Die Liebe stirbt nie

I've read the book and seen the movie; the book is better. To do justice to the book, the movie should have been in two parts, the first could have focused on Janie's childhood and youth and her life with Joe Starks and the second could have focused on her life with Tea Cake. I knew I'd have problems with the movie when Oprah introduced the movie by talking about Janie kissing Tea Cake. No movie could include everything in the book, but by leaving out Janie's family history, we don't get a clear idea why Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks. In the novel, the people in Eatonville are complex and interesting people. In the movie, they are reduced to clichés. Don't any of the work? Sorry, but race is an important part of the book and there should have been a way to include this in the movie. Mrs. Turner and the trial are important parts of the novel; the movie was a Lifetime feature. Halle Berry doesn't have the acting chops to play Janie. She looked the same from beginning to end. Put a little dirt on her and she still looks good. The scenes in the Glades were awful. Unlike, the novel, there was no sense of the people working. The movie gives the impression that these people spend most of their time singing and dancing in camp. Talk about a cliché. In the novel Janie makes a choice to go work with Tea Cake; in the movie it was Halle going slumming. The end of the novel is grabs you; the movie's end was laughable. By the way, I don't think the novel is anti-male or anti-white. Oprah said that Zora Neale Hurston was going to let out a shout. Yes and the shout would be "Orpah you ruined my novel!" Orpah made a movie called "Their Eyes Were Watching Halle." I hope someday, someone will make a real movie of "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

There are at least a few good things about the made for television version of Ms. Hurston's classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The first being the cinematography, as it is often moody, always rich, and at points ethereal: the water could not be bluer, nor could the people be more vibrantly brown. Also, it is worth noting the clever choices Mr. Martin made when deciding what to film. For instance, in the scene when Janie lies in bed with her first husband and ponders what he would do if she were to ever leave him, the director gives us a rather telling portrait of their relationship with just a few shots. He begins making the inner thigh of Logan Killicks' the center of the frame, thus allowing us to see the old man's flabby skin as it nearly falls from its bone. It is a sensitive portrait; for Killicks is no longer repulsive to the viewer- he is simply ashen, old, and, most importantly, an inappropriate suitor for the supple Janie.

Unfortunately, with the exception of a fine performance by Nicki Michauex and the delight of seeing Ruby Dee working, I find little else commendable about this theatrical mishap. To begin, it seems everyone involved with this production, from the screenwriters, producers, director, and the dialect coach- if one existed at all, did everything in their power to strip TEWWG of its blackness. And by the erasure of "blackness" I am referring to the production's lack of humor and word play, the lack of southern accents and sense of community, that there is no juke joint, hard work, eroticism, and constant reminders of racism so key to Hurston's understanding of the rural Black experience. (What so many Brooklyn accents were doing in Eatonville Florida is beyond me! Moreover, why Halle Berry was not encouraged to do something with her voice, other than what she did in Finding Isaiah is equally distressing.) Those who have read and care deeply about the book will also find disappointing the screenwriters' insistence on whittling down such an obvious celebration and examination of black rural life into a love story, as the camera simply refuses to venture beyond Teacake and Janie's bedroom.

Most regrettably, is the omission of life on the muck, where Janie and her man worked as migrant workers along with persons with colorful names like Bootyny, Sop-de-Bottom, and Stew Beef. For life on the muck, according to Ms. Hurston provides a complex view of Black life. It was in those pages, after all, us readers watched the workers dance at the juke, play the dozens, and deal with their respective experiences of being black, transient, impoverished, and yet, amazingly resilient. This they did with imagination, wit, ingenuity, and violence.

On a sadder note it was on the muck that Teacake beat Janie as other men so proudly beat their women, thereby showing us what Nanny really meant when she confirmed "de n***er woman" to be "de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see." Also, it was via the beating that us readers understood the union of Janie and Teacake to be problematic, if not doomed and not just an excuse for the cheesy face licking of Ms. Berry and Mr. Ealy.

Sadly, these factors will all be lost on those who forwent the novel and settled for the television spectacle. One can only hope that Ms. Winfrey and company's pedestrian effort will encourage others to examine or reexamine Ms. Zora Neale Hurston's masterpiece.

This movie was terrible! I just finished reading the book and I was really looking forward to seeing the movie, needless to say I was very disappointed! So much of the book was left out. Excuse me, but where was Mrs. Turner?! In the book she is described as being extremely ignorant and I did find her annoying, but her character should have been included in the movie! 2nd of all, what happened to Janie's trial? did Oprah just happen to forget about that? Also, in the book Janie is married to Tea Cake for 20+ years, but the movie made it seem like she was married to him for 10 minutes! The movie was extremely boring and I kept saying to myself "maybe it will get better" but it never did. Halle Berry was the wrong person for the role, I know some people on this board think Lynn from "Girlfriends" would have been best and maybe she would have, but I think Jada Pinkett would have been the perfect choice. Jada is a very underrated, but excellent actress (much better than Halle in my opinion). Many times during the movie, I felt like I was watching soft porn. The part where Halle and Michael Ealy put their tongues together? ugh! was that necessary? I was so disgusted at that point, I turned the channel. I want to remake the movie!!!!!!!! If I remade it the actors/actresses I would cast would be as follows:

Janie-Jada Pinkett Logan-same man who was in Oprah's version. Jody Starks-Danny Glover Tea Cake-The star of "Antwone Fisher" sorry, cant remember his name. Phoeby-Maybe Gabrielle Union, the woman in Oprah's version had no charisma.

This is the worst adaptation of a book ever and I am so disgusted with this movie that I am going to try to remake it myself! If anyone does it before me, I will be just as happy, as long as its better than this junk. But this time Ithey should make it into a mini series and it should be on HBO!

Well, I can admit when I am wrong and I was wrong about Halle Berry's performance. Halle was incredible as the head strong Janie Crawford and Michael Ealy added some sexy sizzle to the drifter Tea Cake. I really was impressed with the chemistry Berry and Ealy had it seemed so real. Also, I loved the production from the beautiful Florida Everglades, to the rural Eatonville town. The clothing was great as well. I also must thank. Ms. Oprah Winfery for once again bringing the rich African American literature to the masses in America. Zora Neale Hurston must also be thanked for discussing the sexism, and the patriarchy that affected black women in the early 20th century. Zora's novel is not just an American classic people from all over the African Diaspora and the world thank Ms. Hurston for her work. She will never be forgotten.

I am a Black woman and I have read Their Eyes Were Watching God many times, most recently when I learned that Oprah Winfrey and ABC were presenting the television movie. I was absolutely horrified at what I saw on Sunday. Halle Berry simply did not do justice to the character she sought to portray. Janie Crawford is a dignified, free spirited, intelligent, strong character. The portrayal presented on ABC was insulting to the memory of Zora Neale Hurston in that Berry played Janie as a flighty, promiscuous, immodest tart who went off with whatever man appealed to her at any given moment. And to add insult to injury, Suzan Lori Parks neglected to adequately address a number of the important issues raised by Ms. Hurston, specifically the issues of skin tone and class among Black folks. How could Michael Ealy possibly play Tea Cake, who Ms. Hurston wrote as a dark skinned Black man, not the perpetually sweaty, open-shirted, light-skinned, mumbling buffoon presented to us on Sunday? I watched the movie with four other Black people, two men and two women. No one had anything positive to say about the movie. I held on as long as I could, but after two hours, I had to agree with my fellow viewers: the movie was horrible. Shame on all involved who had any sort of creative control over this debacle. May Hurston haunt you until you know better.