Top 10 Films of Sidney Poitier

On January 6th, 2022, we lost one of the most talented and electrifying figures in the world of, well, the world, but also the world of film. Sidney Poitier, arguably more so than any other Black actor of his era, elevated any (sometimes lackluster) material that he was given to new levels of dynamism and honesty.

The ferocity of his glare stood diametrically opposed to the warmth of his smile, two weapons that he brought to bear on a wide variety of roles and genres, each time giving more than a performance, making a statement, a declaration, a mark of some kind that let us know that this was not just a movie, this was a film, and you were about to see a performance, and you better just strap yourself in because you were going to be taken exactly where he wanted you to go.

10. Shoot to Kill (1988)

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Poitier’s first film after nearly a decade of retirement paired him up with Tom Berenger for what, on paper, should have been a by-the-numbers buddy-cop action flick. Instead, all the edges are sharpened, all the gut-strings tightened a notch beyond where they could have been, due to the power of Poitier’s presence on the screen. These two should have done a dozen movies together.

9. No Way Out (1950)

Global Ranking: 4145
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Films like No Way Out whose purpose is to advocate for a particular social or political point of view, so-called “issue films,” often collapse under the weight of their own social conscience, especially those from this era. The frame is consumed by the “issue,” leaving less room for the inconveniences of “story” and “character.” No Way Out suffers at times from this malady, but the sparks struck between the fearless performances of Poitier, as a Black inner-city doctor, and Richard Widmark, a white racist criminal, brighten what could so easily have been carelessly categorized as “another racial melodrama.” Even at twenty-three years old, Poitier is able to find depth and dimension in the subtlest of looks, pauses, and moments.

8. A Patch of Blue (1965)

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Another “issue film,” but this time not through a noir lens. The issues at play here now incorporate the place of women and the disabled in our society, alongside the inevitable interracial tensions. First-time actress Elizabeth Hartman earned a Best Actress nomination (the youngest ever such nominee at the time) for her portrayal of a young woman with blindness whose life has been an unending series of traumas and tragedies, but whose heart remains open to the promise of a better life, represented by the muscular idealism of Poitier’s character which foreshadows the image that he would project later in his real life.

7. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

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Another crushing story of Black struggle, but whose incredible script gives the film a firm spine of poetry and honesty, and veers decidedly away from racial melodrama in favor of more universal themes. Here we see perhaps the earliest example of Poitier’s absolute mastery of the craft of acting, his now-distinctive voice speaking the lines like bullets, his posture giving clues as to his inner turmoils.

6. To Sir, With Love (1967)

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In what is in many respects an English transplant of The Blackboard Jungle (currently ranked globally 2485, but Poitier is billed too low for our list), with Poitier on the other side of the desk this time, we see how in the intervening years he has learned to show how his characters sublimate their rage, which becomes their greatest strength or weakness depending on the story. This will come to bear in his later work and will become something of a hallmark of Poitier’s style.

5. Lilies of the Field (1963)

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Poitier won his only Best Actor Academy Award for his role as a laborer who helps a group of German nuns build a chapel. On paper, the story should not be able to power an entire film; there is very little extant conflict and only vague and internalized motivations for many of the characters. But it is in such circumstances where talents like Poitier’s shine, spinning mountains of gold out of a few wisps of story and character. Poitier acts with his whole body, the most dynamic force in every scene, in what should be an unpleasant contrast to so much passivity and docility, but which instead makes him seem as electrified by the Holy Spirit as the nuns claim him to be.

4. Sneakers (1992) 

Global Ranking: 1254
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6415 users have ranked it 62,288 times
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117 have it in their top 20

It was an insane idea to make Sidney Poitier a supporting actor in any film, but in an absolutely nuclear-powered ensemble cast of leading-man talent, Poitier finds exactly the right niche for what he uniquely brings to the table. Which is also what the movie is about, now that I think about it. Remind me to write another 3000 words on the fractal nature of Sneakers‘s themes and how it is the perfect vehicle for this particular cast, and that goes double for Poitier. (Look, even the poster puts him first!)

3. The Defiant Ones (1958)

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This film is a just a little unsubtle in the points it’s making, just a little “on-the-nose.” A Black and a white criminal escape from a chain gang while chained together, and we get to watch their inevitable conflicts and resolutions ebb and flow as they learn just how much we’re all in this together. In the hands of any other director or writer or stars this would be almost eye-rollingly allegorical, but instead we have another example of great artists making great art from the simplest ideas, because that’s what great artists do.

2. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

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A clever, and by modern standards, somewhat unfortunately light-spirited discussion of (what we now label as) liberal wokeness, at the crucial point when it collides with parental responsibility. Do I or do I not want my child to have the best, easiest, most free from fear and conflict life imaginable? Did or did not Morgan Freeman tell me to spoil my child every chance I got? What constitutes “spoiling” in this case, when I know that the future she’s in love with is going to cause the entire family heartburn unless someday racial strife is eliminated forever? The fact that this film is dealing with this level of social discourse without becoming maudlin and preachy can be attributed to the deft touch of Stanley Kramer, and to performances like Poitier’s which know how to access just the right amount of heaviness to deliver the message, without weighing the scene down under the bulk of social responsibility.

1. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Global Ranking: 322
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3819 users have ranked it 65,222 times
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Tonally, this is diametrically opposed to #2 which came out the same year, but which fundamentally asks the same question: what does Blackness actually mean to ordinary white Americans, in practical terms? Not philosophically, not politically, but actually right now, in this particular situation, regardless of my own personal opinions about Blackness, the fact that I am Black (or that my impromptu police partner is Black) has an undeniable impact on the dynamics of this white-adjacent situation, whether I want it to or not.

So what makes a man (or even a mensch) is to what degree I accept that fact, versus deny it, versus fight actively against the fact that that impact even exists. This is, in part, the Black experience in Hollywood: How much do I allow my “demographics” to shape my place in the world?

There is no right answer to that question. Our identity is bound up with all sorts of social and biological and ideological factors which as we mature and grow we learn how to take or leave in turn. But if Sidney Poitier taught us anything through his movies, it’s that there is a “thing” at the center of all that noise, some central core to our being, a spine consisting our beliefs and flaws and dreams and desires which represents our unique voice in the world. And that voice must be heard no matter the cacophony that would shout us down.

Rest in power, Mr. Poitier. Your voice has been heard.