‘Sidney’ evaluate: An Oprah Winfrey-produced Apple TV+ documentary does justice to Sidney Poitier’s outstanding life and profession
Counting the actor’s widow, Joanna Shimkus Poitier, and daughter Anika amongst its govt producers, the undertaking is appropriately celebratory of Poitier’s accomplishments however maintains sufficient distance to cowl the extra complicated facets of his story. It consists of, for instance, the flip towards the actor within the late Nineteen Sixties conveyed by a USA Prime Time headline that requested, “Why Does White America Love Sidney Poitier So?,” and his years-long extramarital affair with Diahann Carroll, giving an additional layer to their scorching chemistry in a clip from “Paris Blues.”
Still, Poitier’s rise from his humble beginnings within the Bahamas, immigrating to Florida after which New York to grow to be Hollywood’s first Black main man, requires little embellishment, and represents a type of uncommon biographies the place a single not-quite-two-hour film virtually would not really feel like sufficient.
Poitier stumbled into appearing, the place his hanging seems and dignified method allowed him to flee the pitfalls related to these Black actors relegated to clownish or peripheral roles who preceded him. As Morgan Freeman places it (simply considered one of a who’s who of expertise enlisted to debate him), Poitier “by no means performed a subservient half,” turning down a film he objected to early in his profession, when he may have used the cash as his spouse was about to have a child.
Starting as a younger physician in “No Way Out” in 1950, Poitier headlined a string of films that peaked within the ’60s, incomes the Academy Award for “Lilies of the Field” and starring in a string of memorable movies in 1967: Best image winner “In the Heat of the Night,” “To Sir, With Love” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
In the primary movie, it is famous, Poitier pressed for a change during which his character, detective Virgil Tibbs, slapped a White plantation proprietor again after the person had struck him, a scene thought of surprising in its time, with Louis Gossett Jr. recalling that second as “the loudest silence I’ve ever heard in a theater.”
Poitier died early this 12 months, and he is extensively interviewed, narrating his biographical materials whereas discussing issues like his relationship with shut buddy Harry Belafonte, with whom he was lively within the civil-rights motion. He additionally acknowledges the criticisms of his characters throughout that period as what got here to be referred to as the “magic Negro” for White audiences, and the way that impacted him.
“He was given large shoulders, however he needed to carry a variety of weight,” says Denzel Washington. For his half, Robert Redford (who co-starred with Poitier in “Sneakers”) notes that he was “impressed by his activism.”
“Sidney” is understandably so wealthy and dense in materials from the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s that it is virtually responsible of racing by way of Poitier’s contributions within the ’70s and ’80s, efficiently transitioning to grow to be a director (primarily in comedies, amongst them “Stir Crazy” and his trio of films with Bill Cosby), serving to create alternatives for Blacks behind the digicam.
Perhaps foremost, Hudlin (primarily a story filmmaker, whose forays into documentaries embrace “The Black Godfather”) fantastically conveys the toll exacted by being the primary Black main man, and the way Poitier served as “a lighthouse,” as Freeman says, for individuals who have adopted in his footsteps.
“Sidney” casts its personal warming glow, in a means that sheds mild not solely Poitier’s path but additionally the a long time during which he carved it out.
“Sidney” premieres September 23 in choose theaters and on Apple TV+. (Disclosure: My spouse works for a unit of Apple.)