Introduction
For such a creative assignment, I chose to work with Fences. I decided to concentrate on the film, directed by Denzel Washington, and sometimes refer to the play, written by August Wilson, to diversify the work and make it more credible. Fences tell us a story about Troy, a man with a complicated personality, and his family: his wife Rose, son Cory, and brother Gabriel. The man’s relationships and his family are challenging, and it is shown in different scenes properly. However, in the film Fences, directed by Denzel Washington, the scene after Troy’s fight with Cory does not show the full spectrum of the main character’s emotions, and the blurred background distracts viewers. Furthermore, the film lacks scenes with Rose and a detailed description of her personality, experiences, and emotions.
Although the movie evokes empathy in viewers and translates the deep feelings of the characters, at some moments, it lacks showing the full spectrum of the emotions the person may experience at that moment. For instance, there was a scene where Troy was rude to Cory and provoked him into a fight. The son could not beat his father and gave up. The man became arrogant and aggressive and started beating the boy. After that, Cory went away; this is the scene that will be discussed. Troy was out of his mind and started talking to himself: he challenged death to come and face him (Washington, 2016). This scene is essential in the film and aims to show how much the main character suffers, how ambivalent his emotions are, and what exactly happens in his head. However, it does not evoke much empathy; it feels like it lacks profound replicas and expressions about Troy’s pain, the scene is not built properly, and viewers cannot identify themselves with him and his emotions.
The Fences Film and Play
In general, the film and the play show Troy as a narcissistic, arrogant, and highly traumatized person who has a war in his head with himself and cannot find peace. The moment when the main character provokes Cory and tells him to get out of the house shows how he truly feels about his son. Throughout the plot, the father constantly emphasizes the son’s inferiority and flaws and tries to push Cory away, suppressing any manifestation of closeness between them. He did so to oppress any talents in the boy so he not to achieve success because Troy was highly insecure and could not bear his son’s achievements. At the beginning of the mentioned scene, he translates his contempt for the boy, and the expression of his emotions is appropriately shown. Thus, the beginning of the set makes viewers profoundly understand what exact thoughts and feelings Troy has.
However, the end of the scene could be much better. Although the moment when the man was talking to himself and asking death to take him lasted approximately one minute, he said only several replicas. The primary way how people translate their emotions is through non-verbal communication. However, the words are not the least important, and the scene lacks them. It feels like it could be more profound, the character could show more pain, suffering, and even madness, but the scene breaks off. In addition to that, the background is blurred during Troy’s speech and at the moment of his derealization. It seems that the director aimed to show how the man perceived reality then: the world was vague and unstable for him. However, it felt unnecessary and irrelevant and interrupted concentration on Troy.
The main problem with the scene was that it left the viewer uninformed and unexplained about what was going on in Troy’s head. It was not sufficient, and it felt like it did not satisfy the emotional hunger of the people who were watching this. Furthermore, the actor did not show his full emotions in that scene, and it feels like he concealed something deep down in himself. The music that was playing during his monologue was not discordant enough. It has to evoke fear, anxiety, confusion, and empathy and make the watcher feel the pain, suffering, and madness the man is in.
To make this episode of the film better, firstly, I would remove the blurred background to not distract the viewer from the main character and his expression and make them concentrate on Troy. Secondly, I would add the other discordant music that will guide the watcher through the full spectrum of Troy’s madness, narcissism, fear, doubt, and suffering. Music is essential to evoking emotions and setting the right mood in people. Then, I would make the actor add more emotions to his expressions; he has to feel this madness, forget who he truly is, merge with his character, go through this suffering, and show the viewer what he feels. Furthermore, I would add more replicas to his monologue, more drastic and disconnected phrases that are chaotically thrown from the man’s mouth. It would also be a great idea to add screaming or loud moaning about exaggerating the scene’s tension. All these corrections would make the viewer set a profound connection with the character and feel his madness and suffering in full.
Talking the film and the play in general, it lacks scenes with Rose. This character is gripping and deserves more attention than she is given. The woman has spent her whole life with Troy, the man with a highly complicated personality. She managed to deal with him and build a family. Despite Troy cheating on her, she accepted his daughter and became her mother. She was an extremely kind, wise, and warm-hearted woman who sometimes cared about others more than about herself. Her decisions and actions deserved much more attention and should have been shown more throughout the film and the play. It would be gripping to understand what drives her, what intentions she has, what feelings she experiences, and much more.
Additionally, it would be good to show how exactly she makes decisions. For instance, integrating scenes where she does something and the voiceover narrates her thoughts or the scenes where she sits and talks to herself, having profound monologues, and drawing conclusions would complement Fences. Furthermore, almost all the settings are taken in the backyard or kitchen, which bores the watcher. I would diversify it and add new locations, such as the one where Troy works, where he spends time with his lover, or where Cory lives his life and spends time beside the house.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in the film Fences, which was directed by Denzel Washington, the scene where Troy has a monologue after the fight with Cory is not filmed and composed appropriately. It lacks proper discordant music, expression of the main character’s madness and suffering, and replicas that would translate into his current state. Furthermore, the blurred background in the scene distracted the viewer from concentrating on Troy and was irrelevant. Additionally, the whole film’s and play’s plot lacks scenes with Rose, her emotions, and thoughts, and it is not always clear what drives her, why she made such conclusions, and what she actually feels. Moreover, it would be good to add some new locations to the plot to diversify it.
Work Cited
Washington, Denzel. Fences. Paramount Pictures, 2016.