Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

classicsoncall For anyone born in the last twenty years or so, it's probably hard to imagine how groundbreaking this film was in the turbulent early Sixties. A lot of things were getting under way, Viet Nam, the British Invasion and of course the Civil Rights movement. What's remarkable to me in this picture is that Sidney Poitier's color never seems to become an issue with the people that matter in the story. Granted, the supply store owner Ashton (Ralph Nelson) called Homer Smith (Poitier) 'boy' at one point, but Homer gave it right back to him and they were both on equal terms again. I thought that was handled quite professionally.Overall however, I wasn't really grabbed by the picture the way other reviewers were from reading their comments here. It's not a bad picture mind you, but it's not particularly memorable either. While competent in his portrayal, Poitier didn't seem to be offering an Oscar caliber performance by demonstrating the the type of range Paul Newman displayed as Hud Bannon, another Best Actor contender the same year. I liked Poitier a whole lot better in "In the Heat of the Night"; I liked that movie a lot better too. Interestingly, 'Heat' also tackled the racial angle quite strongly as well and by virtue of his performance there, Poitier helped the cause of black actors in film quite admirably.There was one scene I got a kick out of though. Comparing Bible passages, Mother Maria (Lilia Skala) had that tremendous volume that almost swamped the table, and Poitier's character matched her verse for verse with his little pocket edition. That was really quite comical.Probably the best takeaway one gets from the story is how folks of diverse backgrounds and personalities can put their differences aside to come together in a spirit of harmony and community to pursue a goal. In this case, the mission was the mission, and Homer Smith was a pretty good man with a bulldozer.

amour88 Lilies of the Field was such a treat to watch! It was a very basic plot but such a great movie. These characters are real,they act like you expect actual people to act. None of them are saints and that's one of the things I really enjoyed about this movie. It's a really heartwarming film,one you could watch over and over again and not get bored by it. There are people from all sorts of different cultures in this film all working together to build the chapel. There is no "bad guy" there are just people who see things differently but also come to understand each other. While faith is a big part of the movie it's never preachy and as such can be enjoyed by people no matter their faith.

metrobiz Before the serious part of the Review, this film contains probably the first on-camera use of "whatever," so prevalent among today's "mean girls," spoken by the Mother Superior.•• Not only is the cinematography B&W beautiful, showing the dunderheaded Instagram narcissists of today as Zuckerburgs using the internet to find girls, and the Poitier performance Oscar-worthy - deserved - for its perfect pitch of old-southern- black'ery that never quite breaches cliché' and a black man with modern aspirations, it serves as a a Crystal Ball vision 50-years forward to what we have today politically - with the clash of Euro-Black-Latino integration and a black man leading the amalgam. Add to that the uneasy Baptist-Catholic traditions, the agnostic, the entitled white "hey boah (boy)" business owner, latinos looking for work in the building trades, etc., and we see exactly what exists today, with a black man actually providing the leadership, if somewhat unwillingly at first, prodded by a zealot. In a sense, one sees all that's "bad" about America thrown into a filmed pot (plot) in the arid Southwest to combine to make the finest Louisiana gumbo one can imagine - the genius of the American Experiment for all its contentious nonsense and prefab prejudice. The film even presages the rise of Austrian nuns 2-years later as an entertainment motif in "The Sound of Music." And yet, for its themes, it emerges in the milieu of "It's A Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," and "White Christmas" somehow. It's title? From the Bible, Matthew 6.Amazing. A must-see for true film'ophiles. An under-sung classic.

Petri Pelkonen Godsent Homer Smith builds a chapel to five nuns from East Germany.There's the plot in short of this movie.Lillies of the Field (1963) is directed by Ralph Nelson.It's based on the 1962 novel by William Edmund Barrett.Sidney Poitier, who turned 85 last month, gives a terrific performance as Homer.He was the first African American man to win an Oscar.Lilia Skala, who earned a nomination, is superb as Mother Maria.Also great job from other nun performers (Lisa Mann, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis and Pamela Branch).Stanley Adams is excellent as Juan.Dan Frazer, who passed away last December at the age of 90, is brilliant as Father Murphy.Director Nelson himself plays the part of Mr. Ashton, and he's great.Jerry Goldsmith is behind the music.I liked this movie.Especially I enjoyed when they started singing "Amen".That Poitier fellow can really sing! This movie leaves you with a nice feeling.