There’s little doubt in the mind of anyone of a certain age that Sidney Poitier broke many barriers both on and off the screen. The recipient of countless performance, achievement, and humanitarian awards, a knighthood, and an ambassadorship, Poitier’s influence on the arts and global politics cannot be overstated.
Judging by the wear and amount of lines on Poitier’s face and photos of him taken closer to his passing in January of this year, this project has been in the works for at least five years, and probably longer, but it is thankfully not a vanity project.
I got the impression after watching it (twice) that if there was going to be a movie made about him, Poitier wanted the facts to come out of his mouth and the opinions of him and his works to be the opinions of others.
Although born in Miami, Poitier grew up in his parents’ Bahamian homeland, first on Cat Island and then moving at age 10 to Nassau. This was when he became aware of electricity, indoor plumbing and, oddly enough, mirrors. He returned to Florida at the age of 15 at a time (1943) when the iron fist of the Jim Crow South was in full force. Less than a year later, Poitier relocated to New York City and never looked back.
The Big Break
While working part-time in restaurants, Poitier was able to catch the attention of Frederick O’Neal, the founder of the American Negro Theater where he first met Harry Belafonte. As described tongue-in-cheek by Poitier’s youngest (of six) daughter Sydney, the relationship between the two men was the longest running “bromance” in entertainment history.This was mostly true as they followed virtually parallel career paths, often competing for roles, and had an intense but amicable professional rivalry. It was when Belafonte couldn’t perform one night in a play and his understudy—Poitier—took his place and was discovered by a major studio talent scout.
A Decade of Perfection
Both Poitier and his “Defiant Ones” co-star Tony Curtis were nominated for Best Actor Oscars but lost (to David Niven for “Separate Tables”), although Poitier won the BAFTA for his performance. This led to Poitier’s personal 10 year-long “Golden Age” which included, among others: “Porgy & Bess,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Paris Blues,” “Lilies of the Field” (for which he won his only competitive Academy Award), “A Patch of Blue,” “To Sir, With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
High marks need to be lavished on director Reginald Hudlin and writer Jesse James Miller who stop short of canonizing their subject by including clips where Poitier’s considerable ego got in the way of his art, and by going into detail of his nine-year extra-marital affair with actress Diahann Carroll.
Too Much O
However, and sadly, this is not the case with Oprah Winfrey who, not surprisingly, is also one of the film’s producers. Every time she speaks (which is too often and mostly about herself), Winfrey stops the film in its tracks. Given that she is one of the best interviewers ever, Winfrey should have known better than to hog the spotlight in such an obvious and distracting manner.There are very few instances where movies of any genre need to be longer than two hours. In its current 112-minute state, it covers virtually every aspect of Poitier’s amazing life, but had it been extended to, say, 135 minutes (minus most of the Winfrey content) it would have been perfect.
It’d be great if the future home video version of “Sidney” includes what might have certainly been left on the cutting room floor.
