Antwone Fisher Casebook

Antwone Fisher Casebook

            Based on a true story, Antwone Fisher starts as Antwone Fisher, played by Derek Luke, going through his adulthood suffering from childhood trauma. Waking up every day on the Navy ship, in California, being discriminated by the white, obnoxious Officer Berkley, Fisher settles his argument with violent behavior and ends up in a psychiatrist’s, Dr. Jerome Davenport, played by Denzel Washington, office to change his temper. Fisher has three sessions and starts with the sense that he is sane and the only way some people learn is to get knocked down. Fisher wastes second after second after, hour after hour in Mr. Davenport’s office, until he finally expresses his feeling to Mr. Davenport and tells events of his traumatic childhood.

Born in an Ohio correctional facility to his teenaged mother and father shot dead two months before his birth forced Fisher to live in an orphanage. After being taken out of the orphanage and getting placed in the dark house of the Tates’, Fisher suffered from sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Running for his dear life to his best friend Jesse’s house after being abused was not enough help because Jesse was around the same age as him; Fisher had to live his whole childhood and adulthood until he finally gets the courage to fix the flaws that were brought about from his horrible experiences.

 With only three sessions, Antwone Fisher realizes that he wants to change but doubts that he will change within three sessions. Since the Navy only pays for three sessions, Fisher becomes out of luck with no one to guide him in the right direction. Eventually Davenport recognizes that in order for Fisher to prosper, Fisher will need help from him; Davenport decides to assign more sessions and lead Fisher to overcoming his childhood trauma controlling his anger and locating his mother, who abandoned him as a child.

Antwone Fisher was based on the book, Finding Fish, by Antwone Fisher. Finding Fish was written by Antwone Fisher to expand on his incredible journey and reveal the triumphs and challenges throughout his life.

Fisher expands his reasoning for writing his book:

“I think back on a childhood full of longing for belonging, and see my life now as what I have created out of my dreams. An image comes to mind of Mrs. Brown at the orphanage in Cleveland, me sitting at her side, telling her, “You’ll read about me someday.” I was definitely dreaming then. With no evidence of that ever being possible, I clung to that preposterous vision and with the force of those dreams willed it and made it happen. Not because I needed to be famous, but because I needed a world that made me feel uninvited to be wrong, so I imagined myself free, I imagined myself loved, I imagined myself… as somebody.” (Antwone Fisher Biography, 2009).

Fisher had the will and determination to share his life story, and with Denzel Washington’s determination to direct the movie, his book became the movie that shows how the mix of deprivation and hope turns out to become a storyteller and poet.

            Denzel Washington’s directional debut in Antwone Fisher was very hard, but essential. In an interview with Rebecca Murray and Fred Topel, Washington discusses working behind and in front of the camera, his personal commitment to bringing Antwone Fisher’s story to the screen as honestly as possibly, and working with newcomer Derek Luke. Producer Todd Black came to Washington around 1995 or 1996 about playing the psychiatrist in the film. During the process of film, Washington enjoyed and directing and playing role in the film. When directing he noticed that the only thing he could do is pick the right characters and letting them do their job. In the interview, Washington was asked, “Why is it hard to direct and act?” and he responded:

“First of all, I don’t like watching myself. I got tapes of “Training Day” and “John Q” and just watched it over and over and over so I could get used to watching myself, because I had to criticize myself, or fire myself (laughing). And Derek is such a young actor, I really wanted to be focused on him all the time and help him. Now here I have to fit in the scene, I’m not really focusing on him, but I have to and I also have to act and then I have to go and look at myself and look at him on the tape, so it was stressful.”

The challenging aspects of Denzel Washington directing and debuting turned out positive just as his other films such as John Q and Remember the Titans.

            At the start of this film, in 1995 or 1996, most adults went through the same traumatic experiences that Fisher went through. In the article, “Child Abuse and Neglect”, the authors show how many people related to Antwone Fisher, “In one long-term study, as many as 80 percent of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder at age 21. These young adults exhibited many problems, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicide attempts (Silverman, Reinherz, & Giaconia, 1996). That is 80 percent of young adults are living with traumatic childhood experiences. Those people are living their life witnessing flashbacks of the hard times and are unable to get through it on their own, resulting in seeing a psychiatrist. Many people also felt like there was no one to talk to as a child, which resulted in social difficulties, “Children who experience rejection or neglect are more likely to develop antisocial traits as they grow up. Parental neglect is also associated with borderline personality disorders and violent behavior” (Schore, 2003). Being rejected, like Antwone Fisher, created a barrier between them and the world and growing up in a violent matter; this life of rejection and abuse resulted in the story of Antwone Fisher. In this society, Antwone Fisher was not the only one suffering from childhood trauma; many adults were, but it took that one story, Finding Fish, for Denzel Washington to realize that they needed help facing their traumatic experiences.

            Antwone Fisher shows a step-by-step process of adults abused as children, sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, fighting with their emotional struggles. In the movie, Antwone Fisher starts the flashbacks of his early childhood and then followed by a violent attitude and attack towards Officer Berkley’s racial slur. This specifically shows that when people have bad experiences on their mind, all the time, they will result in anger with the slightest offensive comment. When Fisher is sent to the psychiatrist, he fails to admit that he has an anger problem because of his past, like any other adult seeing a shrink. In the article, “The Other Inner Child”, the author discusses how people suffer from so much childhood trauma and how making steps to heal their inner self will result in the becoming more aware and able to overcome their childhood trauma, “Taking the time to recognize and connect with the fearless curious child has the benefit of providing a degree of balance when it comes to painful work of dealing with the hurt inner child” (Alicen 6). Just as in Antwone Fisher, the day he stopped being stubborn to the psychiatrist was his first step in overcoming his childhood trauma.

            The next step outstandingly displayed by the director was controlling anger set from bad experiences. In the Navy, Fisher had a rough time controlling his anger towards the other shipmen. The other shipmen often mad remarks that jogged Fisher’s memories and set him off in a rage towards them. In the scene where Shipman Grace, called Fisher a fagot because he would not talk to any of the women at the club. Being called a fagot pushed Fisher over his limits and resulted in Fisher acting violent. Little did Shipman Grace know, Fisher was sexually abused as a child. With that not being the only time Fisher reacted violently towards a situation, he received help from Dr. Davenport that notified him that the only way he would get over this is if he locates his family that abandoned him as a child.

            As an adult, locating the family that abused and abandoned them is difficult but necessary for happiness in the end. Dr. Davenport tells Fisher that his last step is to find his real family. After committing to finding them, Fisher visited Mrs. Tate’s house to find information of his real family. During visit with Ms. Tate, Fisher stood up to his abusive foster parent and showed the strength never thought he had. After hours and hours of calling numbers out of the phonebook, Fisher eventually found his mother. Letting her now how much of a success he was without her and expressing his feelings to her, played a major role in overcoming his childhood trauma; without this last step the barrier built by abandonment and abuse would have stopped Fisher from becoming successful.