Poitier has always been one marked for the history books because he was the first black performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field). For a time - particulary in the 1960s - he was simply one of the most prominent and respected black entertainers and went on to be sort of elder statesman in the film industry even after he stopped acting. I recall how when Denzel Washington won his award for Training Day he lifted it in salute to Poitier.
Poitier's body of work was criticized by James Baldwin because he tended to play very earnest, self-sacrificing men. Baldwin considered it something of a betrayal that in The Defiant Ones, Poitier's escaped convict character sacrificed his own freedom to save the life of Tony Curtis' character. There's certainly truth to what Baldwin wrote.
However, bringing it back to Denzel, on the flip side you have a film like Training Day. I was surprised when a friend told me he wasn't very enthused about Denzel winning the award. It's not that he thought Denzel's performance was lacking, but that he won it for portraying a horrible human being. My friend would have been happier if Denzel had portrayed someone he could present to his son as a role model.
On that score, Poitier really came through. His early film roles in the likes of No Way Out presented him as saintly; in Red Ball Express or Blackboard Jungle he had an edge but had to learn a lesson; films like To Sir, with Love and Lilies of the Field made him tender.
Yet I have to single out two films from his career as my favourites; one I only discovered last year, The Bedford Incident, which is almost a gross parody of a typical Poitier protagonist - he seems to be the high-minded idealist, the straight-shooter who knows what's what - but he's stuck in a nihilistic film that can have no happy ending! And I really love Sneakers where he played in a neat ensemble cast for a heist picture - it's lightweight, but very entertaining.
Rest in peace, Mr. Poitier.
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