Sidney Poitier: A Patch of Blue in a Clouded World

How do you describe a man who stood beside Martin Luther King Jr. during the “I Have a Dream” speech? Who was often the only Black person on set, carrying the weight of representation for millions? Sidney Poitier wasn’t just an actor—he was a quiet revolution.

Hollywood has long dazzled audiences, but when A Patch of Blue was released in 1965, Southern theaters cut the interracial kiss between Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman. The world was shifting, but not fast enough.

If Poitier is new to you, let me introduce him through the film that won my heart. I first saw A Patch of Blue in my early twenties, and it never left me.

Selina, a blind young woman raised by a violent, racist mother and grandfather, lives in poverty and isolation. Her days are spent stringing beads in the park—her only job, her only escape. One day, she spills her bead box into the grass. As she scrambles to collect them, her hands meet those of a stranger: Gordon, played by Poitier. He helps her, speaks kindly, and sees her—not as a burden, but as a person.

Gordon teaches Selina that she can learn to dial a phone, walk to the park on her own, even read. He tells her she’s beautiful. Desirable. Capable. For the first time, someone cracks open a window in her dark world and lets in a patch of blue sky.

That’s why I love this film. It’s a story of hope. Selina’s life is bleak, but one act of compassion changes everything. And it’s Poitier at his finest—dignified, empathetic, quietly powerful. Gordon is a middle-class professional who sees past race and class to offer kindness. Even his own brother questions the relationship, but Gordon remains steadfast.

Race is central to the story, and Poitier’s performance handles it with grace. Though he didn’t win an award for this role, he deserved one. His Oscar for Lilies of the Field was historic, but A Patch of Blue is just as moving.

Poitier once said:

“I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was... a human being.”

That’s the heart of his legacy. A pebble tossed into a lake creates ripples that stretch far beyond the point of impact. Sidney Poitier was one of those pebbles—his presence, his performances, his dignity—sending waves of change through generations.

Note: This article was originally published on Femnista, a webzine that no longer exists, under the title To Sidney, with Love. For other articles that I wrote and published, please visit the Femnista Writings section of my blog. I have edited the article for clarity, but the heart of my original article shines through.

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Rest in Peace, Sir Sidney Poitier

 

My dad first introduced me to Sidney Poitier when I was about 16-years-old. We watched Lilies of the Field and I have loved Sir Sidney Poitier's work ever since.

The world has lost such an incredible trailblazer. 

I highly recommend watching his films if you haven't already done so, and here are some of my personal recommendations:

A Patch of Blue (1965) - I can't fully articulate how this movie makes me feel, but it is my favorite of his movies. It explores biracial romantic relationships in 1965 and is absolutely brilliant. There is that blasted open-ended ending that the 1960s loved to use, but the viewer is left with a hope that everything will work out in the end. It was the 1960s, so who knows if that's true or not, but that was always my dream for the couple in this film. Watch A Patch of Blue, be amazed by it, fall in love with it. Here's my review for A Patch of Blue that I wrote back in 2013.

Lilies of the Field  (1963) - The first of Sidney Poitier's movies I ever saw and is my second favorite of his films. He plays Homer, a black handyman who helps a group of German nuns rebuild their chapel. Yep, that's it, the story in a nutshell, but it's so very, very much more than that, and Sidney won the well-earned Academy Award for Best Actor, the first time the award was given to a black man. 

In the Heat of the Night (1967) - I saw this one only once, primarily because I spent the whole movie in profound fear for Virgil Tibbs' life. It is brilliant and I believe everyone should watch it at least once. I need to rewatch it this month. The thing that scares me, even more, is that they had to film the majority of this movie in the north because once when Sidney Poitier visited Mississippi he was almost murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen. I can't even . . . 

Little Nikita (1988) - Another movie I was introduced to by my Dad. This one also stars River Phoenix and deals with a soviet sleeper family hidden deep undercover in the US. It's intense, but somewhat lighter fare since it doesn't really have the same racial tension due to it being 1988 instead of the 1960s. A terrific performance by both stars, and one of the reasons why I also love River Phoenix. It's heartbreaking realizing that both of these magnificent actors are gone.

My prayers for comfort go out to Sir Sidney Poitier's family and friends during this time. May we remember to celebrate the life he lived and the good, good work that he did.

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Poitier: A Patch of Blue (1965)

Selina and Gordon sharing a moment of tenderness

Even today interracial couples get the curious eye from folk who need to keep their noses out of it. But in 1965, tensions could erupt at the drop of a hat if a white girl liked a black boy. Such is the story of A Patch of Blue except this time the white girl is blind and from the wrong side of the tracks, and the black boy is highly educated and on his way up the business ladder.  When Gordon Ralfe (Sidney Poitier) meets blind Selina (pronounced Slina by her family) in the park, stringing beads for extra income, he is intrigued by her. On a whim, he purchases a pair of sunglasses to hide the gentle scarring around Selina’s eyes (he’s the first one to pronounce her name as SeLIna). And so begins the kindest relationship Selina has ever known.

Her mother, Rose Ann (Shelley Winters), is a brutish woman who works Selina to the bone, and whips her with a rag if she is late preparing supper or cleaning the laundry. Selina’s grandfather, called Ole Pa, is little better because, although he cares about Selina, he is a terrible drunk and, while not as mean as Rose Ann, he’s disgusting in his drunken state. It’s only natural that Selina would fall in love with Gordon, a man who not only shows her kindness, but teaches her how to be self-reliant, how to reach the pay phone near her house if she needs him, how to count steps across the intersection, what sounds are called, etc. And she does not realize he is black, at least not until the end, and even then, it doesn’t matter, and why should it?

If the movie were made today, I think Poitier’s character would have been the main character. As it is, Selina, played by innocent Elizabeth Hartman, is the lead, almost as if they were afraid to give Poitier too much screen time. I would have loved for the film to have been from his perspective because, even as it is, the audience senses his frustration with Selina’s situation. I would have liked to see him away from her in more scenes, considering, contemplating, see his home life, why he is torn about his emotions regarding Selina. There’s a little bit of this, but not enough. Still, they did the best they could with the era available to them, and the intimate kiss shared between Selina and Gordon is intensely sweet and ground-breaking.

A Patch of Blue is a hard movie to watch, but is listed in my top twenty movies of all time anyway. Selina is much abused and what’s more, she’s content in it. This is what makes the ending all the more poignant. The director, Guy Green, admits in the commentary that they left the ending deliberately ambiguous, but with a tinge of hope that everything was going to turn out all right. That is the most irritating aspect of classic film, those endings that aren’t really an ending, with everything neatly wrapped up with a bow. I love having no loose ends, but that’s not the way classic cinema rolls.

As for Poitier, this is one of his forgotten films, and I can’t figure out why. Sure, he’s not playing Mr. Tibbs, the character for which he is most remembered, but he masterfully tackles the role of Gordon Ralfe, taking an already likable character and making him transcend race. Gordon’s guilt over his feelings for Selina is touching and accurate for the era. What’s even more beautiful is the scene where she tells him she knows he’s black, and thinks he’s beautiful anyway, her hands on his cheeks, smiling up at him. And the look in his eyes, such tenderness, such love. Poitier is at his best in this film and even though he is not the lead, he is the leading man. He is the patch of blue in her life, the one color Selina can remember before acid stole her sight at the age of five.

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