I happened to watch the old film Lillies of the Fields last night. Showed up on my YouTube feed for whatever reason. I remember enjoying the movie when I saw it many years ago, but it was interesting to watch it again from the perspective of present day ideas and peculiarities.
Lillies of the Fields stars Sidney Poitier, one of America's first popular black Hollywood stars, but it is not in any way about race. That's the interesting part. It seems that nowadays if a movie features a black actor in the starring role, it must be about race or racism or racial tensions. It must have an ax to grind.
Bur Poitier's character, Homer Smith, has no ax to grind. He is a drifter, a jack-of-all-trades, a man like any other man, and is the man whose car radiator happens to boil over, which happens to send him down a lonely country road to the doorstep of a nunnery. Providentially, it just so happens that the Mother Superior at the nunnery had been praying for someone to show up and help with what she sees as God's plan for the nunnery--the building of a chapel. She has no money to pay for this, only her faith that it will come about.
I suppose that contemporary critics would find much to criticize about the story. Just the fact that race is not made the central issue would bother them--as if all black people are first and foremost about race, and only secondarily human beings. We are so accustomed now to obligatory racial awareness that we automatically anticipate it. When Homer walks into the local diner, we automatically think Oh, here we go--they're going to refuse to serve him. He will be stared at and shunned. But no, all that happens is that he orders a breakfast.
Lillies of the Fields is a story about faith, about character, about pride and charity, about personal growth. Homer could be any color, the nuns could be any color. The important thing is that they are all human beings.
Lillies of the Fields stars Sidney Poitier, one of America's first popular black Hollywood stars, but it is not in any way about race. That's the interesting part. It seems that nowadays if a movie features a black actor in the starring role, it must be about race or racism or racial tensions. It must have an ax to grind.
Bur Poitier's character, Homer Smith, has no ax to grind. He is a drifter, a jack-of-all-trades, a man like any other man, and is the man whose car radiator happens to boil over, which happens to send him down a lonely country road to the doorstep of a nunnery. Providentially, it just so happens that the Mother Superior at the nunnery had been praying for someone to show up and help with what she sees as God's plan for the nunnery--the building of a chapel. She has no money to pay for this, only her faith that it will come about.
I suppose that contemporary critics would find much to criticize about the story. Just the fact that race is not made the central issue would bother them--as if all black people are first and foremost about race, and only secondarily human beings. We are so accustomed now to obligatory racial awareness that we automatically anticipate it. When Homer walks into the local diner, we automatically think Oh, here we go--they're going to refuse to serve him. He will be stared at and shunned. But no, all that happens is that he orders a breakfast.
Lillies of the Fields is a story about faith, about character, about pride and charity, about personal growth. Homer could be any color, the nuns could be any color. The important thing is that they are all human beings.
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