Under the editorship of the late Robert Nemiroff, with a provocative
and thoughtful introduction by preeminent African-American scholar
Margaret B. Wilkerson and a commentary by Spike Lee, this completely
restored screenplay is the accurate and authoritative edition of
Lorraine Hansberry's script and a testament to her unparalled
accomplishment as a Black artist.
The 1961 film version of A Raisin in the Sun, with a screenplay by the
author, Lorraine Hansberry, won an award at the Cannes Film Festival
even though one-third of the actual screenplay Hansberry had written had
been cut out. The film did essentially bring Hansberry's extraordinary
play to the screen, but it failed to fulfill her cinematic vision.
Now, with this landmark edition of Lorraine Hansberry's original script
for the movie of A Raisin in the Sun that audiences never viewed,
readers have at hand an epic, eloquent work capturing not only the life
and dreams of a Black family, but the Chicago--and the society--that
surround and shape them.
Important changes in dialogue and exterior shots, a stunning shift of
focus to her male protagonist, and a dramatic rewriting of the final
scene show us an artist who understood and used the cinematic medium to
transform a stage play into a different art form--a profound and
powerful film.