2024   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  2 hr  7min

Drama

Directed by:  Malcolm Washington

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler, and Corey Hawkins.

“Ain’t nothin’ like a family heirloom to remind you where you come from and what you stand for.”

In 1936, just after the great depression, Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) and Lymon Jackson (Ray Fisher) drive to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Marlin County Mississippi. They make the trip in Lymon’s truck full of watermelons they plan to sell in the city. They arrive at The Hill District where Boy Willie’s sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) lives with his Uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) and her young Daughter Maretha. Boy Willie explains to his uncle how he is going to sell the load of watermelons and then sell the piano sitting in the living room. Uncle Doaker quickly responds by informing him, “Berniece ain’t gonna sell that Piano.”

The Piano is a family heirloom that used to belong to their Slave-owner Sutter. Sutter had traded a mother/wife and child slave for the piano for his wife. He kept the husband, who was Berniece and Boy Willie’s Great Grandfather Willie Boy, because he was an excellent “Worker of Wood” and could make anything out of wood. Sutter made a lot of money off of everything Willie Boy made, so he was too valuable to trade off, and broke up Willie Boy’s family to get the piano for his wife. Over time Sutter’s wife comes to miss the slave woman and her daughter, Willie Boy’s wife and daughter, more than she likes the piano. Sutter attempts to trade backwards to get them back to no avail.

So instead he has Willie Boy carve their likeness into the piano to appease his wife. Willie Boy does that, but missing his wife and daughter, goes above and beyond and carves his entire family history into the piano. Years later Berniece and Boy Willie’s father Boy Charles stole the piano on July 4,1911 during the fireworks. And that’s how it ended up in Pittsburgh in Uncle Doaker’s living room. And now Boy Willie wants to lay claim to his half of the piano, so he can use the money to buy land that used to belong to the now deceased Sutter. Boy Willie wants to be a sharecropper that owns his own land, be his own man.

What follows is the struggle between Berniece and Boy Willie over selling the piano. Berniece refusing to let it go because of the history and blood that’s in that piano. Boy Willie seeing it as an opportunity to became the wealthy landowner instead of the slave that worked the land. There is a lot to this movie. It is a great story centered on a family heirloom piano, but it is much deeper than that. It is also the story of slavery and the struggles of keeping a family together as slaves under the ownership of a Plantation Owner. It is the story of Pittsburgh and The Hill District where many of the slaves that escaped from Mississippi came to and made their home.

Pittsburgh and the Hill District had a burgeoning Jazz scene from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was also referred to as “Little Harlem” back in it’s heyday. There were a lot of influential and famous Jazz Musicians to come out of Pittsburgh’s Jazz scene. Earl Hines, Art Blakely, Mary Lou Williams, James Blood Ulmer, Lena Horne and George Benson to name a few. There is a scene in the movie where Boy Willie and Lymon go out on the town to explore Pittsburgh’s Nightlife and enter a Jazz club. The jazz scene of that time is accurately depicted with Erykah Badu portraying a jazz singer and her band doing their thing.

The Piano Lesson is based on a play written by August Wilson, the fourth play in his 10 play collection The Pittsburgh Cycle. A work based on the history and influence of the many slaves that came there from the south and made it their home. It is directed by Malcolm Washington, the son of Denzel Washington, and makes his Directorial debut in this movie. Good job I say. It also stars Denzel Washington’s other son, John David Washington, who is a former St. Louis Rams Football Player turned Actor. He also starred in The Black Klansman, I thought he looked familiar and I really like him in that movie.

Samuel L. Jackson is great as always, I am a big fan and love all his work. His role in this movie is no exception, another great job. Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts and Skyler Aleece Smith were all excellent in this. It is a little slow at first but picks up steam as the argument over selling the piano heats up, and the ghosts of the past enter the story. Finally, a really good movie I enjoyed and can say absolutely worth a watch.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!