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Lilies of the Field (1963)
Rate:
10
Viewed:
10/15, 5/19
10/15:
Sidney Poitier made history by becoming the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor by giving the
performance of his career in Lilies of the Field.
In many ways, it's a bizarre cult film with a unique story about a black drifter stopping for water at a house that's inhabited
by five white German nuns in the middle of nowhere in Arizona and he's eventually conned by them into building a chapel.
The reason why the film works is Sidney Poitier. He would also cement his status as one of the best actors ever in the history
of motion pictures after appearing in A Patch of Blue,
In the Heat of the Night, and
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner because he makes a powerful statement about
the capabilities of a black man. He also has
a great universal appeal. Lilia Skala's performance as Mother Maria earned her an Oscar nomination, and she makes for
a memorable character. The rest is as good as Lilia Skala.
In his autobiography The Measure of a Man, Sidney Poitier wrote that United Artists wanted to work with director
Ralph Nelson again. Nelson's first choice was Lilies of the Field, but the studio wasn't interested in something soft.
To make the deal, it begrudgingly gave him a budget of $240,000 for the whole works. The cast rehearsed for a week, and
everybody wrapped the filming up in thirteen days. And the rest was history.
All in all, Lilies of the Field is moving.
5/19:
The script for Lilies of the Field was first given to Harry Belafonte, but he didn't want to be doing a bizarre story
that takes place in the middle of nowhere with five crazy white German nuns.
Um, okay....enter Sidney Poitier. Result: the first black Oscar winner of Best Actor, a feat that wouldn't be duplicated
for thirty-eight years when Denzel Washington won it for Training Day. The Austrian Lilia
Skala, who plays Mother Superior of the sisters, also received an Oscar nomination.
Shot on location in Tucson, Arizona, for two weeks under a budget of $240,000, Lilies of the Field is one of the great
heartwarming human pictures made. It's difficult seeing Sidney Poitier without five German nuns in the background.
All in all, all the credit is due to Ralph Nelson for making Lilies of the Field possible.