Josh Reviews Sidney

Sidney is a documentary on Apple TV about the great Sidney Poitier.  It’s directed by Reginald Hudlin (who has directed many films including House Party and Boomerang, and who also is a talented comic book writer) and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey.

The film traces Mr. Poitier’s life, from his youth on a small island in the Bahamas, to his first experiences with racism upon moving to Miami at age 15, to his start in the American Negro Theatre in New York, to his meteoric rise to stardom in Hollywood in the sixties.  Mr. Poitier was, of course, the first African American man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963).  He starred in groundbreaking films such as In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (both released in 1967).  In the seventies he pivoted into directing (another milestone for an African-American in Hollywood), first with Buck and the Preacher (in which he starred, alongside his friend Harry Belafonte) and then later with the smash hit Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor comedy Stir Crazy.

I quite enjoyed watching this documentary.  It’s a wonderfully in-depth look back at Mr. Poitier’s life, career, and influence.  The film honors all that Mr. Poitier achieved, without treating him like a saint.  It’s well-edited, with an impressive array of new interview subjects (including Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Redford, Lenny Kravitz, Barbra Streisand, and many members of Mr. Poitier’s family), as well as extensive footage of Mr. Poitier himself.  The film utilizes a diverse array of wonderful archival interview clips from across the decades of Mr. Poitier’s career… and we also get to hear directly from Mr. Poitier in a series of confessional, talking right-to-the-camera monologues that seem to have been recorded not too long before Mr. Poitier’s death earlier this year.  It’s wonderful to get to hear so much of Mr. Poitier’s story right from his own lips.

I was pleased that the film contains no shortage of clips of Mr. Poitier’s work.  In fact, one of my favorite aspects of the film is how much time and attention the documentary pays to exploring Mr. Poitier’s films, film-by-film.  I enjoyed hearing the behind-the-scenes stories of the famous films of his that I’d seen, as well as learning about a number of films of his that I’d not yet seen.

This is a wonderful salute to a groundbreaking artist.  It makes me want to go back and watch all of Mr. Poitier’s films which were discussed in this doc!  (Which is exactly what any good film documentary should do.)

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