Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoGuess Who's Coming to Dinner?
October 18th 2006 06:50
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)
'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' was considered to be one of those 'landmark' films in regards to racism and the way that it's embedded in our society. It also has a special place in film history for being Spencer Tracy's last film, his last Academy Award nomination, and for being Katherine Hepburn's second Academy Award win.
The premise of the film is pretty simple, and fairly stagey. The daughter of a liberal, well-to-do white couple announces that she is bringing her new fiance home. She fails to tell them he is black, and when he arrives they are a bit taken aback. The parents however, pride themselves on their liberal attitudes and find themselves struggling with them in the face of practicing what they preach.
A lot of the film is talk and not much really happens. In fact, if it wasn't for the presence of Tracy, Hepburn and Sidney Poitier, then it wouldn't be watchable at all. As it stands though, the presence of these three screen greats makes it quite an easy watch despite the things it lacks.
Watching the film today, it feels fairly dated and it more than a little bit lame at times. The relationship between the daughter and her black fiance is shown pretty tamely... I know it was a cotroversial subject in it's day, but if you're going to fight for something like equal rites I don't think you should really do it half-heartedly. Also, the fact that all the principal characters are shown as angels and that Poitier's character is a doctor doesn't do much to ground the film in reality... it makes the central themes of the film all too easy to clear up and doesn't go very far to challenge the views of anyone who might've watched it back in the 60s. I mean, letting your daugher marry a wealthy and distinguished doctor isn't really all that difficult a decision to make, is it? Likewise, having the parents be liberal and pro-equal rites doesn't exact make for excitingly confronting filmmaking. It's just all too damn nice!
Like I said, watch it for the great and controlled performances of Hepburn, Tracy and Poitier. Don't watch it expecting cutting edge discussions of race relations.
TRIVIA: The actress who played the daughter, Katherine Houghton, was Hepburn's real-life niece. Unfortunately, talent isn't genetic.
The film was remade recently as 'Guess Who?', starring Ashton Kutcher in the Sidney Poitier role and Bernie Mac in the Spencer Tracy role. Woah, see what they did there? They switched it so it was a white guy marrying the daughter of a black family. Clever huh? As you can probably tell from the cast, 'Guess Who' is more in the light-entertainment/comedy vein than it's predecessor. I haven't seen it but I'm sure it sucks.
TANGENT: If you have to remake a film like 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' and want it to be pertinent and relevant to today's audience, then I think the only way to do it would be to address a comparatively controversial subject... why not have the son of a conservative couple bring home his fiance, only to reveal on the night that he's fiance is another man and that they intend to get married in Hawaii? If you had to make it a comedy, it could be like 'The Birdcage' meets 'Meet The Parents'... no wait, that sounds terrible.
| 86 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Guess Whos Coming to Dinner is a treat for Tracy and Hepburn fans too, of which Im one. The more I think about it, teh more I have fond memories of this film.
Thanks Luke Im going to have to rewatch this one soon....
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by Keira
Keira's Blog
I was appalled! I didnt know people actually thought like that! I guess she was old though. Surely people dont think like that now.
Then I was watching Oprah (I have a sad small life) and Simon Baker was on promoting his movie Something New, about a black girl and white guy getting together. they were talking to black/white couples in the audience and discussing things like what colour penis black or white guys have, whos better in bed/dancing/kissing. Random crap. A black dude came on and was like "when I see a black sister going down with a white boy, I think, 'we lost another one' ".
Yeah. I don't know the point I was trying to make anymore...
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
And yeah I'm always shocked when I hear racist remarks like that, with old people i tend to just ignore it because they probably don't know any better and they'll dead before they can do too much more damage anyway, but I feel really angry when people my own age make those comments cause it just makes me think that we'll never get anywhere.