Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!
Heading back to the early 1960s and a peculiar little film called Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier, in the role that won him an historic Oscar, the first Academy Award given to a black actor for a lead performance. Based on the novel by William Edmund Barrett, Lilies is a very simple story of a transient California-bound handyman who stops off at a makeshift Arizona convent for a water refill, offers to help the nuns who live there in exchange for cash, and instead gets roped into the months-long assignment of building them a chapel. Homer Smith (Poitier) initially hopes to make a quick few bucks repairing the roof of their shared housing, but the head nun Mother Maria (a stern but oddly likable Lilia Skala, who earned a Supporting Actress nod) seemingly underplays her knowledge of English to avoid paying him. Homer stays the night and shares the scant meal the sisters offer, but one night turns into many, as Maria keeps giving him odd jobs to perform for free, telling him God sent him to help. As he gets to know their mostly Spanish-speaking local congregation (Sunday mass is held outdoors) he begins to feel a duty to follow through on the challenge, an admittedly appealing task for the amateur architect.
Plot-wise there's not much else to this story. Man stops at a convent on his way west, helps out the nuns, they convince him to build them a chapel, he does, with the help of the townspeople, and then he goes on his way. The point of the film though is to show us the inherent joy in finding a sense of community, of duty to one's fellow man, how acts of generosity are ultimately their own reward. Homer has numerous chances to simply cut his losses and walk away, and in fact he does, briefly, before a guilt-ridden return. But something keeps convincing him to stay put until the job is done. He even takes a part-time gig working for a local construction company and uses his pay to buy the sisters better food, as well as soliciting the donation of building materials from the townspeople. In the end he leaves the little town a better, more connected place than he found it. We should all be lucky enough to make a positive impact.
Director Ralph Nelson and cinematographer Ernest Haller (of Gone With the Wind fame) chose to shoot in minimalistic black and white, allowing the visuals to match the simplicity of the story. Despite its monochromatic palette though, the film does provide lovely images of desolate Arizona landscapes, placing us in the middle of nowhere along with the characters; the photography here would be at home in a classic Western. Penning the film's slightly melodramatic score was the now-legendary Jerry Goldsmith, on one of his early film gigs.
Lilies of the Field isn't a film I'd watch repeatedly, but it's well-made and has a fine lead performance, and gives one a bit of a hopeful feeling in its depiction of kindness and pride in helping others. Its heart is certainly in a good place.
I'll give the film a gentleman's *** out of ****.
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