Lilies of the Field
by Ralph Nelson
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DVD details
Actor: Francesca Jarvis, Isa Crino, Lisa Mann, Lisa Skala, Sidney PoiterDirector: Ralph Nelson
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-03-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Lilies of the Field
DVD Review: My lilies have been mowed over...
Summary: 2 Stars
I'll start this review much like I did with `Harry and Tonto', by being completely honest with you. I personally feel that Sidney Poitier is an extremely overrated actor. I find him rather stiff and when he does get into varying displays of emotion he feels forced in my opinion. I know that this a minority opinion here, but it is mine and I stand behind it firmly. He reminds me much of Nicolas Cage, very mannered and just the type of actor who does things from the book rather than from the heart. There is a difference, and that difference is that at least Cage has delivered two very Oscar worthy performances. Poitier was not so lucky.
With that said, if I were Poitier on Oscar night back in 1963 (Oscars would have been held in 1964, but whatever) I would have been ashamed to look out at the audience and see my competitors, Rex Harrison, Albert Finney, Paul Newman and especially Richard Harris and know that I robbed them of an Oscar with a performance that isn't even in the same league as theirs.
The film is also quite choppy and much undeserved of the Best Picture nomination it managed to rack up for itself. It is decent at best, but it never really takes off like it could have.
`Lilies of the Field' tells the story of Homer Smith, a traveling handy-man who gets hustled into building a chapel for a group of German nuns he stumbles across in his travels. The nuns are lead by the very bossy yet very genuine Mother Maria. She has survived the Nazis and has retained war wounds so-to-speak, but while her interactions with others may seem stern and unsociable she has a tinge of weakness in her voice that plays on her fragility. Homer is apposed to staying, wanting his days wages and then to be off but Mother Maria fights him every step of the way until he decides to stay and finish the job. By the films end both characters learn to let their pride rest and embrace the love of others.
The script isn't very deep, just riding on the surface of subject but never breaking into the type of character study this could have proved itself to be. It seems somewhat empty until the last few moments when some purpose is breathed into its lungs. Poitier tries to deliver here, but you can tell that he is trying and that kills a lot of the experience. The only performance I really found worthy of mention was that of Lilia Skala who played Mother Maria. She really got into the heart of this woman and managed to make her seem real to me.
`Lilies of the Field' is raved by many, considered a masterpiece and a landmark in film. It is a landmark in that it provided us with the first African American Best Actor Oscar winner, a feat not to be repeated until 2001 when Denzel Washington won for his performance in `Training Day' (and since both Jamie Foxx and Forrest Whitaker have taken home top honors), but aside from that there is nothing impressive about this movie (and Poitier's win was very undeserved and thus very unimpressive).
I know Oprah won't be happy with me for this, but it had to be said; sorry.
Description of Lilies of the Field
Featuring an Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning performance by Poitier*, and nominated** for four additional OscarsÂ(r), including Best Picture, Lilies of the Field is a funny, sentimental, charming and uplifting film (The Hollywood Reporter). Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier), an itinerant handyman, is driving through the Arizona desert when he meets five impoverished nuns. Stopping to fix their leaky farmhouse roof, Homer discovers that not only will the Mother Superior not pay him for the job, but she also wants him to build their chapelfor free! Hesitant at first, Homer soon finds himself single-handedly raising the chapel and the financing. But although hewill not receive a monetary reward, Homer knows that when his work is done, he'll leave that dusty desert town a much better place than when he found it. *1963: Actor **1963: Supporting Actress (Skala), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography (B&W)Bestsellers in DVD
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