"I was not expected to live. I was born two months premature." Those are the words of screen great Sidney Poitier as the new documentary, entitled SIDNEY, opens. The Bahamian-American actor/director passed away early this year at age 94. I admit it. When I heard the news, I cried. He'd been significant in most of my life and, obviously, in the life of Oprah Winfrey. She's the producer of this documentary and she appears in it with stories to tell and comments about Mr. Poitier. There was no one like Sidney Poitier. He was unique, remarkable and, in his own distinguished way, a rebel. This new documentary reminds us of that. Oprah produced it in close collaboration with the Poitier family and she provided several hours of her own interviews of the groundbreaking Oscar winner. We see the older, elegant Poitier speak to the camera and we see the handsome young box office star Poitier in earlier interviews. With the expected reverence, it covers the legacy of the man who was constantly striving. It gives us some strong, revealing new information. For instance, his long friendship with singer/actor Harry Belafonte. Together, they experienced hellish situations down South during the Civil Rights era when the two stars were highly visible activists. There were times they had falling outs and didn't speak to each for quite a while. Harry would get jealous of Sidney. Poitier had an affair during his first marriage and he was in therapy at the time. We see the acclaim he achieved as a barrier-blasting Black actor and we see the crap he had to endure sprung from his stardom.. He was not a perfect man. This is nor a perfect documentary. But, like the actor, it has heart and substance.
He was born into poverty to parents to loved each other. His early formative years were spent in Florida where he came face to face with racism. One incident found him with a gun at his head. He headed to New York. That's where he embarked on an acting career while working as a dishwasher. That's where he met Harry Belafonte. Belafonte had a role in a play and Sidney was his understudy. One night, Sidney went on for Harry -- and a Broadway producer happened to be in the audience. Sidney got a career boost. Harry got jealous. Sidney got his first major movie break when he was cast as a hospital doctor in the 1950 race drama, NO WAY OUT, directed and co-written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Poitier tells us that he felt it was a first of its kind in its Hollywood depiction of a Black person. Hollywood had long cast Black actors as domestics and such. That's a point where the documentary is not so perfect. Here's a trailer for SIDNEY.
Before Sidney Poitier and before 1950's NO WAY OUT, there was James Edwards in 1949's HOME OF THE BRAVE, a movie my WW2 veteran dad introduced me to when I was a kid and it aired on local TV. Edwards was handsome, talented and should have gotten some of the lead role opportunities that Poitier did. In HOME OF THE BRAVE, he played an educated Black man whose best friend from school days is a white fellow (played by Lloyd Bridges). They served together in WWII. Private Moss (Edwards) is an engineer topography specialist. He is hit with racism from fellow GIs that's so severe, it wounds him emotionally -- like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's left with a paralysis and undergoes psychotherapy to recall what happened and overcome the paralysis. The role James Edwards had was far from the typical role given to Black actors.
I wondered if Sidney Poitier knew James Edwards and if they ever discussed the challenges of being Black actors trying to bring new images of Black people to the big screen. You can see 1949's HOME OF THE BRAVE on Amazon Prime Video.
Of his two Best Actor Oscar nominations, Poitier received his first one for 1958's THE DEFIANT ONES co-starring Tony Curtis. Poitier's daughters were also interviewed for the documentary. One daughter boasts that her father was the first Black performer since Hattie McDaniel of 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND to get an Oscar nomination.
Well ... Dorothy Dandridge made Black Hollywood history with her Best Actress Oscar nomination for 1954's CARMEN JONES.
Sidney Poitier made Hollywood history when he won the Best Actor Oscar for 1963's LILIES OF THE FIELD. The script had been originally sent to Harry Belafonte. He felt it was a "terrible movie." But he loved Sidney in it. I remember how my parents cheered in our South Central Los Angeles living room when Anne Bancroft announced Sidney's name as winner. I was happy too. I became aware of Sidney Poitier in the backseat of the family car when we went to the drive-in movies. We saw him in THE DEFIANT ONES, ALL THE YOUNG MEN (1960), A RAISIN IN THE SUJN (1961), PARIS BLUES (1961) and LILIES OF THE FIELD. Even if elements of the plots and patches of the dialogue were beyond my full grasp -- because I was a little boy -- I was riveted to him, He was vibrant, passionate, smart and he reflected people I knew, people like my dad and our neighbors.
In the turbulent 1960s, Poitier was the first Black person ever to be in the Top Ten at the box office. He broke through White Hollywood margins that had been erected around Black actor. And then Black people criticized him for not being Black enough as society was changing. Shakespeare: "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." During those turbulent times, in which the actor continued to be an activist, we see touching footage. There is news footage of presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy, telling a crowd of Black supporters that Poitier's friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, had been shot and killed. Kennedy would suffer that same fate just two months later.
Poitier continued to act and proved to be groundbreaking behind the camera as well. He directed films and opened doors for Black people to also work behind the cameras.
Of course, this famous scene in 1967's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is discussed -- and rightfully so. Here's Poitier as Detective Virgil Tibbs. Oddly, he did not get an Oscar nomination for what became his most quoted film role. Rod Steiger took home the Oscar for Best Actor. I don't know about you but this scene sure is Black enough for me.
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