Fences

2018:

I was tempted by Dunkirk, then flipped to Golden Globe winners, “Big Little Lies” which I could stomach about 10 minutes. I’m so tired of white uber wealthy people being portrayed in areas I can only drive through…and their faux personalities drive me insane. Cake-eaters.

Turning to “Fences” and I was absolutely enthralled. How Denzel didn’t earn an Oscar for both best actor and director, I’ll never know. He did win the Golden Globe for best actor. Viola Davis won an Oscar for her role. August Wilson wrote the play. Viola Davis reprised the role she won awards for in the play on Broadway. Wilson adapted the screen play. Tony Kusher co produced the film. Denzel’s character left his home in the south at age 14 when his dad found him and his girlfriend on the river bank spooning…the dad wanted the young girl for himself. Denzel fought him, losing terribly. But the girl got away. Walked 200 miles (it was 1918, not many to hitch a ride from) and then hit the rails for the big city in the NE…Pittsburgh is where the film begins and ends. The time is 1957 when it opens. I won’t tell more of the story, Denzel’s monologues are intriguing.

Why are blacks so “Christian”? And so many of their songs focused on the devil, death, and redemption….it’s because their masters inculcated that to them with the whip…and it was passed from father (and mother) to sons and daughters. In stern, and sometimes brutal ways.

My father grew up in the hinterlands along the Ohio River on both sides. Ohio and Kentucky. He was raised much like young…