Comments on: Movie. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1967. (HIx: 0)

by: Matthew

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:47:25 +0000

There’s a modern knock-off with Ashton Kutcher, but being neither a movie (nor an opera) buff, I can’t remember the name of it.

I guess I have to drop my favorite line when asked how I like my coffee…I like to reply, “Black, like my women.” (I’m a white man, in case you were in doubt).

M.A.B.

by: ElizaF

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:48:48 +0000

If I remember right I once read that intermarriage (even Asian/Caucasian) was against the law in DC until 1963. People used to cross into Maryland to intermarry.

I never saw GWCTD and glad I didn’t. Part of the larger ’60’s rebellion against authority.

by: Tim H

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:57:12 +0000

It could be that the converse logic is also meant to be in play for those that need it. Thus, many good people of that generation had swallowed (at least in theory) the idea that “everyone is just a human, nothing more or less.” The movie’s message for them is, “now you see, you also need to accept the rest of our ethos, or good will never triumph. Question authority. Accept fornication. Seek to maximize your pleasures. And again, ’screw all those people’ if they disagree.”

by: MRB

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:20:49 +0000

Nice review. Yes the unnecessary twists in the plot seem to blunt the edge of the message. A Christian father with even a semblance of sanity would have several reasons to tell his little girl that she may not marry Dr. Prentice (Poitier) without having to enter into the miscegenation question.

But look at the movie not from a Christian point of view, but from the perspective of the 60’s generation. Given the other issues that you bring up in your review, we are supposed to see the older generation as bigoted and provincial. Of course they should already be shacked up (they’re “in love” after all). Of course the son owes nothing to his father. Of course ten days is enough to determine whether one is in love. Of course no consideration of family should be taken into account when choosing a mate. These were all givens for the 60’s generation. The movie makers then slip in the miscegenation theme. To hold out on this one and yet agree with the others would inconsistent. The movie does not so much explore miscegenation (even if in an unbalanced way) but uses the “values” of the 60’s generation to show that interracial marriage should be as much a given as all these other things. The movie is good example of sophisticated psychological processing techniques.