Customer Reviews

Boesman & Lena (Widescreen Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The only reason I didn't give Boseman & Lena five stars is that it isn't always easy to watch. It is, however, a superlative view into the effects of racism and Apartheid on Boseman & Lena, and Lena's internal struggle to understand the aftermath of its senseless brutality on their lives. Angela Bassett and Danny Glover do their best acting to date, in a performance that is not likely to become a best seller due to the subject matter. All in all, a powerful movie rendition of South African playwright Athol Fugard's transformational play.

Director John Berry (CLAUDINE), in his last film, has crafted a visual adaptation of the Athol Fugard play. Angela Bassett (who received an NAACP Image Award nomination) and Danny Glover do some of their best work to date in this film. They have great chemistry together and despite being both American-born actors, are totally believable in their respective roles.

The film was released theatrically with barely a whisper, but fortunately, audiences have the opportunity to see this well-acted film at home. You definitely want to get the wide screen version to get the full impact of the visuals. This is the second film adaption of the play. The first one was made in the 1970s and featured Fugard in the role of Boesman. Of the two, the latest version is the strongest. If you love dramas with dynamic performances, definitely give this one a look.

Angela Basset. Danny Glover. Every emotion naked, hostile, without limits. You watch this film and you're uncomfortable from the very beginning -the signature of wonderful material (Athol Fugard). Some have called this "slow", but that's because we've become hardwired to soundbites and wanting instant answers and gratification. Some have called in "repetitive". This is human nature, especially when finger-pointing blame is fast and loose like a rogue boxer.

"Boesman & Lena" was a disappointment to me after reading the reviews. I find it very difficult to sit for 1 1/2 hours watching people on a beach yelling, screaming and arguing with each other the whole time, no matter what the subject matter. There was only one other person in the movie and he did not speak English, yet Lena yelled at him when they couldn't even understand each other. There were no houses, no explanation of why they wound up where they were or what happened to their baby (Maybe I missed all of this). Another movie almost exactly like this is "Daughters of the Dust" except it had more people in it. Again, it showed no homes or interaction with society in general and consisted of people arguing on a beach for the entire movie. Unknown to me at first, I realized that both of these borefests were products of Kino Video. I will have to be more careful when buying DVDs in the future as I consider the purchase of these 2 movies a waste of my money. There are some very good black-themed movies which I hope will appear on DVD but these are 2 that I would not recommend to anyone.