From Homer to Hoke: A Small Step for African American Mankind
1991; Howard University; Volume: 60; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2295487
ISSN2167-6437
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoIn the early 1960s motion picture director Ralph Nelson decided to make a movie out of William E. Barrett's short novel, Lilies of the Field (1962). For the role of the German refugee Mother Superior, he cast a littleknown former Viennese stage star named Lilia Scala. He believed the talented young Sidney Poitier would be perfectly suited for the lead role of Homer Smith. Poitier was quite well known at the time. The West Indian-born actor had made a name for himself in films such as The Defiant Ones, Blackboard Jungle, and A Raisin in the Sun. Nonetheless, Nelson faced enormous obstacles in getting the film financed. A feature film depicting the relationship between an itinerant Black carpenter and an order of German nuns was unorthodox, to say the least. After much hesitation, United Artists finally agreed to produce the film. However, Nelson was forced to shoot the film in fourteen-and-a-half days or pay the overtime charges himself. Poitier and the scriptwriter were forced to work for a fraction of their usual salaries and a promise of a percentage of the profits, and the cast and crew worked for minimum wage (Null, 1975). The film, of course, was a smashing box-office success, and Poitier's performance garnered him the first Academy Award ever bestowed upon a Black male actor in the top category. Nearly 30 years later the accomplished team of Richard and Lili Zanuck wanted to adapt Albert Uhry's popular play, Driving Miss Daisy (1987), to the big screen. For the role of the obstinate Jewish matron, they cast Jessica Tandy, a veteran of stage and screen. In the role of the Black chauffeur whom she reluctantly admits into her life, they cast Morgan Freeman. Freeman's performances in the late 1980s were so universally applauded that the cantankerous New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael (1987) began an article with the words, Is Morgan Freeman America's Greatest Actor? Despite the success of the play and the renown of the actors, the Zanucks faced the same kind of obstacles Nelson faced in securing financial backing for Lilies. Hollywood insiders did not believe that audiences would support a film about the relationship between a dignified Black driver and an aging White woman who is reliant upon his professional services more than she cares to admit.
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