Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (40th Anniversary Edition)
by Stanley Kramer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cecil Kellaway, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton, Sidney Poitier, Spencer TracyDirector: Stanley Kramer
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (40th Anniversary Edition)
Movie Review: Mawkish, terribly dated, and borderline embarrassing....
Summary: 2 Stars
A problem with message movies such as these is that they tread a fine line between being too much of their time and being universal. While this film caused quite a stir in 1967, watching it today is painful and cringe inducing. It's strictly a product of its time.
The story of an interracial couple (Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton) marrying was very radical in 1967, but today it's much more accepted. Things are certainly not perfect, but they are much more tolerant than they were 40 years ago. It is important to note that this film wasn't done for cheap shock value. Stanley Kramer, the director and producer of the film, was a filmmaker who made socially conscious works throughout most of his career, so a film like this was a natural choice for him. Unfortunately, the film is so dated and so obvious that it'll make modern audiences cringe. The screenplay (which won an Oscar!) is trite and never goes beyond a sitcom level. The film plays almost like a "very special" episode of a sitcom. It takes a worthy subject and makes it as inoffensive as oatmeal. It's so blanded down. It's mawkish and overly sentimental as well, which makes it even worse.
It's interesting to contrast this film with a film Poitier made the same year, and that's To Sir, With Love. He plays an American teaching in a tough East End London school. That film, while a bit corny at times, hasn't dated nearly as much as this one, mainly because Poitier's race is only mentioned once, and just for a few seconds (there's a scene where he cut himself, and one of his students foolishly says "oh, he bleeds red"). To Sir, With Love never telegraphs its punches like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner does.
Many of Kramer's films have dated. The films of Otto Preminger, another filmmaker who made socially conscious films, haven't dated at all and are still quite potent in their depiction of politics (his brilliant Advise and Consent), the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (Exodus), and drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm). Preminger's work never resorted to maudlin sentimentality (something screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who wrote Exodus, admired about Otto), and as a result his work is still valid today. While I admire Kramer's sincerity and choice of subject matter, I can't recommend this film. A shame, as it has 3 of the greatest actors to grace the silver screen, and it's Spencer Tracy's last film. All 3 of them are excellent, doing their best to make this pap watchable. It's a pity the film isn't better.
Summary of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (40th Anniversary Edition)
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (who won the Academy Award? for Best Actress for her performance) are unforgettable as perplexed parents in this landmark 1967 movie about mixed marriage. Joanna (Katharine Houghton) the beautiful daughter of crusading publisher Matthew Drayton (Tracy) and his patrician wife Christina (Hepburn) returns home with her new fiance John Prentice (Sidney Poitier) a distinguished black doctor. Christina accepts her daughter's decision to marry John but Matthew is shocked by this interracial union; the doctor's parents are equally dismayed. Both families must sit down face to face and examine each other's level of intolerance. In GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNERdirector Stanley Kramer has created a masterful study of society's prejudices.System Requirements:Run Time: 107 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 043396211001 Manufacturer No: 21100Comedy DVD Video
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