Their Eyes Were Watching God

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!

I didn't think this was that bad. It is a woman's story about going through a few relationships before finding love.

The film is well made with acting, camera work and pace all being consistently good. I also thought the plot was well scripted. However, I never really felt as much passion I think one would want from this sort of film.

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."

If one has not read the book _Their Eyes Were Watching God_, then the movie was probably wonderful. Unfortunately, for those who have read the book, it is obvious that the screenplay writer missed some important aspects of the book-- or for some reason chose to omit them. The plot in the movie revolves around Janie and her love affairs, however, what is most important to Janie, in the book, is feeling loved and accepted not only by a man, but her community.

Janie is a "light-skinned" African American and is treated different because of it. The book addresses a caste system that was prominent at the time that Hurston wrote the book. This important aspect of the story was not addressed in the movie. This is just one of many "aspects" that was not addressed.

On the up side, the casting is superb. Halle Berry is perfect for the part of Janie. She is beautiful and strong while being sensitive and vulnerable. Michael Ealy is a wonderful Tea Cake. What chemistry!

All in all the movie is-- OK. Hopefully, it will entice the viewers to read Zora Neale Hurston's fabulous book.

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.