FENCES, directed by and starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis

Denzel Washington and Nancy Pelosi at the film premiere of FENCES  at the Curran Theatre 

FENCES.

Last week, I was fortunate to have attended a special preview of Denzel Washington's film version of August Wilson's play, Fences, at the newly, and gorgeously, renovated Curran Theatre. The event was historic in that it was the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Fences, the play, which opened at the Curran in 1987 when Willie Brown was mayor.  This night, he introduced the film.  There was a panel discussion after the film featuring Washington, who also starred as Troy Maxon; Stephen Henderson, as Jim Bono, an old loyal friend; Jovan Adepo as Cory, Troy's youngest son; and Mykelti Williamson, as Gabriel, Troy's mentally shattered brother.  Unfortunately, Viola Davis who played Troy's wife, Rose, couldn't make it.  "She's working," Denzel quipped.  Also on the panel was Wilson's widow, two-time Tony nominated for Costume Design for plays, Constanza Romero.  
She enriched the discussion with anecdotes about the genius playwright who died in 2005.  They met  in 1990 when she designed the  costumes for Wilson's play, The Piano Lesson; married in 1994 and had one child.

Fences opens "wide" across the country on Christmas Day. Still, previews already have opened in New York and LA.  However, this is not a holiday film.  Fences, as are all Wilson's plays, is about black families struggles not only to get ahead, but with troubled relationships based on past experiences.  In Troy's and Bono's case years spent in federal prison; the oppression suffered by their slave elders, indignities and on-going oppression at the hand of the privileged white world.  Troy is not only shattered by these experiences, but endures deep guilt about how he obtained the money to buy a house for himself, Rose and their sons, at Gabriel's sacrifice for which he, Troy, feels he is, but was not responsible. In his mind and soul, he's fighting the Devil.   Families love desperately, need each other yet push those closest away.

The film follows the play under Washington's sure hand.  The actors are superb- especially Washington and Davis.  And of course, Mylelti Williamson , One feels almost embarrassed as though one is watching real life unfold, fall apart and reconnect in real life.  Some scenes are both heart- and gut-wrenching, such as Troy's final scene with Cory (Adepo).  I found myself in tears at times.

At the end of the panel discussion, Constanza Romero announced that she has signed over the rights of all of Wilson's plays to Denzel Washington to convert to film.  Washington laughed, saying, "As producer," adding that he would not have the energy to direct and act in the films.  One could understand, as we, watching this film, felt totally wrung out yet at the same time utterly joyful because of the way Washington and the actors brought off the ending.  And the matter of the mysteriously closing gate at the end was discussed.  Only one of the characters, the most innocent, reacted to it.  Watch for it in the final scene or you'll miss it.  

Two Reviews: TIME TO CHOOSE and THE FREE STATE OF JONES

A mother in Beijing adjusts a protective mask on her daughter's face

TIME TO CHOOSE

Time to Choose, a documentary film by Charles Ferguson, narrated by Oscar Isaacs.

Charles Ferguson’s documentary Time to Choose should scare the bejesus out of you.  Unfortunately it will be seen only by climate change believers.  The trick is to get deniers to see it and hopefully change some minds.  That said, I doubt that the film will be shown anywhere else but in the liberal cities.  Too bad because Time to Choose makes it abundantly clear that if corporations promoting large-scale commercial farming and livestock production, and  fossil fuel mining and drilling operations and oil conglomerates (and the companies using them), do not cease their operations NOW, many coastal cities, if not countries (island states) will literally cease to be by mid-century, if not sooner.  Millions of people will be forced to migrate.  Politicians who deny the reality of climate change use fear tactics to ensure their continuation as well as their shareholders’ confidence.  What they fail to acknowledge are the facts-and there are plenty.  Alternative energy sources and the money they make, are on the rise.  Clips from the film illustrate former fossil fuel workers being trained in production and installation of wind turbines and solar panels.

Tom Randall of Bloomberg News wrote: “The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented Tuesday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit in New York. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.  The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.”   Still, politicians and their constituents won’t listen.

Ghastly images of mountain top removal in the US by mining companies were shown, accompanied by devastating interviews with locals about how they were bamboozled by their reps into believing that there would be jobs, money for health and education.  Instead, they got polluted water and air, cancer, and general degradation of the entire area.  There were scenes of enormous “ponds” of livestock waste that leaches into the groundwater and soil; acres and acres  of feedlots for cattle and pigs fed corn and soy (greatly subsidized by the government), because of the growing worldwide demand for meat .  Not a blade of grass or a tree as far as one can see.
Other contributors to climate change like clear cutting of rainforests to grow oil palms and for cattle raising in Central and South America were illustrated, all of which cause increases in violent weather, widespread flooding, and extreme years-long drought, leading to a rise in wildfires throughout America’s south and west.  

The film stated that there is no denying that renewable energy production is fast out-pacing that of fossil fuel.  It’s time for governments to choose to invest in renewable energy now; if not, world populations can look forward to huge increases in floods, wild fires, extreme temperatures, droughts, food and water shortages; and pollution of the ocean and other life-sustaining water sources; continuing fossil fuel production will also lead to increases in deadly epidemics;  respiratory diseases, cancers, neurological illnesses, and more.  Millions of- not only people, but livestock, pets, and sea life- in other words, millions of all livings beings will die .  

FREE STATE OF JONES, directed by Gary Carr, starring Matthew McConaughey

Knight (McConaughey, center) with Moses (Mahershala Ali, left) leads the insurrectionists

The Free State of Jones is based on a true Civil War story, a little unknown story, because its subject matter is in a controversial gray area.  Here we have Newton Knight (a spot-on Matthew McConaughey at his scraggly, unkempt, bearded best) a Confederate soldier- a nurse, no less- who deserts.  Although married to Serena (Keri Russell in a thankless role) with a toddler, he comes to live with and eventually marry “in the eyes of the Lord” a black woman, Rachel (a believable Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a house slave and healer.  At one point, Knight is being chased as he runs through the wilderness by what one character tells him “nigger dogs”, dogs that slave catchers use to hunt down runaways. (The “N” word is used profusely throughout.)  He ends up hiding out in the swamp in an area occupied by runaway slaves who come to accept him. “Horses can’t handle the swamps,” Moses, the head of the hideout tells him.  Moses (Mahershala Ali) is a saintly man, aptly named, but whose life comes to a tragic end.  Knight reaches an epiphany when he realizes that poor men are fighting for the rich so that the rich can stay rich and the poor poor, which resonates today.  Men are men and all men should be free, so the Constitution promises. (though in it, Negros were degraded to 3/5th of a person. [Women were not even considered]).  Knight does something about it by leading poor white farmers and slaves, in an extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. In effect, launching an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance.

Carr created an interesting, but whip-lashing change of scene by suddenly cutting away from the action early into the film, and fast-forwarding to a Mississippi courtroom 85 years later, where his very white-looking grandson, Davis Knight  (Brian Lee Franklin)  is being tried for miscegenation as he is married to a “pure” white woman.  Court records had revealed that he is the son of Knight and Rachel’s offspring.  The law was not repealed until 1967.

This is a compelling, suspenseful, well-acted, beautifully shot film about a little known-history and of one man’s futuristic vision regarding human beings and their ability to live together freely and peacefully.    
This double review can be read in an adapted form in Socialist Action: www.SocialistAction.org 

"The Revenant" VS "The Man in the Wilderness"

Okay.  I finally saw "The Revenant" which has been nominated for at least 12 Academy Awards.  I liked it.  I probably haven't read everything about this movie, but of the reviews or columns I did read none mentioned that the film is a remake of the 1971 film "The Man in the Wilderness," directed by Richard Zarafian.  I came across it surfing movie channels on broadcast HDTV some months ago, so when "Revenant" came out, I thought it seemed familiar.  "Man" stars the British actor Richard Harris in the Leonardo DiCaprio role, Hugh Glass, but who, in "Man" is called Zachary Bass.   It features flashbacks into Bass's past to show how he came to became a trapper who ends up in the extreme North American wilderness.

Richard Harris as Zachary Bass

It appears that in "Revenant" director Alejandro Iñárritu conflated the role's of Fitzgerald (Hardy) and Captain Henry (John Huston).  The Fitzgerald character does not appear in "Man."  There is a Captain Andrew Henry, however, played by Domnhall Gleeson in "Revenant," who is just that, a captain with an agenda.  In "Man" the late, great John Huston plays Captain Henry.  The major difference between the two films is that of the Hardy and Huston characters.  In "Revenant," Hardy as Fitzgerald is plain down and dirty, and evil.  In "Man," Huston's Captain Henry is larger than life, almost mystical, godlike, yet paranoid and ruthless, as well.

The premise is the same- based on a true story and partly adapted from the book by Michael Punke- fur trappers in the wilderness try to get back to civilization with their haul after being attacked by natives, and before a blizzard hits.  The guide is  viciously mauled by a bear who's protecting her cubs.  Seriously injured, he is left behind with a couple of trackers assigned to give him a Christian burial when he dies.  Believing he won't survive they abandon him to follow the others back home.  Glass (or Bass) slowly recovers despite his wounds and the unforgiving environment (Glass with the help of a native shaman).  The spectacular cinematography was shot by Emmanual Lubeski.

Leonardo DiCaprio is unrecognizable: bearded, with stringy, dank hair, and filthy; he mostly grunts and groans with pain throughout most of the film which is over two hours long. (Richard Harris undergoes the same in "Man").  Glass employs his knowledge of wilderness survival: using the carcass of a dead horse and the skin of the bear who attacked him, and cauterizing a wound in his throat with the fiery end of a branch.   Knowing the territory, he makes it back.  As does Safarian for "Man," Iñárritu splices into his film Glass's backstory of marrying a native with whom had a son, now a teen, who is traveling with him and the trappers.  He meets his end at the hand of Fitzgerald, adding heightened reason for Glass to exact revenge.

John Huston

There is an unforgettable, haunting, mysterious, surreal vibe in "Man," especially when Bass gains on his betrayers.  Huston, a towering figure as Captain Henry, rides atop a lurching juggernaut of a wagon, spouting nonsensical rants.  Wearing a battered white top-hat, he appears to loom high above all as he travels across a vast wasteland of melting ice and marshland, while his men straggle behind.  Way, way in the background we glimpse Bass, trudging along determinedly. Credit Gerry Fisher for his breathtaking cinematography.

Both films end well, the bad guys get their just desserts and the good guys prevail.


The directors of the films cast Canadian and American natives in major roles.  "Revenant" was shot mainly in various Canadian locations as well as in Argentina, Mexico, and Montana.  "Man" was  shot in Arizona, Mexico, and Spain.

You can stream "Man" through Amazon and other means.  "Revenant" is currently playing in a theatre near you!