It Doesn't Matter a Damn What We Think

My next movie was one I've seen before, but it is worth re-viewing: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).  This was Spencer Tracy's final movie, and a worthwhile note to go out on, if you ask me.  It also stars Katharine Hepburn (always a win in my book), Sidney Poitier (grand), and the relatively unknown Katharine Houghton (Hepburn's niece).  It was directed by Stanley Kramer who also directed the great and groundbreaking movie Inherit the Wind (which I hope to talk about at some point in this blog).

The movie is about a young couple - John (Poitier) and Joey (Houghton) - who are interracial: John is black, and Joey is white.  This movie is set in the time when it was made: the 1960s.  At the time, it was bizarre and unacceptable for people of different races to marry, although it was legal.  Matt (Tracy) and Christina (Hepburn) are Joey's parents, and have raised her not to think any differently of people of different races - that everyone is equal.  Unfortunately for them, they have done an unexpectedly good job, and they run across problems when deciding whether or not they are all right with this marriage.

One interesting point comes up when John says that Joey thinks that all of their children will become President of the United States.  Barack Obama was born in 1961 - he was practically born of this movie.  How grateful I am that such things have become possible in such a short amount of time.

Tracy and Hepburn were in a real-life relationship for something along the lines of 30 years, and you can see the love in their eyes in these roles, which makes Tracy's ending speech so clearly.  He says that if John and Joey feel "half of what we felt - that's everything."  He then exchanges a long look with Hepburn that says much more than any line of dialogue possible.

It would be wonderful if we could learn as a society from examples that came before.  When I mentioned this movie to my friend, Mike, and told him that I was grateful we were past most of this kind of prejudice, he mentioned that we're in the same place with gay marriage that we used to be with interracial marriage.  I hope that changes.  And soon.

Wonderful movie with a lot of wonderful things to say.  Highly recommended, if only to watch the great cast work their magic.