A Patch of Blue
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Movie Reviews of A Patch of Blue
Movie Review: Highly Recommend
Summary: 4 Stars
"Darks nothing to me. I'm always in the dark."
Selina D'Arcy (Elizabeth Hartman) is a blind young woman starving for affection and the experiences life brings. She lives in a one room apartment with her Old Pa and verbally and physically abusive mother, Rose-Ann (Shelley Winters).
When Selina was five years old her father came home to find Rose-Ann with another man. They began fighting and in the battle Rose-Ann threw a bottle at him. It missed. And hit Selina in the face, blinding her. She's been sheltered all her life both from the outside world and people. She was never taught Braille or self reliance of any kind.
Her hunger for experience, of being able to run free through the park, enjoying the grass, trees, birds and open fields overwhelms and depresses her at the same time. One day she encourages Mr. Faber, a man she strings beads into necklaces for, to take her to the park so she can work there. Her mother is against any form of happiness for Selina and even beats her because she went out. This doesn't deter Selina. Especially since she met a special friend named Gordon (Sidney Poitier) there.
Gordon and Selina develop a special friendship, meeting under the same tree every day. Gordon is intrigue by her blindness and innocence. He becomes quite protective of her and begins looking into ways to help her leave her current situation and become self sufficient. Selina is warmed by his kindness and willingness to share the world with her.
One of the best scenes in the movie is when they are sitting in the park talking and she tells him about her first and only friend she had when she was a child and how she still misses her deeply. Her mother forbade her to have any association with the girl because she was black. This is a pivotal moment because Gordon hasn't yet told Selina that he is black.
Shelley Winters delivers an amazing performance as a royal... wicked woman who is determined to keep her daughter a sheltered slave. Winters won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role. Elizabeth Hartman was nominated for best actress and actually won a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Female Newcomer" for her performance of Selina. She made an amazing effort and I found her to be believable.
A Patch of Blue is based on a novel by Australian author Elizabeth Kata. Beyond the racial taboos its deepest theme is about one person doing something good for another with no expectations in return. This 1965 film was made in black and white which adds to the character of the film and the limitations and boundaries of the actors. The ending is left open to interpretation, I assume because of the turbulent racial times it was filmed in. I really enjoyed and highly recommend it. Reviewed by M. E. Wood.
Movie Review: Green and "Blue"
Summary: 4 Stars
Astoundingly enough, director Guy Green is still with us and at age 92 his memories of making A PATCH OF BLUE are still crisp, almost visionary. Usually I skip DVD commentary by directors and crew, preferring just to experience the picture without someone yakking off screen, but here it is worth a second viewing to understand the frustrations and finally the rewards Green (and producer Pandro Berman) faced in filming the novel, BE READY WITH BELLS AND DRUMS by Elizabeth Kata. Though set in the deep South, BE READY was written by an Australian author who had never set foot in the USA!
She did a great job, but Green and Berman shelved the depressing vigilance ending of the novel and tried to tailor it for Sidney Poitier's personality. At the time that screen image was of the perfect man who just happened to be black. Kindly, radiantly handsome, strong, athletic, musical, a genius, Poitier's image was carved in stone at this point. His interest in little Selena is painted as the gesture of a great human being for one of the poor unfortunate ones. In return Elizabeth Hartman gives it all she's got. I was reminded often of the scenes in Chaplin's City Lights, where the Little Tramp falls in love with a blind girl and hustles like mad to earn enough money to finance an operation that will cure her but which will inevitably destroy her love for him once she sees what he actually looks like!
Green also directed three US movies in the following years, none of which have arrived yet on DVD, and barely even on video, but all of them worthy of DVD treatment (hopefully with his memories attached): PRETTY POLLY with Hayley Mills, ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH with Melina Mercouri, David Janssen and Alexis Smith, and the incredible THE MAGUS, which is like BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS taken straight. Release them at once, film czars!
Movie Review: Sweet, thoughtful, moving drama
Summary: 4 Stars
I rented this thinking it was "A Place in the Sun" (also with Shelley Winters)and so it took me a bit to not keep trying to work that story line into this one (when is he going to push Shelley off a boat, I kept wondering?):) Anyway, once I adjusted to the fact that this is a movie about an abused, lonely blind girl befriended by a black man, I found myself entranced with the lovely tale of friendship that forms under mutual adversity. Gordon (Sidney Poitier)helps blind Selina move towards a life of independence and freedom from her mean, domineering mother (Winters); Selina offers Gordon love and friendship in a biased, racist world. Takes no cheap shots and offers no simplistic answers and is even better becaus of that. Touching and disturbing both. Well worth locating and watching.Movie Review: Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
In 2010, viewers can pinpoint various reasons on how they relate to this movie. Some may convey with the love topic or race issue, while others might lean towards parenting before they do the blindness component. Whatever your issue or relation may be, a genuine person will appreciate a genuine film. Poitier played a simple role, but gave it so much justice.
The end of the movie hits; with suspense, and you want to know the final decision? Is Gordon's definition of love the same as Selina's? Will Selina stay or go; will Gordon chase or follow through? Either way, the movie plays itself out straightforwardly leaving the audience pondering what they would have done. This was an uplifting moving in 1965, and it remains the same in 2010.
Movie Review: True Love Knows No Color
Summary: 4 Stars
Selina D'Arcy(Elizabeth Hartmann)is blind; but, she meets a kindley man(Sidney Poitier) and begins to see the world anew. He, so to speak, takes her under his wing and even shows her how to dial a telephone; however, the problem is that she is white and her mentor is black. Selina has been raised by a very abusive, bitter mother(Shelley Winters) who ,naturally, can see and knows that this man is black and is dead set against her daughter having anything to do with him. As the story developes, you will be impressed with the sterling performances of the actors and expierence the heart pounding climax of this fine film.