shawnjames_2000 Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005 TV Movie)

Does not capture the spirit of the book

[1/10 · 15 September 2005]

The Oprah Winfrey Presents adaptation of the Zora Neal Hurston novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a major disappointment. Winfrey's shallow adaptation barely skims the surface details of Hurston's novel and does not capture the spirit of the great book it is based on. Winfrey says the late Ms. Hurston would be proud of her movie; I don't think she should be so eager to speak for the dead. I doubt any author would want to see their work butchered the way Winfrey has done this novel on screen. Oprah Winfrey's adaptation of Hurston's work strips it of its unique identity by removing all the references to African-American culture of the time. Instead of telling a story that detailed the role of Black women in the 30's, detailed the light skinned/dark skinned intraracial issues, sexism, the dozens, symbolism, and utilized the wonderful Southern dialect that made the characters come alive, we get a pasteurized movie that boils away the black culture away like it was an impurity. Without that culture to show us what life was like in Janie's time the movie lacks a true heart and soul. This makes the characters lifeless and one-dimensional. Stripped of her soul, Janie Crawford in this movie becomes a totally different person than depicted in the novel. Because I never got to see the childhood that would have defined the characters' independent free thinking ways, I saw Janie as a slut when she kissed the boy. When Nanny says, "black women are the mule of the world" the words have no meaning. Her marriage to the old man comes off as a way to preserve Janie's morality not stifle her independent way of thinking. Because Winfrey decided to remove all instances of domestic violence from her movie Janie has no motivation for leaving her first husband. In the book she left the old man because he beat her. On screen she comes off as lazy and irresponsible when she hates doing the work on the farm. When she meets Joe Starks it looked to me like she was a gold-digger wanting to live the high life. When Janie gets married to Joe Starks the movie turns into a bad romance novel. He wants to possess her; she regrets letting him objectify her. He only gets angry when Amos is coveting her. The confrontation Joe and Janie had was supposed to build into a humiliating argument that destroyed him as a man. On screen the fight comes on the porch has no bite because Winfrey removed the dozens game and most of the violence from the movie. When Joe dies the film treats his death with a sense of relief. I really started hating this movie because Janie on screen seemed downright cruel. She barely worked a day in her life and was more anxious to spend her husband's money than grieve his loss. The relationship with Tea Cake in the book is not as loving as depicted on screen. Winfrey subjectively decided to leave out of her movie all those scenes in the book where Tea Cake beat Janie in an attempt to make him a big hero. After a flat courtship, they leave town to go on the road spending money and engaging in some lukewarm love scenes. Winfrey makes Tea Cakes' abuse of Janie seem like it's honorable. When he steals Janie's money to go gambling it's depicted as noble. Janie just forgives him for gambling away their money and car and they go off to live in a village full of hippies. The climatic hurricane sequence has no feeling of drama at all. The scenes where rabid Tea Cake and Janie face off before killing him have no tension and no suspense. Arbitrarily Oprah leaves out the funeral scene in the novel where Janie grieves the loss of her true love. What's really important are those frames showing that Janie is still wealthy in spite of her tragedies. Upon returning to town in the end Janie shows absolutely no sense of remorse about killing Tea Cake, the great love of her life. She goes fishing and frolicking as if nothing tragic has happened in her life swimming in the lake she says smiling that she's watching God. That final shot of her made my stomach turn. The Janie Crawford in this movie doesn't make me believe she comes to the conclusion that she loves herself. I see her as a loose gold digging ruthless woman who takes no responsibility for her actions. The men in her life were just fodder to give her nice things. Inheriting Joe Starks' wealth made her someone. Nice message Oprah. Oscar winner Halle Berry is uninspired in the role of Janie. She makes no effort on her own to add dimension to the character, sleepwalking through her part reading her lines as if she were on autopilot. She has no chemistry with Reuben Santiago-Hudson or Michael Ealy at all. Having watched all of Berry's performances since 1989, I can truly say this is the worst performance of her career. She actually put more effort performing in the terrible B.A.P.S than working on this movie. Rueben Santiago-Hudson is passable as Joe Starks. He does his best with the role but there's no script here for him to work with. Terrence Howard's portrayal of Amos rises above the heartless screenplay. He adds dimension to his role making you see the sleazy man coveting Janie from afar. Michael Ealy is a very stale Tea Cake. He's just here to be the baby oil splashed boy toy showing off his abs, pecs and smiling for the camera. Ruby Dee is strong in her small part as Nanny. I believe if they gave her more to do she would have stolen the movie. If you haven't read the book, please do so. Avoid watching this twisted movie adaptation that perverts everything the late Ms. Hurston wrote about. The values promoted by this movie totally betray the message in the book.