Their Eyes Were Watching God (film)

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Written by	Zora Neale Hurston (novel) Suzan-Lori Parks (teleplay) Misan Sagay (teleplay) Bobby Smith, Jr. (teleplay)
Directed by	Darnell Martin
Starring	Halle Berry Michael Ealy
Music by	Terence Blanchard
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producers	David Salzman Matthew Carlisle Quincy Jones Oprah Winfrey
Running time	113 minutes
Distributor	ABC Harpo Films Touchstone Television
Release
Original release	March 16, 2005 (2005-03-16)

Their Eyes Were Watching God is an American Broadcasting Company television film that aired on March 6, 2005. It is based upon Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Darnell Martin and produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions (Winfrey served as the host for the broadcast). Its teleplay was by Suzan-Lori Parks, Misan Sagay, and Bobby Smith, Jr. It starred Halle Berry and Michael Ealy, with other prominent actors.

Cast[]

• Halle Berry as Janie Crawford
• Michael Ealy as Tea Cake
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Joe Starks
• Nicki Micheaux as Phoebe Watson
• Lorraine Toussaint as Pearl Stone
• Ruby Dee as Nanny Marnie
• Terrence Howard as Amos Hicks
• Gabriel Casseus as Sam Watson
• Artel Kayàru as Motor Boat
• Jensen Atwood as Johnny Taylor
• Kevin Daniels as Liege Moss
• as Dr. Gordon
• Mel Winkler as Logan Killicks
• Maura Gale as Lula Moss
• Henry Brown as Water Stone

Reception[]

Catering to Winfrey's expected TV audience, the film largely avoided the more controversial themes of race, gender, and power that Hurston explored in her novel. Karen Valby of Entertainment Weekly comments, "While the book chews on meaty questions of race and identity, the movie largely resigns itself to the realm of sudsy romance."^[1] New York Times critic Virginia Heffernan said, "[T]he film is less a literary tribute than a visual fix of Harlequin Romance: Black Southern Series— all sensual soft-core scenes and contemporary, accessible language."^[2]

Sharon L. Jones, an English professor at Wright State University, agreed that the film was quite different from the novel. She said that the novel emphasizes Janie's life journey with others who are part of her establishing an identity, and she is sometimes overpowered by them. Jones says the film leaves out many important concepts that help convey the central theme. She says that Harpo's production was thought to address a more general idea of love to reach a broad range of audience, believed to be the majority-white females of Winfrey's TV audience.^[3]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Cotten, Trystan T.; Springer, Kimberly, eds. (2010). Stories of Oprah: The Oprahfication of American Culture. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604734089. Retrieved October 16, 2010.
• Felder, Deborah G. (2005). A Bookshelf of Our Own: Works that Changed Women's Lives. Citadel Press. ISBN 9780806526140. Retrieved October 16, 2010.
• Heffernan, Virginia (March 4, 2005). "A Woman on a Quest, via Hurston and Oprah". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. eISSN 1553-8095. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
• Iverem, Esther (March 4, 2005). "Reviews of "Their Eyes Were Watching God," "Born into Brothels" and Spike Lee's "Sucker-Free City." Plus, in Brief, "Hitch" and "Diary of a Mad Black Woman"". SeeingBlack.com. Washington, D.C.: Seeing Black, Inc. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Jones, Sharon Lynette (2009). Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. pp. 218ff. ISBN 978-0816068852. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
• Valby, Karen (November 25, 2005). "Their Eyes Were Watching God [review]". Entertainment Weekly. Meredith Corporation. Retrieved October 15, 2021.

External links[]

• Their Eyes Were Watching God at Oprah.com
• Their Eyes Were Watching God at IMDb