Written by Pittsburgh native August Wilson and shot in the city’s Hill District by director/star Denzel Washington, Fences is a character study about family, pride, fear, and the walls people build around them. It is sure to garner Oscar nominations for its stars and perhaps the film itself.
Fences (Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Mykelti Williamson, Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo) – The Hill District of Pittsburgh serves as the setting for Fences, the most famous of August Wilson’s Century Cycle (often called the Pittsburgh Cycle) since 9 of his 10 plays were set there. Each of the plays was set in a different decade of the 1900s. Pittsburgh (my hometown) is a collection of ethnic and diverse neighborhoods. The Hill District – where August Wilson lived and wrote — was largely African American, located on one edge of downtown. The base of the Hill District became the home of Civic Arena, built in the mid-1960s, about 10 years after the decade depicted in Fences. August Wilson is considered among the greatest playwrights in history and is almost certainly the most renowned African American playwright to ever grace the American stage. Fences was not his favorite work of the cycle but, along with The Piano Lesson, each earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
Fences debuted on Broadway with James Earl Jones in the lead and won four Tony Awards in 1987, including Best Play. Its revival also won a Tony, this time starring Denzel Washington as Troy Maxson and Viola Davis as his wife, Rose. Wilson insisted that any screen adaptation must be directed by an African American. But Hollywood balked even when Laurence Fishburne has tentatively agreed to do it. Wilson wrote a couple of screenplays during that period but the project never got off the ground. Wilson died in 2005 never seeing his play turned into a movie. When approached to direct a film adaptation, Denzel refused until he had done the play. That led to the Broadway revival.
Fast forward to Christmas 2016. Fences debuted yesterday with all of the Broadway leads (except the children) in the starring roles. Washington plays Troy, a gregarious garbage man with an adoring wife, a modest home, a close friend named Bono, two sons (one from a previous marriage), and a stadium full of life stories he shares willingly. To hear him tell it, Troy was a star Negro Leagues baseball player who was just a little late for the integration of the Major Leagues. He laments that he could hit for a higher average at age 53 than the white Major Leaguers of today.
Wilson’s screenplay, which Washington uses almost verbatim, slowly reveals Troy’s secrets. One by one, these revelations cause collective gasps from the audience. Rose, the dutiful wife, remains subservient, almost a prop. But by the second half of the film, Rose asserts herself especially as it relates to their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), a gifted high school football player. Troy doesn’t want his son to be lured by sports because the white men who run sports will never let him succeed just as they didn’t let Troy get to the Majors. The friction between Troy and Cory is palpable. By the time the major revelation of the film occurs, Rose becomes Troy’s formidable equal.
Fences reminds me of 12 Angry Men, a teleplay that became an Academy Award-nominated film while still feeling like a play. In Washington’s capable hands, Fences never loses its intimate feel. The great bulk of the action takes place at the Maxson’s house, primarily in the backyard where Troy talks about building a physical fence while erecting mental fences around himself while holding off the devil that is death.
The characters drive every inch of this movie. Washington and Davis are positively electric. They know these roles so well that Wilson’s words seem effortless in their hands. They share the screen with each taking their turn swallowing the camera and mesmerizing the audience. There is a scene near the end of the film where Davis proves that she is America’s finest, most versatile actress. Washington is so authentic, so (dare I say) perfect that he proves again why he has endured as one of the world’s great thespians. The supporting cast is fantastic, too. Character actor Stephen Henderson is excellent as Bono. Mykelti Williamson as Troy’s brain-injured brother, Gabe, is reminiscent of his Bubba role in Forrest Gump. And the actors playing Troy’s children were well chosen and more than adequate in their portrayals.
But this film is about Troy and Rose (both incidentally names of streets in The Hill District), and Denzel and Viola inhabit those roles so thoroughly that they turn this character study into a masterful new adaptation of Wilson’s exceptionally layered work.