Let Us Out of Here!

I enjoyed the film version of Raisin in the Sun, especially its staginess. The external scenes added or transposed to the film version, though, didn’t quite add anything to the narrative. I felt like the most powerful and potentially political moments in the film took place within the confines of the Younger’s small apartment. There’s a claustrophobic quality to these scenes as we witness five outspoken and at times volatile characters crammed into a single room. I thought the scene that worked the best in this regard was when Walter, recently returning from the bar, is overtaken by the African music Beneatha plays. What begins as simple drumming on the table soon becomes a staging by Walter of a tribal hunt. He leaps around the room spearing imaginary prey (including his wife and other characters in the scene). But in doing so he seems trapped and imprisoned by the small cinematographic space framed by the camera. This is especially apparent when he leaps at the camera but can never cross its imaginary threshold. He must instead retreat back to the middle of the room and play the part of the hunter in the space allowed him.