#945: PETRIE, Daniel: A Raisin In The Sun (1961)

PETRIE, Daniel (United States)
A Raisin In The Sun [1961]
Spine #945
Blu-ray


Lorraine Hansberry's immortal A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. Two years later, the production came to the screen, directed by Daniel Petrie. The original stars — including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee — reprise their roles as members of an African American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment, in this deeply resonant tale of dreams deferred. The Youngers await a life-insurance check they hope will change their circumstances, but tensions arise over how to use the money. Vividly rendering Hansberry's sharp observations on generational conflict and housing discrimination, Petrie's film captures the high stakes, shifting currents, and varieties of experience within black life in midcentury America.

128 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writers


From the play by Lorraine Hansberry.
Screenplay by Hansberry.
Daniel Petrie was 41 when he directed A Raisin in the Sun.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine.”

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

From 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Hansberry.

Interview 2

With Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine.

Episode

Of Theatre Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Dee and Davis.

Excerpt

From Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with an introduction by director Woodie King Jr.

Interview 3

From 2002 with director Petrie

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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