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Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Through the years, I have heard about Lilies of the Field. The main statement that I heard about this movie is that Sidney Poitier won the Academy Award for his role. This is a big deal for me because he was the first black man to ever win the award for Best Actor. So obviously it had to be good. One of my all-time favorite movies with Sidney Poitier was In the Heat of the Night. Who can forget the “They call me Mr. Tibbs” scene. I was expecting an intense performance for Sidney. Boy, was I wrong. Lilies of the Field is a delightful, funny, charming, and entertaining film that was such a pleasant surprise and full of laughs.
Directed by Ralph Nelson, Lilies of the Field is the story of a group of Catholic nuns a jack of all trades handyman and the pursuit of building a chapel. When traveling through the desert of Arizona, African-American handyman, Homer Smith (Poitier) stops by a farm looking for work. He is welcomed by a group of Roman Catholic nuns who have emigrated from Germany. The women speak very little English and are led by their mother superior, Mother Maria (Skala). Looking around, Homer sees that the farm needs a lot of work. He offers his services when Mother Maria believes that Homer was sent by God to build her the chapel she has been praying for. Homer soon realizes that the nuns have no money to pay for his service nor any materials to build the chapel. Homer and Mother Maria butt heads over and over again until they both realize they need each other more than they think. Each one has their own strength to build something that would bring joy to the community.
The story is one that you have seen many times. A person comes and helps out a community and then leaves. Yet, there is something genuinely different about this film and story, and it took me a while to figure out what it was. First, this movie is OUTSTANDING! Even though this film has religious elements, it wasn’t an extreme religious movie. Along those lines, the film didn’t have a sense of racism about it. Yes, there might be two comments about race, it goes by so fast that it was meaningless.
The main message about the film is one of helping each other out. Whether it is with helping one with being more spiritual, helping with education, or just improving facilities, it is all about helping a person no matter the skin tone. Look, a black man comes around five white nuns, and not once did talk about Smith’s skin tone. They pretty much thought he was sent by God to build them a church. Now, I don’t know about sending one person to build a church, but the movie made it work in an entertaining and cute way.
Some of the scenes that prove help was the main focus were with the language recorder that soon became “English” Lesson time. It was funny watching the nuns try to recite the words from the recorder. Smith seeing this, made it an entertaining game. Just seeing how much fun everyone had brought happiness into your heart. Smith really gets into it with all the hand motions.
Another scene is when they are actually building a church. Smith gets his materials, and he doesn’t want any help because he believes it is his project that he must do alone. Now, I definitely wanted to say out loud, “Fool! Better get some help with this project. How you going to put a roof on it.” Even a group of people come and watch him build a massive project by himself as they want to help. Yet, we soon see the community come together and help build a church.
Now the main storyline is the head butting between Mother Maria and Homer. They are classic as with each other. Mother Maria only sees Smith as a tool to build her church. One might think she seems him as a slave, but she really doesn’t. Even when Smith is working his ass off, and Mother Maria rings the bell for him to get food, he makes a comment, “Oh Mother gonna feed the slave?” The two fight over and over again with how things should be done. One of the explosive scenes is when Smith had enough and quits. Now when I first watched, I thought he was gone for a week, but dude was gone for four weeks. That was crazy. Whether it is Mother Maria saying Schmidt rather than Smith or Shapel rather than Chapel, the biggest thing that Smith wanted was some appreciation and a simple thank you. Mother Maria never sad thank you to him but only to god. Smith has to trick her into saying.
The best part of the whole movie was when Smith leads the nuns in singing “Amen.” They share their different musical traditions with one another: their Catholic chants and his Baptist hymns. The song comes out so well because they seem so happy, and Smith gets all into it. It makes you want to tap your foot to the song or even clap along.
Lilia Skala, as Mother Maria, is excellent to watch and plays strongly and with Poitier. She has such a strong faith in God and her duty that it shows to everyone. It is fun to watch her boss around Smith and have a positive attitude on everything she does because her belief is so firm.
Now, Sidney Poitier was the person to watch. He won the Academy Award for this film, and he seemed to have so much fun with it. Whether it was the English lesson time, leading the nuns with singing, or even building the church, he was a delight to watch. Just the way Sidney carried himself in this film was exceptional to watch and needs to commend for his performance.
Lilies of the Field is a delightful and entertaining movie to watch. It is an enjoyable film that has a memorable song but also a memorable cast that tells a fantastic story. Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala are entertaining to watch as they try to both get what they want. Sidney’s performance brought him an Academy Award and history with being the first black actor to win Best Actor. An extraordinary moment and time.
