Review of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) by Mike H — 29 Dec 2011

For all the detractors that want to say this is totally fictitious, I think it's missing something important to say it's stupid and simplistic that it finally works out so well in the end, or that it was just produced to cash in on the issue of the day: Those things are true, but they are outdone by the manner that the issue is noted historically and told on screen. Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katherine Hepburn deliver so well that the movie already seems like a weird dark comedy about an issue blown way out of proportion (even the characters that think it ought to be a non-issue understand that it's nearly the end of the world). It's fascinating for that reason alone -- even if it's not a 100% accurate portrayal of the time, it still reveals how much something like this in a general sense mattered in this era (which certainly is accurate).

Since I'm writing this in 2011, I should say that coincidently this movie may stand the tests of time to a later date than anything released this year (it was a weak year for film), which is something else the detractors should note.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is great entertainment, and it's pretty smart during the front half. The second half remains entertaining, but is basically the writer and/or director fleeing through an escape hatch.