Getting a book redone on screen – and the whole process around it – is rigorous, which is why most great books still lack TV presence, and the ones in the works are either abandoned or take forever to complete. The story is the same for all acclaimed authors, including Richard Wright. Of all of Wright’s notable works, only his bestseller, ‘Native Son,’ has had at least three adaptations from its publication date. This article will analyze all the available film adaptations of Richard Wright.
Native Son in Broadway Theatres
Broadways in America were among the first platforms that ushered Wright’s book into the audio-visual realm – and none other than the author’s most important book, ‘Native Son,’ had a first thirst for it.
Native Son (1941)
This was the first adaptation of Richard Wright’s ‘Native Son,’ and it came just a year after the controversial book was published. It was a Broadway theatre show acted in Erlanger’s Theatre, Manhattan, New York – with its screenplay written by Paul Green and later enhanced by Wright.
The drama was performed in English and spanned across three months of staging with over a hundred executions developed by John Houseman and Orson Welles. It headlined actors, including Canada Lee, who played the role of Bigger Thomas, with Anne Burr starring as Mary Dalton.
The play underwent a series of redaction which significantly reduced the scenes from the original Wright work just so that it was able to fit into the limited running time for theater. This resulted in some very important parts of the novel being trimmed out – like the details about Bigger’s past, Mary’s boyfriend Jan, and Bigger’s plot to get a ransom off of Mary’s supposedly missing news – as the story is instead told straight to the point.
Conflict Of Ideas Between Wright and Green
Paul Green oversaw the creation of the play’s script for ‘Native Son,’ but had a little oversight from the book’s original author Richard Wright. However, an incident during the script development stages meant the outcome of the play would drastically be altered.
After both worked together in editing the script to fit the typical Broadway-type show, Wright noticed that Green’s script had deviated from the original story told at the latter end of the book while Bigger was in prison. Green’s script proposed that after all is said and done, Bigger eventually becomes repentant and accepts God to save his soul.
Wright wasn’t happy with such a plot twist and intended for the final output of the play to be in line with the originality of his work – whereby Bigger stays proud, unrepentant, and not particularly remorseful for his crimes and doesn’t believe in the salvation of his soul. Wright eventually worked with Orson Welles’ co-producer John Houseman, to correct the final outcome to suit the reality of the original ‘Native Son’ book.
Reviews and Reception
The 1941 ‘Native Son’ play had very decent reviews and the reception from book critics was commendable. Additionally, the play received good reviews from several top publications like The New York Times, among others, with the play’s leading character Canada Lee, getting an accolade for excellently executing the complicated and very important role befitting of proper Bigger Thomas personality from the original book.
Native Son in Films
In the later years, especially following the advancement in film technologies, Wright’s ‘Native Son’ began receiving several adaptations into proper films.
Native Son 1951
This adaptation is a proper film shot in 1951 in English and Spanish. It has other names like ‘Sangre Negra’ and ‘Black Blood’ and was shot by an Argentine film company and is located in the country’s capital city.
Directed by Pierre Chenal, a renowned French screenwriter and filmmaker, the adaptation lined up a number of interesting actors – including its 1941 adaptation star Canada Lee (who, unfortunately, passed this one up because he had issues with his travel documents and couldn’t travel for the location shooting).
Richard Wright Takes Up the Bigger Role
Wright, who was hugely involved in the development of the film’s script alongside Chenal, filled in for the no-show Lee with respect to playing the Bigger role for the black-and-white movie. The film originally ran for an hour and thirty-four minutes but a significant editing in a United States film studio made sure that all contentious scenes initially allowed were cut out to bring the film to the more traditional 104-minute runtime.
The film’s plot follows in the footsteps of the original Wright’s work – telling the story of 1940s black oppressed Chicago society where a young man called Bigger Thomas tries to make something out of life – beyond the typical mediocre social standing of black men. He works as the chauffeur for a rich billionaire but mistakenly kills his white daughter, a crime that he could never escape from and ultimately leads to the end of his own life.
Native Son 1986
This version was helmed by Jerrold Freeman and based on the original book version of Richard Wright’s 1940 bestseller ‘Native Son.’ The film’s screenplay was written by Richard Wesley and the production was led by Diane Silver.
It paraded young and bright actors such as the likes of Victor Love who played the complicated Bigger Thomas role, Elizabeth McGovern played the slain Mary Dalton, and the now popular and famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey played Bigger’s mother Ma.
Critical Reception
The film received fairly favourable reviews and scored above average on Rotten Tomatoes and had some very optimistic comments from editors of Chicago Tribune, Times Magazine, and Washington Post among others who applauded the book for various reasons including the fact that it managed to stay relevant despite having been more than forty years after the releases of the original book piece. Criticism came on the front that some important characters were almost trimmed out or made less relevant than what was obtainable in the original work of Richard Wright.
Native Son 2019
Rash is Johnson directed this version while the script was written off the pen of Suzan-Lori Parks and co-produced by Matthew Perniciaro under A24. Its first showing was at Sundance Film Festival while its proper global distribution was spearheaded by HBO.
Its cast included Ashton Sanders winning the role of Bigger Thomas, as Margaret Qualley embodied the Mary Dalton character. The plot, like all the other versions, stayed true to the original story’s trajectory but included some huge plot twists, the first being that Bigger doesn’t murder his girlfriend Bessie as she narrowly escapes him, and the second is – that Bigger is shot and killed by the police after he refuses to surrender at gunpoint.
FAQs
How many of Richard Wright’s books have been adapted into film?
‘Native Son’ is one book of Wright’s which has seen several adaptations across the broadways and proper films.
Can I watch the movie ‘Native Son’?
Yes! There are a number of ‘Native Son’ film adaptations available to be viewed on television with the most recent one being the 2019 ‘Native Son’ adaptation directed by Rashid Johnson.
How many versions of ‘Native Son’ are there?
Across Broadway theatres and films, ‘Native Son’ has had over five adaptations from its release date of 1940 to date.
Which version of ‘Native Son’ is the best?
It depends on what you the viewer seek from the movie: if you are seeking a version that stays reasonably true to the original bookwork and also has enhanced scripting and actors, Rashid Johnson’s 2019 version might just be what you need to see.