Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
By: Kevin Schechterly and Rosie Davidson
Guess Who’s Coming to dinner, was released in
1967. Starring in the movie was Katharine Hepburn,
Katharine Houghton, Spencer Tracy, and prominent African American actor Sydney
Poitier. Sidney
Poitier was the most famed actor/actress in the movie, with this being his
third box office hit in three months. The movie tackles the issue of
interracial relationships through a white woman and a black man who met in
Hawaii and want to get married but want their parents’ approval. Initially
the parents are not on board but as the movie three out of the four parents are
all for the marriage. For obvious reasons it was a controversial for
the time but also went against the norm and had an optimistic outcome. The
movie’s budget was $4 million dollars. It grossed over $70 million
globally.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was a revolutionary
movie for its time as due to its main theme addressing racial tensions and
interracial couples. The movie was very optimistic for its time because racism
was so deeply engrained in American society but in the movie, Matt Drayton’s
racism and disdain for interracial marriages was overcome in a matter of one
evening. In class we have been talking about racism in America and the Civil
Rights movement. This movie pertains to class because of the racism that had to
be overcome to proceed with the marriage. Also, it breaks the norms of the day
because interracial couples were not common and were not even legal in a number
of states.
In
the discussion that followed our question there was agreement upon the reason
the movie never mentioned specifically what problems Matt Drayton had with the
interracial marriage. The two people that we called on referred to the audience’s
point of view and that the producers would not want to alienate potentially
racist viewers. The movie was made to try and shed some light on interracial
marriages and that they are not bad but they had to do so carefully to avoid
coming on too strong and losing possible listeners or believers.
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