4K UHD Review: In the Heat of the Night (Criterion Collection)
Directed by Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, The Hurricane), In the Heat of the Night won five Oscars in 1967: Best Picture, Best Actor (Rod Steiger), Best Screenplay (Stirling Silliphant), Best Editing (Hal Ashby), and Best Sound. Nearly sixty years later, the film is still a powerful moral drama and fascinating character study. The story begins when […]
Blu-ray Review: A Patch of Blue
These days, A Patch of Blue is dismissed by some as being corny and predictable. Perhaps, but I, a longtime fan of star Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field) have always enjoyed the film. Released in 1965, it’s a story of a deep friendship that transcends race and class. The film, written and directed by […]
Blu-ray Review: The Wilby Conspiracy
[amazon_link asins=’B077Y3QTS5′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6dfcf6d6-110a-11e8-b7a8-8de5a9e57dc2′]Set in South Africa when Apartheid was the rule of law, The Wilby Conspiracy stars Sidney Poitier as a revolutionary, and Michael Caine as a mining engineer, on the run from the South African military police. Directed by Ralph Nelson (Lillies of the Field) the film is based on the […]
Blu-ray Review: For Love of Ivy
[amazon_link asins=’B0779SPXYG’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ec7955e4-fd38-11e7-b353-e10293c428a1′]Released in 1968, For Love of Ivy marked the first time in mainstream film that African Americans were shown in a mature, romantic relationship. The late sixties ushered in a whole new generation of filmmakers anxious to break new barriers. However, in the case of For the Love of Ivy, […]
Blu-ray Review: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (50th Anniversary Edition)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is fifty years old this year. No stranger to controversial topics, in 1967 director/producer Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg) offered his thoughts on race relations and interracial marriage (something that had been illegal in 17 states, until June 12, 1967, just six months before the film was […]
Lilies of the Field (Blu-ray)
An unemployed construction worker, Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is traveling west when his car breaks down in the Arizona desert. When his car begins to overheat, he stops at a ranch in search of water. As it turns out, the ranch is home to a group of German, Austrian, and Hungarian nuns. Led by uncompromising […]
Lilies of the Field (DVD)
An unemployed construction worker, Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is traveling west when his car breaks down in the Arizona desert. When his car begins to overheat, he stops at a ranch in search of water. As it turns out, the ranch is home to a group of German, Austrian, and Hungarian nuns. Led by uncompromising […]
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Blu-ray)
No stranger to controversial topics, in 1967 director/producer Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg) offered his thoughts on race relations and interracial marriage with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. He cast long-time friends Spencer Tracy (who’d worked with Kramer on three other films), Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier, who’d received acclaim and an […]
To Sir, with Love (Blu-ray)
The first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award, for The Defiant Ones in 1958, Sidney Poitier would become the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964, for his role in Lilies of the Field. For those who might have questioned whether Poitier’s […]
In the Heat of the Night (Blu-ray)
Directed by Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, The Hurricane), In the Heat of the Night won five Oscars in 1967: Best Picture, Best Actor (Rod Steiger), Best Screenplay (Stirling Silliphant), Best Editing (Hal Ashby), and Best Sound. Nearly fifty years later, the film is still a powerful moral drama and a fascinating character study. The story begins […]