All of us have heard, and many of us have some experience with, relatives who have suffered the agony of chemotherapy. We are told that the pain is at a level that we cannot imagine. It’s almost as if a person has to approach death, to attempt to reinvigorate and inspire life. I bring this up because in a similar vein to this chemotherapy phenomenon, I had the pain/pleasure of seeing the movie “Fences” this evening.

I began this piece with a pain/pleasure analogy, but in being fair to the movie, I think it would not be wise to approach this review as “a head-on” thing. I think the experience that the movie depicts is so evasive of words, that we must, of necessity, stay on its periphery, since trying to get at its true core through the medium of words would be a blatant lie. The movie captures a Life force that defies description. I say this because in the emotions and concepts that this movie takes one through: struggle, pain, opportunity, forgiveness, ambition, life obstacles, patterns of thought and behavior, etc, there have been very few movies in my experience that have taken me to the core of what it means to be African-American in the way that this one does. I feel completely comfortable that in his role as Director of this movie, Denzel Washington has managed to capture, in cinematic form, the same vibe August Wilson was trying to get across in his writing of the story. Wilson wanted to portray genuine Black life, and the trajectory of this movie pays homage to Wilson’s goal.

There are multiple layers of thoughts, emotions and spirits that this movie operates upon, with the most subtle and nuanced of gradations, as one moves through them, reflecting back at me the life, thoughts, emotions, concept-understandings that have come to me in seeing this World through the eyes of a Black person. On so many different levels, this is a most disturbing and painful movie to watch, and yet paradoxically, I have this fundamental sense that it is also one of the most healing movies to absorb, if one can meander its complex dynamics. I say this knowing that I truly may not be making sense to anyone. Despite these reservations, I felt a little more sensitive, wiser, appreciative and understanding of what many of us Black people go through, and have had to go through in the past, upon my departure from the theater. This is not the kind of movie that is easy for me to “like,” but more than that, it IS the kind of movie that I feel is essential. For this reason alone, it will go down in my personal pantheon of most respected movies and will most certainly find a home in my collection. I will add it to my holdings with, among other things, a keen understanding of the merit of Ms. Viola Davis in winning the Oscar for her role.