Directed by Denzel Washington, ‘Fences’ is a 2016 period drama adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. The play is one of the ten in the playwright’s ‘Pittsburgh Cycle’, a collection of plays that focuses on the lives of African-Americans in the 20th century.
The film stars Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Mykelti Williamson, Russell Hornsby, and others. Black (stressed) Troy Maxson (Washington) is a sanitation worker who lives with his wife Rose (Davis) and son Cory (Adepo) in 1950s Pittsburg. The catch? Troy was a pro baseball player who didn’t even get the opportunity to try his luck at the game because he was too old by the time chance arrived (more on this later). And now, his son wants the same opportunity. Whether Troy allows it is what the film is about.
With 50s Pittsburg as the backdrop in a screenplay prepared long back by Wilson himself (he died in 2005), the film gives us a clear view of the physical and emotional struggles of a working-class Black family during that period while throwing light on the dynamics within Troy’s family. So keeping all these in mind, let’s explore how ‘Fences’ is rooted in reality. Potential spoilers ahead.
Is Fences Based on a True Story?
No, ‘Fences’ is not based on a true story. But let’s admit that every fictional story, written for film (in this case), is a slice of life. So no matter the fiction that lies at the top, there is truth that’s lurking underneath. This film takes a step further in that direction because the character of Troy Maxson is inspired by real-life black boxing legend Charley Burley. Burley’s family lived in Pittsburg, the same place around which Wilson based his play. In fact, Wilson grew up in the same neighborhood as the Burley family. “I grew up without a father, and the male image that was in my life… was Charley Burley. And that’s what being a man meant to me, to be like him,” said Wilson to The Daily-Beast.
Troy Maxson, 53 years old, never got the opportunity to be selected in the big baseball leagues just as Charley Burley never got a chance at a title fight. Burley became a sanitation worker, a fate that his fictional counterpart (now safe to say) Troy shares with him. While it is made clear in the film that he was too old by the time leagues decided to usher in colored players, he thinks that he was denied because he was black.
The resulting pain and anger, despite being chained to the rather dormant part of Troy’s mind, often spurts out in the worst of ways, adversely affecting those around him emotionally, especially his wife Rose who too has sacrificed so much for him in the 18 years of their marriage, and much worse, his son Cory who aspires to be a football player. Almost subconsciously, Troy is unable to let his son profit from the things that were denied to him. Specifically speaking, Cory’s recruitment into his college football team. Whether and if yes, how Troy overcomes this inability, is what ‘Fences’ deals with; an aptly named title that stands for people and emotions that we need inside and those that we should stay from.
Going deeper into the organic nature of the story of ‘Fences’ and its characters, Viola Davis spoke to NPR about how for her, the film was a journey or a “portrait” of not just a woman but womanhood itself with its smiles and turmoils. On the other hand, Denzel stated how, for him, Troy’s arc, despite being discrepant almost to the point of hateful, was spiritual, “From hell to hallelujah.” This is quite contrary to how we as the audience perceive Troy i.e. someone who, borrowing his own words from the film, wrestled Death and won (although Death did promise to return). So his flaw, in the way he thinks he can defeat Death, is what makes him more human, thereby making his journey akin to Denzel’s arc for the character.
So evidently, ‘Fence’ does make use of reality to fuel its fictional narrative in ways more than one. In conclusion, we can say that considering Wilson didn’t want his play to be made into a feature film unless a black person directed it, stating the story’s cultural stronghold, Denzel Washington helming the project is nothing but perfect, not only for us cinephiles but perhaps even for Wilson himself. He must be really happy up there now.
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