The Piano Lesson (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
by Lloyd Richards (II)
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DVD details
Actor: Alfre Woodard, Carl Gordon, Charles S. Dutton, Lou Myers, Tommy HollisDirector: Lloyd Richards (II)
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-17
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hallmark
DVD Reviews of The Piano Lesson (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
DVD Review: The Piano Lesson
Summary: 5 Stars
This dvd was very entertaining and inspiring. The actors chosen to portray the characters are all first rate. I would recommend this dvd for viewing by all segments of the viewing audience.DVD Review: The Piano Lesson
Summary: 5 Stars
Great movie. Brought back memories from back when it was first released. Great cast as well, wonderful group of actors.DVD Review: Learn Your Lesson
Summary: 5 Stars
August Wilson's 'The Piano Player' with Charles Dutton and Alfre Woodard is such an engrossing play. This screen adaption brings you into there lives and makes you feel for every one in the movie. The writing 'superb'. The acting 'superb'. And the supporting cast is so top notch, you have to watch it more than once just to see all the scene stealers. This is a group that can send a complete message with just the raising of an eye, the shrugging of a shoulder, or the shaking of a head. You know what every gesture means. I now need 'Fences'.DVD Review: "As long as Sutters had that piano, they had us as slaves."
Summary: 5 Stars
Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, August Wilson's lively domestic drama focuses on a black family in the 1930s and their piano, which dominates the living room of Doaker Charles and his niece Berniece in Pittsburgh. The piano is adorned with the faces of their slave ancestors, carved by a distant relation who was owned by the Sutter family in Mississippi before Emancipation. Berniece's brother Boy Willie, recently released from a prison farm, has come to Pittsburgh from Mississippi with his friend Lymon, determined to sell this ancient piano in which he claims half-ownership.
Charles Dutton, as Boy Willie, Berniece's brother, endows his role with a humor and good-naturedness not obvious from a reading of the play, and his passion to use the money from the sale of the piano to buy a hundred acres of Sutter farmland, which his slave ancestors once worked, is palpable. Courtney B., as Boy Willie's friend Lymon, is credulous and innocent as he explores the city, responding to its differences from the life on the farm, and bringing Berniece (Alfre Woodard) out of the grief she has borne since the shooting death of her husband three years before. Woodard herself is a fierce Berniece, protective of her young daughter and determined to preserve the piano and its heritage.
Directed by Lloyd Richards for the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1995, the screenplay was adapted by August Wilson from his own play. A bit shorter than the original, with offensive expletives omitted for television, the script remains close to the original. When Sutter's ghost makes several appearances, the superstitions and folklore which have been part of the family's culture become both real and violent, and when Willie Boy, Lymon, Wining Boy (his gambler uncle, played by Lou Meyers), and uncle Doaker (Carl Gordon) sing, on several occasions, the viewer is reminded of the role of spirituals in black culture, their unifying spirit, and the dignity they inspired.
The appearances of Sutter's ghost and Boy Willie's battle with him create a sense of melodrama in this otherwise thoughtful battle between the reverence for the past (as seen in Berniece) and the hopes for the future (as seen in Boy Willie). As a record of the era in which many blacks left the farms for the opportunities of the city, however, the play is unparalleled in its insights. Mary Whipple
DVD Review: A battle between the historic past and dreams for the future
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are seriously into dramatic theatre plays, you may agree that re-creations made for movies or televisions are often substandard to the book! In this case, the re-creation was geared toward television/movie quality rather than a reproduction of a stage theatre performance.
And if you are familiar with the works of August Wilson, you will recognize that to adher to the vernacular - spoken language of a region - is critical to the element of his works. In this DVD movie, the use of the N word was omitted and that omission is part of history.
African American playwright, August Wilson was born in 1945 and has received numerous, that include Pulitzer Prize honors, "Fences" in 1987; and "The Piano Lesson" in 1990. Each of his works chronicle a decade in black experience. The Piano Lesson takes place in the depression era, the 30's.
The story revolves around an old carved upright piano that is symbolic with rich family history that dates back to trading slaves. The carvings are stunning and each scene depicts a story filled with vivid description. The plot includes supernatural elements.
Actor Charles Dutton has performed as other characters in Wilson's plays and here he plays Boy Willie. With dreams of owning land like his ancestors, his plan involves selling a piano that belongs to him and his sister Berniece, played by the well-known Alfre Woodard. However, the piano, an heirloom, is a representation of the past and she refuses to sell it. The carvings were done by her grandfather, an enslaved plantation carpenter.
The movie version of the Piano Lesson was done quite well with some stunning performances by seasoned actors. Like any well-written play with all the elements required, it lays heavy on meaningful and lengthy dialogue.
The Piano Lesson opened onstage in 1984 and became Wilson's second Pulitzer Prize in 1990. Supposedly, this Hallmark version is shortened and since I have not read the book, I cannot say how true to the book it is. ....MzRizz
Description of The Piano Lesson (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
The only one of August Wilson's plays to be filmed (and for television, at that), this 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winner is an amazing piece of work. Adapted by Wilson and directed by Lloyd Richards, who staged it on Broadway, the play deals not just with racism and its effects but with the ongoing legacy and curse of slavery on modern blacks. Set in 1920s Pittsburgh, the story deals with the arrival of Boy Willie (Charles Dutton) from Mississippi, to claim a family heirloom from his sister Berniece (Alfre Woodard): the piano, carved by their ancestors with symbols of slavery. He wants to sell it to buy the land his grandfather worked as a slave; Berniece refuses to give it up because it represents a horrifying episode from the family's past. Add in ghosts, superb performances, and Wilson's poetically charged writing, and you have a startlingly solid piece of theater that works well as a film. --Marshall FineAfrican American Cinema DVDs
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