It makes sense that movies about inter-racial marriage should be shown in prime time, since THE PRESIDENT of the greatest nation on earth is the product of an inter-racial marriage! Look at the kind of greatness that has resulted from such a union -- and to think that when he was born his parents' marriage would have been illegal in 14 states!
I agree about "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" -- I always found that movie offensive, mostly because of Katharine Hepburn's nit-witty niece who was an insult to the intelligence of someone like Sidney Poitier. What on earth did he see in that bimbo -- it almost reinforced the idea of a black man marrying a white girl just for her whiteness, since that silly girl sure didn't have anything else to recommend her. But the woman in "One Potato, Two Potato" was a real human being, warm, funny, and with a big heart. And the black husband wasn't some aloof, detached doctor like Sidney Poitier played in "Dinner", but a real guy that anybody would fall in love with. And his parents were real people, not the silly caricatures that Kate Hepburn and Spence Tracy played.
And I would also like to put in a word about the little actress who played the daughter. With her stringy hair and tomboyish ways, she was much more a real child than the affected child stars like Tatum O'Neal who came along later.
"The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power."
- Julius Caesar, act 2 sc 1
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andrewwjohnson
14 years ago
.............I always thought "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was really about the private nightmares of sixties white San Francisco liberal parents about what their daughter might bring home from college , instead of Sidney Poitier, they should have had Richard Pryor, who was starting out back then, playing Aldridge Clever type black militant type who was always sounding off about black power and waving his fist in the air. That would be truer to that period...............Serously my experence with interracial couples is they are ordinary people who care for each other enough to see beyound skin color and the problems they and their children, because of it. They're not trying to prove anything except their feeling for each other. Sometimes the relationship really does start, over a period of time, at work like in "One Potato Two Potato" so it's much more realistic.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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TCManiacs
14 years ago
Excellent observations on "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" I thought I was the only one offended by the ridiculous scenario of world renowned doctor suddenly overnight getting engaged to as you described her, a bimbo. Black or white she seemed to be almost adolescent, not even in the same intellectual playing field. And what do you think of the contrasting young black girl doing the boogie woogie through a scene. Ridiculous and offensive to young black women. As if showing that was the only choice in eligible black females; therefore a professional black man would need to seek an educated white female. Yet the white female they provide him is a bimbo. =FAIL any way you look at it.
"One Potato, Two Potato" was real, believable and although the ending was tragic it was the only accurate conclusion for those times in the south. I loved this movie. All the performances were great, right down to the little girl. I was so invested in the characters I cried.
<A HREF="http://www.tcmaniacs.blogspot.com">; @TCManiacs Blog</>
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