{"id":29442,"date":"2018-11-05T06:53:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T11:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=29442"},"modified":"2020-05-26T22:52:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T02:52:34","slug":"a-raisin-in-the-sun-1961-criterion-collection-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/05\/a-raisin-in-the-sun-1961-criterion-collection-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"A Raisin in the Sun (1961): Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s surprising that \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d is just as socially and politically relevant today as it was in 1961. Deep down while \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d is a family drama, it\u2019s also a film about inequality both in housing and socially. It\u2019s about the poor and have nots looking for their own big break in a world that\u2019s unfairly balanced in another direction entirely. It\u2019s very easy to see where the stage play ends and the film begins, as \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d is primarily a one setting drama about people looking for their own exit from a situation that offers them absolutely no future of wider horizons.<\/p>\n

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The Younger family lives together in a dilapidated one bedroom apartment in the South Side of Chicago, getting by in small earnings. While the head of the clan Lena is mourning the death of her husband, she eagerly awaits a $10,000 life insurance check he left for her that\u2019s due any day. As they all wait for the arrival of the check, Walter, a limo driver for a wealthy white man, is anxious to convince his mother to lend him some of the money so he can invest in a liquor store with his friends. Although his wife Ruth is perfectly fine with their life, Walter is eager to convince his family, all of whom think their mother should make the decision. This includes head strong sister Beneathea who is going to school to become a doctor. Lena expresses the desire to buy their very first house, and as the check arrives, Walter and the women in the Younger family engage in a battle about their futures.<\/p>\n

Sidney Poitier is gripping among a cast of other brilliant performers playing the perpetually flawed but ambitious Walter Younger. Walter is a man who has spent his last few years thinking and dreaming about something that has kept him distanced from his entire family. Walter is plotting to invest in a business that he hopes can get him out of his world and in to a brand new avenue of success and respect, but it\u2019s all easier said than done. The characters in \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d all represent ideals about America that every single person aspires to, but not many can reach. Mostly because it\u2019s out of reach, or because it\u2019s purposely kept out of reach. Claire Benedict\u2019s fantastic turn as matriarch Lena is a wonderful symbol of a parent that has worked for a better future for their children.<\/p>\n

All the while Walter is someone who wants to be the future, rather than work had for little rewards like his father who passed years earlier. Walter\u2019s sister Beneathea is the dreamer who has the right path on the way to becoming a promising doctor, but also is struggling for her own identity in a house hold that\u2019s suppressed a lot of her own ambitions. Meanwhile Ruby Dee\u2019s character Ruth represents either the future or a dead end for Walter, as she learns she\u2019s pregnant. Ruth is also someone who can\u2019t quite figure out how to respond to the news of a new child, with the narrative delving in to her possibly having an abortion. \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d is a battle of wills and sexes in a house that\u2019s seen many people come and go. To his detriment, Walter clings to the hope that he can be different than his own father who never saw anything but the four walls inhabits with his large family.<\/p>\n

The check is very much the driving factor of what triggers a longing for changer and bigger aspirations. The move for different and better comes crashing down when they\u2019re approached by Mr. Mark Lindner, a perfectly friendly and accommodating white man who expresses discontent from his \u201ccommittee\u201d that belongs to the neighborhood the Youngers are going to move in to. It\u2019s a particularly tense and cruel scene, especially in the way Lindner approaches the brood with certainty and false smiles that gleam with pure prejudice. Sadly, Daniel Petrie\u2019s direction is the victim of a film committed to being staged like the play, but in spite of that \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d is a stellar character piece and brilliant family drama about the struggle for the American dream and what we\u2019re willing to do to have our own piece of it.<\/p>\n

The Criterion comes with a 24 Page Booklet containing the poem \u201cHarlem\u201d by Langston Hughes where he coined the term that became the title \u201cA Raisin in the Sun.\u201d There\u2019s also a list of the film\u2019s cast and credits, an essay by Sarita Cannon called \u201cResistance and Joy,\u201d which explores author Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s aspirations to discuss the political significance of the Youngers\u2019 story, and how studio censorship interfered with the overall narrative. There\u2019s a second essay called \u201cSweet Lorraine\u201d written by James Baldwin in 1969 which discusses his relationship with Hansberry during the development of \u201cA Raisin in the Sun.\u201d It\u2019s accompanied by a photo of Hansberry, along with three stills from the film.<\/p>\n

Featured in the packed Criterion Edition, there\u2019s an audio only 1961 interview with Lorraine Hansberry, with stills from the movie featured. She discusses the ideas of human dignity and its relation to money, as well as the symbolism of the character Lena. \u201cA Dream Realized\u201d is a discussion with Imani Perry, author of \u201cLooking for Lorraine\u201d who provides background on the author, including her work as a writer, how she based the play on her own family, and the story\u2019s reflection of post-WWII family\u2019s aspirations to own their own homes. \u201cPortrait of Sidney Poitier\u201d is a look at Poitier\u2019s relation to the play and getting it produced. There\u2019s an interview with Daniel Petrie, who discusses how he was chosen to direct \u201cA Raisin in the Sun,\u201d the low budget of the film and its box office earnings.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a 2002 episode of \u201cTheater Talk\u201d which includes producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis discussing the play, and the film\u2019s genesis. As well, they talk about how Davis took over for Poitier when he left the play, and how Rose decided to produce the play. Producer David Susskind introduces the trailer for \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d with brief excerpts from the film. Finally, \u201cBlack Theater: The Making of a Movement\u201d is a 1978 piece with a new introduction by Woodie King Jr, the founder of the New Federal Theatre. He discusses the importance of \u201cA Raisin in the Sun,\u201d its relevance to the black theater movement and mainstream theater in general. He also explores the film\u2019s universal themes and how it spoke to a wide audience.<\/p>\n