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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'll 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 by making for a memorable character. The rest are 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 happen, 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 played 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.