen: Plume Book, 1992. Print. Lipari, Lisbeth. “Fearful of the Written Word”: White Fear, Black Writing, and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun Screenplay. Quarterly Journal of Speech. Vol. 90, No. 1. (February 2004) pp. 81–102. Web, 11 March 2011. Pounds, Michael. Review. Film Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Spring, 1995), pp. 54-56 University of California Press. Web. 5 March 2011 The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro. Polygram, 1995. Film. Read More