Sidney Poitier

My dad keeps recommending me movies from 1970s/60s which he enjoyed watching when he was in college/school. There were two movies that came highly recommended from him. I did not get a chance to watch these movies until recently. Sidney Poitier acted in both the movies and I just loved them! I had never seen any movie of his before and I think he is one of the best actors. The second movie listed here was remade in Bollywood with Vinod Khanna in it and probably also in some south Indian languages. But the original one in English is far better. There is less melodrama and it is more realistic. I am now planning to hunt for more movies by this actor. He is an academy award winner but he won Oscar for a completely different movie. I am yet to watch that movie.

Have you seen any of his movies?

‘Guess who’s coming to dinner’ movie

Among the movies that I watched this year, this has to be my favorite. It entered my all time favorites list. It is just amazing. It talks about racial discrimination and it is probably the best movie I have seen about discrimination. Let me leave you with two of the scenes from this movie that I loved a lot.

Scene 1:

This scene alone was enough for me to love this movie. Sidney Poitier delivers the following dialogue so well!

John (to his father): You listen to me. You say you don’t want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you’ve been doing? You tell me what rights I’ve got or haven’t got, and what I owe to you for what you’ve done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you’re supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don’t own me! You can’t tell me when or where I’m out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don’t even know what I am, Dad, you don’t know who I am. You don’t know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it’s got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs! You understand, you’ve got to get off my back! Dad… Dad, you’re my father. I’m your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man. Now, I’ve got a decision to make, hm? And I’ve got to make it alone, and I gotta make it in a hurry. So would you go out there and see after my mother?

 Scene 2:

Christina Drayton: [to her assistant, Hilary, in the driveway] : Now I have some instructions for you. I want you to go straight back to the gallery – Start your motor – When you get to the gallery tell Jennifer that she will be looking after things temporarily, she’s to give me a ring if there’s anything she can’t deal with herself. Then go into the office, and make out a check, for “cash,” for the sum of $5,000. Then carefully, but carefully Hilary, remove absolutely everything that might subsequently remind me that you had ever been there, including that yellow thing with the blue bulbs which you have such an affection for. Then take the check, for $5,000, which I feel you deserve, and get – permanently – lost. It’s not that I don’t want to know you, Hilary – although I don’t – it’s just that I’m afraid we’re not really the sort of people that you can afford to be associated with.

[Hilary opens her mouth to say something]

Christina Drayton: Don’t speak, Hilary, just… go.

Source: Quotes were taken from IMDB. You can read more about the movie and its quotes here: Link to IMDB

‘To Sir, with love’ movie

 

I loved this movie too! The story is simple and believable.

Some quotes that I loved from this movie:

Mark Thackeray: I believe one should fight for what one believes. Provided one is absolutely sure one is absolutely right.

Mark Thackeray: If you apologize because you are afraid, then you’re a child, not a man.

You can read more about this movie and its quotes here: Link to IMDB