"You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used to say." The Papa in question is Troy, played by Denzel Washington. This line is the perfect summary for a great movie about ordinary folk who struggle to make “good” lives for their children, if not for themselves, as they struggle with the cards they were dealt.
I love fences because it uses many layers of storytelling to give an intimate portrayal of Troy’s life in relation to his family. One example of detail: catch the scenes with the pouring of libations. I have watched the movie three times already because the character development is so rich and entertaining. The drama and the characters are fully formed. From the start, the movie pulls the audience in. In the opening moments, we are pulled into a funny exchange between Troy and his colleague/friend Bono. The dialog is funny, and simultaneously discomforting for Troy’s use of racial epithets. The content of their dialog is their “work.” Immediately, we see Troy as a confident, hard-working black man who is not afraid to agitate for promotion to truck driver. In those opening scenes, as the two men pick up garbage and inspect trash cans, we are drawn into the context of segregation and the struggles of Black people to get ahead in a 1950’s northern city. In snippets, we see that Troy is a thinking man with street savvy. Work, and Troy’s relationship to work, scaffolds the movie, and it offers some elements of tension. What could have happened had Troy lost in his agitation for promotion to garbage truck driver? Note that despite his confidence, one cannot help but feel the same nervous apprehension when Troy finally has the meeting with his boss at the Sanitation Department. Within the scaffolding of work, it is Troy’s relationships with his wife, Rose (played by Viola Davis), their children, his brother, and Bono, that make this movie special.
It is a pleasure to laugh and drink with Troy and Bono. Even if one is not the drinking type, the sharing and banter and good cheer are infectious. It is heart-warming to witness the loving, relationship between Rose and Troy. The two of them play their roles so wholesomely that if feels as if they believe their love is real. And then it hurts like heck to witness the relationship collapse under the weight of their pretenses. Privately, both knew their marriage was functional but lacked individual fulfillment for either. The movie hints at the complexity of marriage bonds but leaves some of the mystery alone. We cannot know everything the couple share.
The movie has some surprising twists. For example, Rose chooses to raise Troy’s baby, Raynell, by Troy’s mistress, Alberta. But in doing so, Rose functionally divorces her husband with this line: “From right now … this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” And with that, Rose becomes married to her church. It’s telling that Rose is the one who wakes Troy up with the news that his lover is dead. At that moment, it becomes clear that Troy can’t create the wholesome life for his war-hero brother, Gabe, his family or himself. He simultaneously loses the two women who mean the most to him. He loses the respect of his friend, Bono. He fights with his son Cory and loses the little respect the boy had for him. One starts to feel how lonely it is to be Troy or Rose. But both keep “it together” as they struggle with their respective hurts and responsibilities. Troy continues to provide for his family and preserve the continuity of a home life. There is even a hint of marital reconciliation when Rose tries to get Troy to come home at a normal hour. But neither Troy nor Rose, lose love for Gabe.
Troy, the man, takes his “crokeds with his straights” well. He maintains a strong moral compass to do the right things for his children and provide for his family. He is a proud man who doesn’t want to “owe” anybody. He doesn’t cave under the weight of his responsibilities. Not even at his lowest moments, e.g., while sitting on the steps holding baby Raynell, he does not descend into self-pity.
Maybe Troy could have been less hard on his sons. Troy desperately wants to protect his sons from the disappointments of a segregated society that would not allow a talented black man to play major league baseball. Troy’s “solution” for his boys is work as he understands work. This singular point of view may have hurt Cory’s prospects to play football. While he furiously demands it, Troy only earns the respect of his boys after his death.
And after Troy dies, it becomes clear that while he consumed so much of the oxygen of Fences, his brand of fierce love resonated deeply with his family and friends. Rose, it seems, understood her husband deeply. Witness the scene near the end where Rose fiercely confronts their son Cory when the latter decides he doesn’t want to go to Troy’s funeral. In the end, Cory’s heart is softened by Raynell’s invocation of the memory of their Father through song. “ "Blue laid down and died like a man. Now he's treeing possums in the Promised Land." And Gabe raised his hand and raised his Trumpet. The gate slammed shut. Gabe played a long note. Gabe said, “That’s the way that go!”
If you enjoy well-told and acted drama of the stuff of Americana, you will enjoy Fences for telling an intimate story within a multi-dimensional family and social context.