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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Seering drama, 1 May 2000
8/10
Author: Charles Thomas Tatum, Jr. (movieslave@hotmail.com) from Minot, ND, USA

The cast here is great, although Beneatha is played more for laughs than anything else. Duke's direction on one set is brilliant, unlike most photographed stage plays, I never felt claustrophobic, even at a three hour running time. I did feel, however, that the set was TOO big. The 1961 film set was tiny and cramped, this one is almost as big as my current apartment. I give this one an 8.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
3 Worthwhile Hours in the Younger's Apartment, 5 February 2000
10/10
Author: Daniel Secrest (Tatay) from Detroit Michigan

This movie is almost 3 hours long and the only setting is inside one apartment. Amazingly, it is fantastic. It's like going to see a live play. The quality of the writing and the acting (especially Danny Glover) is enough to make the film supremely entertaining and uplifting.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Masterpiece, 14 June 2000
Author: ivan beshkov (ivanbeshkov@msn.com) from LOS ANGELES

Here's my immediate reaction from a 1989 diary entry:

I just had a memorable experience: I saw the play "A Raisin In The Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. It played for three hours, but I didn't want it to stop. It is one of those artistic miracles, like Joplin's "Treemonisha", perfection itself, total and utter flawlessness. It was about the biggest subjects in life: hope and despair, dignity and indignity. I was tearful throughout the play, in awe at its perfection. I have never felt so alive. I must find out who Lorraine Hansberry is. The play was compared to "Death Of A Salesman", but to me there is no comparison. This is a one of a kind play. On the surface, the play is about black people struggling with their own and society's limitations, but actually, it is about the human condition in general.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A Fine Performance, 18 November 2004
9/10
Author: zyxek from Tulsa, OK

This updated version of Lorraine Hansbury's classic is a masterpiece of filmed drama. Rather than attempting to look like a film, it is shot entirely on a theatrical set, without any kind of special editing, thus giving it the feel of a play. This gives the actors and Hansbury's words all of the spotlight, and they work so well together. Danny Glover gives a stunning performance as Walter Younger, capturing all the idealism and naivité of the chararacter and combining them with his astute racial awareness. Starletta DuPois is very subdued as Ruth, but all the pent-up emotions and inner-conflict are gloriously apparent nonetheless. Esther Rolle simply has a vast authority as Mama, dominating the screen at every turn without overdoing anything. My only qualms were with the occasional exaggerations of Kim Yancey as the baby sister of the family and Lou Ferguson's unwaveringly simple spouting of Asagai's lines. But these do not bring the film down very far. 9/10

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Raisin in the Sun, 9 April 2009
7/10
Author: rjglenn from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I think that before people take the time to comment on something, they ought to get their facts right. The play did not take place in the 60's, but rather the 50's. Lena was the Mother, not the Grandmother, and Walter was not a drunk, but got drunk now and then. If you had any concept of history and the context of civil rights in the 1950's you might have gotten something out of the play. But in todays world where young people expect everything to be given to them and don't know the meaning of what it is to struggle, I can see where this might have been over your head. If you would have listened to the words instead of waiting for something exciting to happen, you might have seen something you would have enjoyed.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
My favorite version of this story, 25 February 2008
10/10
Author: joyceday from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just finished watching the latest version of Raisin in the Sun and while I enjoyed it, I cannot help but compare it not to the Sidney Poitier version but the Danny Glover/Esther Rolle rendition from the late 1980's. I was waiting with baited breath for the scene in which Walter Lee has lost all the money and his mama explodes about how his father worked himself to death to give them that money. Rashad and Combs were certainly good but nothing compares to the fireworks between Esther Rolle and Glover. You could feel the anger welling up in Rolle until her whole body was shaking from the inside while Glover is beside himself with grief, shame, and disappointment. That scene was so explosive that I'm surprised the plates didn't fly off the table. I just introduced my husband to this wonderful story but would love to show him the Glover and/or Poitier versions.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Note-Complete., 24 May 2008
10/10
Author: Tahhh from New Haven County, Connecticut

Danny Glover gives an outstanding performance as Walter Lee, and while I think Claudia McNeil (in the 1961 film) gave us a far more convincing and believable Lena Younger than did Esther Rolle--somehow, Miss McNeil gave me a woman whose hands smelt of "spic-'n'-span" cleaner and bleach, whereas Miss Rolle, even in costume and makeup, gives us the impression of having regular visits to a manicurist!--she and the rest of the cast give supporting performances that are worthy of much praise.

What's best of all, in this version, is that we get every scrap of dialogue that could be found of the play, including passages which were skipped in the original production. This makes for a longer, slower-moving drama, but it pays dividends in that the longer build-up justifies the more intense outbursts that climax each act of the play.

For example, the moving scene showing how upset Ruth becomes to learn that the neighborhood children have been combatting a live rat--this scene helps us share her motivation to visit an abortionist. Beneatha's lengthy monologues about her aspirations lend enormous depth to her character, and provide an important parallel to the thwarted ambitiousness which proves so painful and fateful for her elder brother.

The entire production gives one the impression of having had the chief goal of RESTORING Hansberry's play with the same respect and thoroughness as people apply to Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams or other "classics"--a production where all participants resolve, not to impose their OWN visions on the play, but to allow the playwright's vision and message to come forth, as originally intended.

A "definitive" version of this great play about living by principle and morality and thereby conquering limitations and adversity.

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1 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Mediocre script turned into a horrible play., 28 August 2001
Author: CatDog from NY

In English class last year, we had to read the script to "A Raisin In The Sun"...it was a quick read, but it was mediocre at best. I saw little redeeming value whatsoever to me, and whatever was there I had definitely read/saw displayed a better form. It's about a poor black family in the '60s living together with their grandma, the only form of wisdom in the household; the son, who still has a lot to learn; the over-protective and over-concerned wife, the drunk husband who acts before he thinks, and his sister who refuses to conform to current society.

But then, we had to sit through this play. It probably is the most horrible, long, drawn-out movies/plays I've ever seen. It was made on one stage, which suggests a play, but it was just really corny even for that format. The acting was horrible, especially from Asagai...no wait...A-SA-GAI -- I literally cringed everytime he said that. I could've done without his trying to "find happiness" in everything, to Danny Glover's melodramatic additions when he lost his money from investing in a liquor store (I SERIOUSLY could've done without the crying and drooling, he tried way too hard). The scene where Beneatha and Walter listen to that record and pretend they're animals or something, that could've been completely cut out of the play -- I was laughing so hard at how bad it was. I envisioned it totally different from the screen version. The vote was unanimous in our class...please avoid this at all costs if you've read or are planning on reading the original script. Script = 3.5/10; Play = 1/10

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