Mark Reviews Movies: SIDNEY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 22, 2022

Reginald Hudlin's Sidney, a documentary about Sidney Poitier, is caught between the man—the facts of his personal and professional lives—and the legend. Poitier's death at the beginning of this year resulted in many tributes to and evaluations of his work, as well as the impact his career, particularly in the 1960s, as a successful and audience-drawing Black actor—nay, a movie star—had at a time of great societal change.

Hudlin seems determined to encapsulate all of that sentiment into this documentary. It makes us feel good about the life the man lived, the dignity and integrity to which he aspired and which he so regularly displayed, and the vitality of a couple decades of his work. Anything beneath or beyond those concepts, though, seems of little value or purpose to the filmmaker. It might get in the way of that praise or those good feelings, so the result is a biography that comes across as a bit too detailed in certain regards and far too incomplete in others.

It begins with Poitier himself narrating his life story as part of what seems to be a comprehensive and intimate conversation, shot in close-up and with the actor, since retired and in what must be one of his final interviews (if not his final one), speaking directly into the camera. Little if any of the charisma, intelligence, and confidence that made him a star appears to have faded at the time of the interview. He's quietly commanding in the way he details his biography, from his birth (Hudlin begins with an anecdote about Poitier's premature birth and anticipated death as a newborn, although the context of that story, revealed later, has little to do with straightforward biography) and until the end of his career as an actor, a filmmaker, and producer.

The account of his childhood, growing up on his family farm on Cat Island in the Bahamas before moving to Nassau and Miami and New York City, is specific and detailed, and this section of the movie certainly leads us to anticipate as many specifics and as much detail in Poitier's discussion of the rest of his life. If the man related those events with as much precision during the interview, it has not made the final cut of Hudlin's movie. Indeed, there are sizeable gaps here, and one imagines it's more a filmmaking choice than a shortcoming on Poitier's part.

Some of those gaps include Poitier's directing career (although one need only recall or look up one of his regular actors in those projects to understand why much of that has been omitted), which is framed as a promising next step in his work but quickly dismissed as the last step before he more or less exits public life, only making appearances to accept various awards and honors. As for his acting career after 1972, the movie simply ignores it, with the only indirect acknowledgement coming from Robert Redford's occasional appearance as one of the documentary's many testimonies of Poitier's influence on society, culture, and the interview subjects' own lives.

Those talking heads include a couple of experts—a culture critic and Poitier's biographer, for example—but most consist of Poitier's family—his ex-wife Juanita Hary, his second wife (until his death) Joanna Shimkus, and his six daughters—and an assortment of famous faces. The latter group includes Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Halle Berry, all actors who make their admiration for the man who inspired them clear, as well as Barbra Streisand, who started a production company with Poitier and Paul Newman, and Louis Gossett Jr., who worked with the actor on both the Broadway production and film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, and Lenny Kravitz, whose unofficial but beloved "aunt" Diahann Carroll had a lengthy, on-and-off affair with Poitier. Rounding out the testimonials is Oprah Winfrey, who also produced the documentary and whose accounts of the man feel the most indirect and the least notable.

The movie gains a similar problem of being indirect and finding events or moments of note as it progresses—mostly, though, because Hudlin doesn't seem too curious to find them once the major part of Poitier's career has been covered. The actor's life, career, and impact were most apparent and noteworthy over a period of about two decades, beginning as a struggling theater actor given a couple breaks in movies in the 1950s (His friend and occasional friendly foe Harry Belafonte might have had the chance, as revealed in an amusing anecdote on a talk show) and resulting in increasing success during the '60s.

Using Poitier's own account and those various other interviewees, Hudlin finely contextualizes the actor's performances within the scope of Poitier's family life, his determination to live up to the principles exemplified by his parents, and his knowledge that the roles he would play could have a broader effect on the civil rights movement in which he participated. About half of Sidney, then, serves as and points to a thorough analysis of a man, an actor, an icon, and someone who had and, through his influence, continues to have an impact on the movies and culture at large. The rest of the documentary, though, seems at a loss about how to deal with his later life and career, except as a matter of legend.

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