Amazon.com essential video: Spencer Tracy's last performance was in this well-meaning, handsome film by Stanley Kramer about a pair of white parents (Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) trying to make sense of their daughter's impending marriage to an African American doctor (Sidney Poitier). The film has been knocked over the years for padding conflict and stoking easy liberalism by making Poitier's character in every socioeconomic sense a good catch: But what if Kramer had made this stranger a factory worker? Would the audience still find it as easy to accept a mixed-race relationship? But there's no denying the drawing power of this movie, which gets most of its integrity from the stirring performances of Tracy and Hepburn. When the former (who had been so ill that the production could not get completion insurance) gives a speech toward the end about race, love, and much else, it's impossible not to be affected by the last great moment in a great actor's life and career. --Tom Keogh
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Rating: - Guess who's not really that impressed...
Understand that I understand that this movie probably had a much deeper impact upon its release, and that my review may actually be harsher that it would be had I actually seen it in 1967 and not 2008, but also please understand that regardless of when a film was released, it is open to judgment based on its `aging' factor. That said; I don't think `Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' holds up.
The film tells the story of John Wade and Joey Drayton, an interracial couple who met in Hawaii. Joey belongs to an upper-class White family; her parents being liberalists. John came from simpler means, but he built a good profession for himself as a doctor and is well respected and admired. The only problem is he's Black. The couple has only known each other for a few days but they are in love and want to be married. They travel to meet Joey's parents and tell them the good news. Joey is naïve and convinced ... Read More
Rating: - Brilliant and ageless!
I watched years ago when it first came out and keep on watching it each time I see it on TV. Now I own the video. A pure classic, with brilliant actors, some that we will miss forever. Deep and wonderful movie. Sidney Poitier is a class act! A four-star movie.
Rating: - Thematic still applicable today; great movie
"Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" is nothing short of fantastic. It is funny, smart, brilliant, thoughtful, and altogether great. The performances by Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katherine Hepburn were phenomenal. I especially liked the performances by Hepburn and Tracy as their characters were confronted by their own unconscious racism and discrimination when they though they were extremely liberal.
This couple raised a daughter, Joanna, to be extremely liberal and to believe in the equality of the races. But, it is still a shock to them when their daughter brings home a black man, Dr. Prentiss, as the man she wants to marry. This family must then confront the schemes and ideas they had of themselves and of their views. The couple, played by Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton, must also face the criticism of his parent, who is also against this biracial engagement, and also the housekeeper, a black ... Read More
Rating: - A Dated Film But Still Worth Watching
In this 1967 film directed by Stanley Kramer at one point Spencer Tracy (Matthew Drayton) asks Sidney Poitier (John Prentice, M.D.) what will become of their children if he marries their daughter Katharine Drayton (Joanna). He responds that Joanna believes they will become president but he would settle for secretary of state. Her prophecy has already come true in part since the United States has now had two secretarys of state who are African American and a black man now all but has the Democratic nomination for president sewn up. The film is dated and wouldn't make much sense if set in the present. In 1967, however, a movie about an interracial marriage was certainly one that raised eyebrows.
The rather thin plot is saved by the acting of three Academy Award winners, Tracey, Poitier and Hepburn-- she received a best actress award for her performance here-- all of whom give brilliant performances. Although ... Read More
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- Guess who's not really that impressed...
- Brilliant and ageless!
- Thematic still applicable today; great movie
