pbs harvest of fear guess whats coming to dinner
Learning that Sidney Poitier had died, I thought kickoff of his operation in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," not because it was his best motion picture, or even my favorite, but because it told the story of and so many families, including mine.
Poitier was an thespian-activist in the best sense of the word. Not only was he committed, in discussion, deed and dollar, to the ceremonious rights movement, but his performances were their own form of activism; Poitier fabricated breaking barriers and rearranging cultural consciousness an art class. Some of this had to do just with his being one of the few Black actors playing leads in mainstream films for then long, but more important than the roles he took was how he played them.
"He's so calm and certain of everything," Katharine Houghton's Joey tells her mother, Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn), in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." "He doesn't have any tensions in him, he knows what he believes and what he thinks is right and why and where he's going."
She could take been describing Poitier, who brought to every grapheme a clear sense of non only himself, exhibited in whatever way best fit the function, but besides in the character's social and emotional context. Poitier seemed to empathize exactly who and where he was, and he granted every man he played that same grace.
Joey, nevertheless, is describing Dr. John Prentice, whom Poitier plays in "Gauge Who'southward Coming to Dinner," a man of such impeccable bona fides — he is assistant director of the Earth Health Organization, for heaven'south sake — that the real question is not whether he should exist "allowed" to marry Joey but what exactly she brings to the table.
In 1967, however, the fact that John was Black and Joey was white was enough to act as both obstacle and plot engine, as the couple's ii families effort to come to terms with their decision to marry. That Joey's begetter, Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy), is a life-long liberal facing at last his own racism, is a side note; the movie is about love and its ability to conquer all, etc.
Viewed in 2022, the moving-picture show feels dated in precisely the ways you would imagine, from the terminology ("Negro," "colored human") to the climax, in which the white patriarch delivers his blessing, and everyone tears up in gratitude. Simply it remains a moving-picture show that resonates with me because something similar happened in my family unit, with a very different ending.
Right around the fourth dimension "Guess Who'southward Coming to Dinner" came out, my aunt Barbara met Kassim Ismail, the human she would marry 2 years later. He was a handsome, successful veterinarian and animal sciences practiced with an unforgettable laugh. He was besides Malaysian. When my aunt brought him abode to meet her folks, they loved Kassim — until she told them she was going to marry him. Then my grandfather exploded, in a way that did not finish with a modify-of-heart benediction.
I was 6 when Barb and Kassim married, also young to understand exactly what was going on but old enough to register my grandfather'south absence from the wedding ceremony. And the fact that he subsequently refused to say Affront'due south proper noun, or permit my grandmother to talk almost her — or, co-ordinate to my father, to her. At the time I thought what made my grandmother cry and my male parent spend hours trying to persuade him to accept Barb'southward new life was the fact that my aunt and uncle had settled in Malaysia. And then I thought it was considering Kassim was Muslim. (We were Irish Cosmic.) "No, honey," my aunt told me later. "It was because he wasn't white."
My grandfather was not exactly Spencer Tracy'southward liberal approximate, merely he had raised 3 children who worked, in different ways, for the ceremonious rights motion, and it shocked me to realize he was acting exactly the way I had been taught was wrong. It was my showtime run across with the kind of bigotry I had only seen portrayed on screen.
My granddad eventually came around, when Barb and Kassim had children, only I idea about the damage he had done to our family every fourth dimension I watched or came across a reference to "Guess Who'due south Coming to Dinner." Kassim died when I was even so young, and as I entered adolescence and adulthood, their relationship became, to me, a pinnacle of romance, with Poitier and Houghton as dreamy stand up-ins.
My aunt, as it turns out, does not appreciate the comparison. I chosen her to see if it was OK to write about her union and the film. While she was very sad over Poitier'southward passing, she said she didn't remember much of "Judge Who'due south Coming to Dinner." She really hadn't seen information technology until fairly recently — "maybe I unconsciously avoided watching it," she said — and she was not impressed. Poitier was wonderful, she said, only she hated the character of Joey, who doesn't seem to have a thought in her head.
"I didn't agonize over the fact that my father rejected my matrimony," she said. "My dad loved Kassim until I told him we were getting married, then he turned very ugly. I only thought, 'That's your loss' and walked out. I know it was hard on Mom, merely I wanted to be with Kassim."
This, obviously, makes it all even more romantic. In the film, Poitier'south John says he will not ally Joey without her parents' approval, because the disruption would hurt her as well much. Information technology's a necessary point — why else would nosotros care what the Draytons think? — just a potentially character-damaging one. Only Poitier could brand such an offer seem neither manipulative nor submissive; even viewed in 2022, John'due south leaving the decision up to Joey's parents feels very much in keeping with his character — a homo who knows what he wants, what he is willing to exercise battle with and what he is not.
Watching it the day Poitier's expiry was announced, I realized his functioning, forth with that of Beah Richards as John's mother, is what has kept the film vital after all these years. Oh, Hepburn and Tracy are wonderful to spotter, because they're ever wonderful to watch (and the fact that this is Tracy's last film makes it even more poignant). But they are acting in a Tracy/Hepburn bubble. I meet my aunt's point about Joey being absurdly wide-eyed and empty-headed, and Roy Glenn, as John's father, is immune only to glower and yell.
It's Poitier who radiates equally the mesmerizing centre of the story, watchful merely certain of himself as everyone else flutters effectually in various states of daze and fear and prejudice. Poitier gives John an exquisite balance of worldliness and promise: He is not so much allowing the Draytons to brand the concluding determination as forcing them to face who they really are. He's the reason "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" remains a cinematic touchstone, a autograph for those who accept experienced like situations and an immediately recognizable influence on contemporary films like "Leave."
Yeah, the issues the film addressed still, tragically, resonate. The creation of a mixed race/culture couple may no longer be enough to heart a moving picture that is not "Westward Side Story," but we do not yet live in a time in which Poitier'south watchfulness has become unnecessary.
Few actors are able to not simply embody a character but to make him so known, for who he is and what he represents. Few other actors are able to do so much with a stare or a grinning, an emotion-high-strung bluster or an agile steady silence.
In "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," as in so many other films, Poitier captured all the action and reaction roiling beneath the surface of human interaction. In his hands, action sparked reaction, rut turned into light, and, as with an actual star, all we saw was the shine.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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