Their Eyes Were Watching God

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!

If this movie is your first introduction to Zora Neale Hurston's Masterpiece called Their Eyes Were Watching God, then you owe it to yourself to read the book. In fact, it's the only way you'll truly be transported to the another time and place. The television movie didn't even begin to capture the spirit of the book. This book wasn't about a great romance. It was about a woman's self discovery. First off, it's pretty obvious that more than two and a half hours were needed to adequately tell Janie's story. Because the filmmakers didn't take the time, viewers were left with a fast-paced, glossed over, cliff note version of Janie's life. I won't spoil anything if I say viewers were left with big gaping holes specifically what drove this central character. What about Janie's background made her make the choices she made? Most glaring, is it possible to span more than 20 years and not get even a wrinkle? Come on! How can a character look exactly the same at the end of a movie as she did at the beginning? especially after enduring such hardships. I'll admit my stomach turned flips when I found out this picture was being made. Our works of literature are precious and they should be treated as such. If you can't make it better, then leave it alone. Zora deserved better!

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.

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.

We watched the movie as a class assignment after reading the book and i must say i really liked the movie, but the book is still so much better! so if you liked the movie, i advise you to read the book - its fantastic! Many key points in the book (or so i thought) was not in the movie, an example is Janie's trial after she kills Tea Cake and several of the characters were also Unfortunately left out. But it is a very good movie - especially for a made for TV movie.

to everyone who enjoys a good movie with some meaning to it; see this movie

to everyone who have read the book; the movie is great and really does the book justice (As least as much as can be expected from a movie made for such a great book)