Denzel Washington, Viola Davis Deliver Powerhouse Performances in First Fences Trailer

There is a line in a Bob Dylan song about Gregory Peck, standing in line just to see him in any movie. Denzel Washington is that actor for me. I’ll see him in anything, so I’ll stand in line. The Tony Award winning, Pulitzer prize winning play Fences really needed just the rights to see it through to the big screen. It appears, from this new trailer at least, that Washington’s hands were the right ones. He was born to do this. Fences is a play and now, a screenplay, written for actors. You’re probably not going to find any film released this year that showcases these actors this well. Actors drive the Oscar race and to them, these kinds of films are all too rare.

And oh, the writing. The writing.

There is a timeliness to this storytelling, one that subtly celebrates the first African American President on his way out of a two term presidency – the deeply rooted story of the black community amid the rise of White America is one that is not told often enough from the perspective of those who lived it, those who endured it, and those who strove to reach for the American dream anyway.