{"id":30988,"date":"2013-04-22T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T19:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30988"},"modified":"2020-12-13T09:30:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T16:30:56","slug":"lilies-of-the-field-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30988","title":{"rendered":"Lilies of the Field (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m gonna&#8217; build me a chapel.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poster-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30990\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poster-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poster.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn itinerant African-American (Sidney Poitier) is waylaid in his journeys when the head (Lilia Skala) of a group of nuns in the desert enlists his help in building a chapel &#8212; despite the fact that they have no money and few supplies.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nuns<\/li>\n<li>Race Relations and Racism<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Sidney Poitier Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAlthough Peary doesn&#8217;t review <em>Lilies of the Field<\/em> in <em>GFTFF<\/em>, he does discuss it a bit in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>, where he notes that Poitier&#8217;s selection as Best Actor came &#8220;at a time when millions of whites across America were deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement&#8221;, and thus his award may have been &#8220;given because Academy voters&#8230; felt pressure to show the world they were willing to give their major awards to blacks&#8221;. While he acknowledges that Poitier &#8220;had given consistently excellent performances&#8221; since &#8220;beginning his film career in 1950&#8221;, Peary argues that &#8220;with the possible exception of his performance in <em>A Raisin the Sun<\/em>, he was never worthy of a Best Actor Oscar&#8221; &#8212; especially not for playing &#8220;likable&#8221; handyman Homer Smith in this &#8220;pleasant but unremarkable&#8221; film by director Ralph Nelson, based on <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lilies_of_the_Field_%28novel%29\">a novel by William Edmund Barrett<\/a>. He asserts that &#8220;Homer is [Poitier&#8217;s] least interesting and least complex character&#8221;, not to mention &#8220;least threatening&#8221; given that &#8220;he can even take his shirt off around nuns.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>With that said, Poitier brings some much-needed energy to this otherwise overly-twee tale of a no-nonsense head nun and her gaggle of nondescript &#8220;sisters&#8221;. The storyline is far too simple to engage on anything other than a vaguely metaphorical level, and even then we&#8217;re not quite sure exactly what to make of its fable-like qualities. I suppose the primary moral is that persistence and faith pay off, given how Skala&#8217;s stubborn insistence that her chapel WILL be built eventually bears fruit; meanwhile, a message about the importance of relying on others for strategic help is slipped in as well. Ultimately, this film remains worth a one-time look both for historical reasons (Poitier&#8217;s landmark Oscar) and as a fine early attempt at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0057251\/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv\">intimate, low-budget filmmaking<\/a> &#8212; but the narrative (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lilies_of_the_Field_%28novel%29\">apparently based on a true story<\/a>) isn&#8217;t compelling enough to make it must-see viewing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sidney Poitier as Homer Smith<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poitier.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poitier.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"352\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30989\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poitier.png 576w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poitier-128x78.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Poitier-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Lilia Skala as Mother Maria<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Skala.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Skala.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"352\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30991\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Skala.png 576w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Skala-128x78.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Lilies-of-the-Field-Skala-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though of course it&#8217;s of interest for historical reasons. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0057251\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/81430\/lilies-of-the-field#articles-reviews?articleId=17729\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitallyobsessed.com\/displaylegacy.php?ID=1020\">Digitally Obsessed Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/lilies-of-the-field\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m gonna&#8217; build me a chapel.&#8221; Synopsis: An itinerant African-American (Sidney Poitier) is waylaid in his journeys when the head (Lilia Skala) of a group of nuns in the desert enlists his help in building a chapel &#8212; despite the fact that they have no money and few supplies. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Nuns Race Relations and Racism Sidney Poitier Films Review: Although Peary doesn&#8217;t review Lilies of the Field in GFTFF, he does discuss it a bit in&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30988\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30988"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57509,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30988\/revisions\/57509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}