''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is a 2005 American

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

based upon Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel of the same name. The film was directed by

Darnell Martin Darnell Martin (born January 7, 1964) is an American television and film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Early life and education Martin was born in Bronx, New York, the daughter of Marilyn, a dancer of Irish-American descent, and a ...

, written by

Suzan-Lori Parks Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist. Her 2001 play ''Topdog/Underdog'' won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002; Parks was the first African-American woman to receive the award for d ...

, Misan Sagay, and Bobby Smith Jr., and produced by Oprah Winfrey's

Harpo Productions Harpo Productions (or Harpo Studios) is an American multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. It is the sole subsidiary of her media and entertainment company Harpo, Inc. The name "Harpo" is ...

(Winfrey served as the host for the broadcast). It stars Halle Berry,

Ruben Santiago-Hudson Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 20 ...

, and

Michael Ealy Michael Brown (born August 3, 1973), professionally known as Michael Ealy, is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' Barbershop'' (2002), ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003), '' Takers'' (2010), ''Think Like a Man'' (2012), '' About Last N ...

, and aired on ABC on March 6, 2005.

Cast

* Halle Berry as Janie Crawford *

as Tea Cake *

as Joe Starks * Nicki Micheaux as Phoebe Watson *

Lorraine Toussaint Lorraine Toussaint () is a Trinidadian-American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Toussaint began her career in theatre before ...

as Pearl Stone * Ruby Dee as Nanny Marnie *

Terrence Howard Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor. Having his first major roles in the 1995 films ''Dead Presidents'' and '' Mr. Holland's Opus'', Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of television and cinema roles ...

as Amos Hicks * Gabriel Casseus as Sam Watson * Artel Kayàru as Motor Boat *

Jensen Atwood Jensen Atwood (born August 25, 1976) is an American actor from South Central, Los Angeles. Atwood is best known for roles in television productions such as '' Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God'', ''Noah's Arc'', and SISTERS t ...

as Johnny Taylor *

Kevin Daniels Kevin Dwight Daniels Jr. (born December 9, 1976 in San Diego, California), is an American actor who started his career with a supporting role in the 1998 film ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' by director Nicholas Hytner. He has appeared i ...

as Liege Moss *

Wayne Duvall Wayne Duvall (born May 29, 1958) is an American actor known for appearing as Homer Stokes in ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'', as well recurring roles as the television series ''Billions'', ''The District'', ''The Leftovers'', ''BrainDead'', ''The R ...

as Dr. Gordon *

Mel Winkler Mel Winkler (October 23, 1941 – June 11, 2020) was an American actor, perhaps best known as the voice of Aku Aku in the ''Crash Bandicoot'' video games, from '' Crash Bandicoot: Warped'' to '' Crash Twinsanity''. Early life Winkler was bor ...

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 ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' comments, "While the book chews on meaty questions of race and identity, the movie largely resigns itself to the realm of sudsy romance." ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic

Virginia Heffernan Virginia Heffernan (born August 8, 1969) is an American journalist and cultural critic. Since 2015, she has been a political columnist at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and a cultural columnist at ''Wired (magazine), Wired''. From 2003 to 2011, she w ...

said, " e 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." 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.

Awards and nominations

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

*
Their Eyes Were Watching God
' a
Oprah.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Their Eyes Were Watching God (Film) 2005 films 2005 drama films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films Adaptations of works by Zora Neale Hurston ABC network original films American drama television films Films based on American novels Films directed by Darnell Martin Films scored by Terence Blanchard Films set in Florida Films with screenplays by Suzan-Lori Parks Harpo Productions films Television films based on books