The Defiant One

Sidney Poitier (February 20, 1927-) is one cool guy who achieved maximum cultural impact in his heyday. His suave, tough screen demeanor and weighty roles catapulted him into the mainstream of civil and human rights progressivism.

As a kid, I especially loved him in the role of Virgil Tibbs, a homicide detective from Philadelphia who, while visiting his mother in backwater Mississippi, ends up aiding the local authorities in solving a murder. Poitier's interplay with Dr. Pepper-swigging Rod Steiger and Warren Oates throughout In the Heat of the Night (1967) is campy and highly entertaining. Race issues, of course, underpin the whole story, giving it added potency. The film proved such a success that a sequel followed, appropriately titled, They call me MISTER Tibbs! (1970). The basic story premise was picked up yet again in a tv series that ran from 1988 to 1994. The original movie was based on a 1965 novel by the same name by John Ball. In the book version, Tibbs is from California and the action takes place in North Carolina.

Thinking back, the other Sidney Poitier films I remember best include the interesting (because different) western movie Duel at Diablo (1966), in which he plays a well-heeled horse dealer.
Always loved that movie. He's fun and hip as a jazz musician along with Louis Armstrong and Paul Newman in the black and white Paris Blues (1961).

Poitier showed on screen how ultimately banal racism is, possibly helping to do as much individually as the political reform movements of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s did collectively to change cultural attitudes. He would also have made an excellent James Bond -- a missed opportunity. Luckily, he had plenty of other good roles.

In The Defiant Ones (1958), he plays alongside Tony Curtis as an escaped convict; chained together, they must learn to work work together in order to survive -- allegorically and existentially. He portrayed both sides of the archetypical classroom story, too: as an audacious student in Blackboard Jungle (1955) and as an influential teacher in To Sir, With Love (1967).

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) is among Poitier's most enduring cultural-impact films, because the idea of interracial relationships is still controversial in some circles. My response is: the more that people from a variety of racial, ethnic, religious, geographical and class backgrounds mix together socially, the better. Much more to explore about that in future posts.

Hail Sidney Poitier! He prefers not to be called "Sir Sidney," despite a knighthood bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. Poitier (a Bahamian American) has been married to Joanna Shimkus for thirty years; he'd previously been married to Juanita Hardy for fifteen years. Between the three of them, they have six children.

Ciao for now . . . . .