Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

A Raisin in the Sun Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 5, 2020

It may seem just slightly incredible to younger folks especially, but A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, at what might seem like an unbelievably “late” date of 1959. The United States’ history with so-called “race relations” has obviously been fraught with conflict and often intense emotions, but even those with a “liberal” bent who feel they’ve been on the side of the downtrodden and disparaged may feel just a slight tinge of conscience that it took until the late sixties for racial discrimination in the world of housing (both in terms of sales and renting) to be “officially” outlawed at the federal level (there were evidently pre-existing laws going back to the wake of the Civil War, but it took a 1968 set of laws to really codify things). Lorraine Hansberry, that aforementioned African American playwright, came from a family that had experienced racial discrimination in the housing business first hand, and her family’s tribulations in that regard had actually resulted in what has become a rather noted lawsuit which made it all the way to the Supreme Court, a case which was ajudicated in 1940 and which gave Lorraine’s father the right to contest a homeowners’ covenant that prevented sales to prospective black owners. That history no doubt sparked the idea for A Raisin in the Sun, but this incredibly moving work is not a “legal procedural” in any way, shape, or form, and instead wisely focuses on the familial struggles of the Younger clan, a close knit if occasionally dysfunctional assortment of relatives who suddenly find at least one element of the American Dream — home ownership — both tantalizingly in reach due to an insurance settlement, but also frustratingly out of reach due to the exigencies of the time period and various discriminatory practices of the day.

A Raisin in the Sun is one of those properties (no pun intended, considering the real estate subtext of the film) which would seem to be rather particular, in terms of focusing on an African American family in the late fifties or early sixties overcoming prejudice to purchase their first family home, which actually turns out to have a universal emotional pull which is undeniable. The Younger family consists of matriarch Lena (Claudia McNeil), who is expecting a $10,000 life insurance payment after the recent death of her husband. Lena has decided to use the money to finance the family's move from a cramped South Chicago apartment to their very own house, a dream she shared with her deceased spouse. Unfortunately, Lena's kids have other ideas. Son Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier) is something of a schemer, and thinks investing in a liquor store would be a better use of the funds, and daughter Beneatha (Diana Sands) has her own dreams of attending medical school. Playing into the family dynamics are Walter Lee's wife Ruth (Ruby Dee) and Walter Lee and Ruth's son Travis (Stephen Perry).

The film both has a throughline, one that follows the Youngers' travails with deciding what do with the money and also their travails once they attempt to buy a house in a white neighborhood, but also a somewhat vignette driven character, as various relationships in the family are explored through a number of sidebars. Hansberry adapted her own play for the film version, and she had an incredibly fine ear for natural dialogue which really helps to elevate the film throughout. While there are some attempts to "open things up", perhaps at the behest of director Daniel Petrie, the film can't quite escape its stage bound roots, though it hardly matters. Performances are absolutely visceral and incredibly heartfelt in this film, and it's a rare look at a family really not just preserving but re-earning their dignity, both individually and as a group.

For those who may be interested, there was a rather well done musical adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun called Raisin which opened in 1973 and won that year's Best Musical Tony Award (Hansberry's ex-husband Robert Nemiroff spearheaded the production and co-wrote the book). The musical featured a then quite young and unknown Debbie Allen as Beneatha, and she's on hand with Robert Jackson in Alaiyo, my own personal favorite song from the score, though the show's first act production number, Runnin' to Meet the Man featuring Joe Morton as Walter Lee is a close runner up in my estimation.

A Raisin in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Raisin in the Sun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Criterion's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

A Raisin in the Sun is pressented in its original aspect ratio in 1.85:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution from the 35 mm original camera negative at Cineric in New York on the facility's proprietary high dynamic range wet gate film scanner.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm magnetic master.

The fact that the booklet goes on to credit Grover Crisp and the fantastic team at Sony Pictures Entertainment may be all videophiles need to know about how this transfer looks. This is another stunner from the almost always reliable folks at Sony-Columbia, with a beautifully rendered grain field, solid and consistent contrast, gorgeously deep blacks and well modulated gray scale. Detail levels are excellent across the board, though arguably (and understandably) a bit better with regard to fine detail in some of the studio bound sequences than in some of the interpolated outdoor material. Petrie and cinematographer Charles Lawton, Jr. kind of surprisingly tend to favor a lot of midrange shots (surprising in that an intimate story like this might automatically suggest a lot of close-ups), but quite remarkably fine detail levels are typically excellent even in these wider framings. When close-ups are utilized, detail levels on items like fabrics are virtually palpable.

A Raisin in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Raisin in the Sun features a nicely full bodied sounding LPCM Mono track. As stated above, the film can't quite escape its stage bound roots, and as such large swaths of the film pass by with dialogue being the preeminent feature on the track, though ambient environmental noises do tend to fill the background, even in some supposedly inside scenes. Things bristle with some energy in the outdoor material. Laurence Rosenthal's score also sounds lively and distortion free on this enjoyable track.

A Raisin in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lorraine Hansberry (1080p; 23:44) is described as an "illustrated audio segment" culled from an interview Hansberry did with Patricia Marx in 1961. The "illustrations" are a number of archival stills of both Hansberry and the original production of the play, along with occasional accoutrements like the Playbill cover for the show's run.


• A Dream Realized (1080p; 24:57) is a 2018 interview with Hansberry biographer Imani Perry.


• Poitier's Walter Lee (1080p; 24:47) is an interesting piece featuring Poitier expert Mia Mask, who gets into some of the tensions behind the scenes during both the original Broadway run of the play and the later filming.


• Theater Talk (1080i; 26:43) is a fun archival piece from 2002 with Ruby Dee, (producer) Philip Rose, and Ossie Davis (who replaced Poitier during the run) discussing the original Broadway show.


• Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1080p; 40:32) is an excerpt from a longer piece, with the excerpt here focusing on A Raisin in the Sun. This comes with a separately accessible Intro (1080p; 10:07) featuring the documentary's director, Woodie King, Jr., who was founding director of the New Federal Theatre.


• Daniel Petrie (1080i; 6:45) is a 2002 interview with the film's director.


• Trailer (1080p; 2:48) kind of humorously "stars" David Susskind.

Additionally, a typically well appointed insert booklet is also provided, which includes a really sweet reminiscence of Lorraine Hansberry by James Baldwin.

A Raisin in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You'd have to have an almost incalculably hardened heart if A Raisin in the Sun doesn't repeatedly bring a lump to your throat. This is both sweet and bracing (there are some rather provocative "tangential" issues that are addressed here, ones not even related to the whole "race relations" angle), and it offers an absolutely stellar cast a chance to bring a loving if troubled family wonderfully to life. Criterion has once again provided a release with excellent technical merits and some very enjoyable supplements. Highly recommended.