In the Heat of the Night

Before Barack there was Sidney - America's most eligible and tolerable black men representing two generations. The kid from Bahamas who spent his teens in Miami, slept in New York city bus stations, became fluent in Russian(!) acts like a force of nature in one of his finest Hollywood performances in this film. Virgil Tibbs, the character Poitier plays in 'In the Heat of the Night' is ranked as one of the top 50 greatest performances by any actor.

It is an engrossing movie. There is the racial tension that flare up when a colored cop from a more liberal Northern state ventures into Sparta, Mississippi - a conservative white dominated Southern town in the fifties and sixties. Then there is the whole thriller part about who is the real murderer which the smart black cop, Virgil Tibbs tries to solve racing against time and luck. A must watch classic.

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To Sir With Love

Sidney Poitier is a fine specimen of a man. Whenever I watch him in movies, I feel that he was what the African Americans wanted to be after their emancipation from slavery. But somewhere along the way, many of them lost sight of that vision, and became drug pushers and Addidas & Nike pimps. Now it is left to Chris Rock to rescue them, hope he makes some impact.

I had read a portion of the book by E.R.Braithwaite as a part of an English lesson in high school. It was wonderful to see Poitier play the title role, I cannot think anyone else doing it. A good story about an unruly bunch of British teenagers in their final year at highschool who are brought to 'their senses' and ultimately won over by a newly appointed black teacher.

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

It might have been a very topical and relevant movie in 1967, the year which it came out. Starring Sidney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy, it is the story of a day in the life of a rich liberal couple in the late sixties San Francisco whose daughter brings home a black man, she'd like to marry. Katherine Houghton, who is actually Katherine Hepburn's niece plays her daughter in the film.

The movie is like a history lesson, albeit an engaging one, about the people and the racial prejudices that plagued the United States before the seventies. I understand why Sidney Poitier is a great actor. Spencer Tracy died two week after the filming of this movie, so his long and powerful monologue at the end of the movie is a fitting tribute to the great actor he was.

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