I want to talk about tough love for a bit. Tough love, especially parent-to-child, is a lightning rod for generation baiters – at its core is the idea the offspring needs it to be tougher: “spare the rod, spoil the child,” etc. Tough love need not involve the physical, of course. One way or another, there’s a mind set behind it insisting that a subject who has it “too easy” will make for an ineffective adult. This thought is the crux of the idea that the current generation of children has been coddled, spoiled. I cannot speak to that; I think there are too many data points on both sides of this argument. What I do say is while I understand the tough love administer, I think life is difficult enough on its own without adding a parental adversary. To me, tough love isn’t love at all. Tough love breeds resentment and distrust long before the possible dividends of strength and admiration settle in. My questions to all those proponents of such are twofold: was it worth it? What is your current relationship with the practitioner/practitionee? Be honest.
Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington, also directing) is a tough love parent in 1950s Pittsburgh. After his shift ends, he enjoys tall talk in the back yard with a bottle of gin and his co-worker, Bono (think Sonny, not U2 for pronunciation). Troy places no faith in the progressive Civil Rights movement ahead and instead happily divvies his world into the unconditionally loved: his oft-cowed wife Rose (Viola Davis) and his mentally challenged brother Gabe (Mykelti Williamson), and the children he … doesn’t love unconditionally: his adult son Lyons (Russell Hornsby) and teenage son Cory (Jovan Adepo). Cory takes the worst of it; Troy shows mostly contempt for his athletic progeny.
The omnipresent movie cliché of star black athlete is front-and-center is Fences – Troy was a standout in the Negro Leagues back in the day (the chronology doesn’t quite work on this one, but we let it go) and wishes none of the bigotry he faced upon his football-playing son; Troy isn’t really gonna screw with Cory’s college scholarship just to teach the kid a lesson, is he? At times, I felt like Fences went the extra mile in the attempt to alienate my demographic – all black cast? Hmmm, that doesn’t make you leave, huh? Ok, how about the fairly abusive relationship with his teen son? No? How about if we compare Babe Ruth to Josh Gibson or insult white Yankee ballplayers? C’mon, that’s gotta hurt, don’t it? No? How about a value system placing trade knowledge far above scholarship? Look, we’re gonna alienate you before this is through. I swear it.
The metaphor of Fences represents both the film’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. The walls of Troy that keep folks both in and out are a perfect representation of the overwhelming patriarch on screen, and yet, is director/star Mr. Washington building walls between he and the audience as well? There’s no question that his hyperbolic patter and “my way or the highway” parenting will appeal to a certain -likely older- viewer, yet the actions of Troy will repel just as many as his personality will attract. Denzel directs himself as the epitome of the flawed hero, constantly exonerating and chastising the man he plays at the
same time. Ironic isn’t it? Fences represents a throwback to, perhaps, this mythical “Great American” era tossed about so casually of late, where good and bad were simpler to identify and yet, his own character here is solidly in the gray.
Fences never ceases feeling like a play – the lack of sets, the lack of players, the extended conversations all give a feel of being welcomed to stage, not screen. This puts rawness and honesty front and center – the camera doesn’t cop out by cutting away or giving a deceptive snippet. At the end of each scene, we know exactly how every character feels about the other. Again, I find good reason to both like and dislike this strategy. On one side of the war in my mind is a well shot/well acted film, on the other is a defective bully of a hero and unsatisfactory resolution. Hence, I find it both impossible to laud Fences as great film, nor condemn it as a poor one. I am, dare I say? On the fence.
♪Yankee disser has a natural obsession
For owning his son entirely
The kid takes all that his outlook can handle
But all he can say is, “Pop, hey what about me?”
Meanwhile go and take a glimpse in the kitchen
A woman you’ll recognize by her face
Tellin’ you she’s acting like there is no tomorrow
Anglin’ for some Supporting Academy grace
You don’t hear me
Don’t make metaphoric walls
Please enjoy the loving family that you’re used to
I know when getting your way forever is critical
Lifelong satisfaction won’t last♫
Rated PG-13, 138 Minutes
D: Denzel Washington
W: August Wilson
Genre: The home as stage
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: African Americans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Bigots
♪ Parody inspired by “Waterfalls”
