Excellent but underrated film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This is a very pleasant movie. It's not a masterpiece. There have been better movies; there have been funnier comedies; there have been more dramatic dramas; there have been deeper explorations of spiritual issues. But this is a very pleasant movie to watch - and even fun at times.This is Sidney Poitier's movie. He plays Homer Smith - a mysterious drifter whose past we never do learn very much about who appears at a farm needing water for the radiator in his car. The farm turns out to be occupied by a group of nuns who've recently come to the United States from Germany and who basically draft Homer to build them a chapel. The movie basically portrays the growing relationship between the nuns and Homer. Homer resents the work he's being asked to do but somehow is unable to pull away. The nuns see Homer as an answer to their prayers for someone who could help them in this task. It's good fun watching Homer teach the nuns how to speak English and how to sing some of the gospel songs he learned in his Baptist upbringing. As I said, this is Poitier's movie and he was superb in it. The supporting cast was fine, but not high profile. The only one I recognized was Stanley Adams from a Star Trek episode a few years later. This might be a little bit over-rated, but still it doesn't disappoint. Again - it's a very pleasant movie to watch. (6/10)

Continuing my reviews of people of color in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1963 when Sidney Poitier plays a role that would eventually make him the first black to win an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. That would be Homer Smith, an independent contractor who reluctantly gets roped by some German nuns into building a chapel for them having stopped near their convent initially to just get some water for his car. While he seems to get along fine with the others, Homer often has some choice words to say to Mother Superior Maria (Lilia Skala) especially concerning money and her ordering, comparing her at one point to Hitler. When the sisters stop at the outdoor mass, Smith stops at the nearby diner where he strikes up a friendly conversation with the proprietor, Juan (Stanley Adams), as they humorously discuss the sisters. Eventually, he leaves and then comes back, having gotten into trouble in between. He also offers his services to construction foreman Mr. Ashton (Ralph Nelson, this movie's producer/director). There's more to the plot than what I just described but now I'll just say that while Poitier is quite funny and charming, his character's motives are not always clear especially in the beginning when he seems condescending to the nuns especially when teaching English and "singing" "Amen" to them (I put quotations on the word singing because the voice you hear when that is performed is actually that of Jester Hairston, the song's writer). Still, Sidney does give his usual good performance though I do not think it's one of his best, certainly not compared to No Way Out or A Raisin in the Sun. But, on the other hand, Lilies of the Field isn't too overly sentimental as I'd feared these last 30 years of just hearing and reading about it. So on that note, it's highly recommended. P.S. That initial conversation between Aston and Smith when they call each other "boy" was one of the most edgy things I've heard from an early '60s movie!

When I first watched this film years ago I was moved by it, by the growing solidarity of an isolated desert community, bereft of everything but their faith, and some members without even that to rely on. Now that I'm more, well, experienced -- I'm trying to avoid the word debauched -- it's a little more difficult to warm my heart but not yet impossible.Poitier is a happy-go-lucky handyman who bumps into half a dozen German nuns in the Sonoran desert. They more or less force him to begin building them a chapel, so that the Catholic circuit rider doesn't have to say mass from the back of his trailer. There are all sorts of travails. Obstacles must be overcome. There is neither enough labor nor materials. Does the entire Hispanic community show up to provide the missing labor? Does the local construction company provide the bricks and mortar as a result of a sort of desert-parched Pascal's choice? Does Poitier build the nuns their chapel? Are you kidding? Now, having seen it for the second time, it's still uplifting, and somewhat comic as well, with occasional dramatic elements. Lilia Skala, as the mother superior, has the truly thankless role of the authoritarian who believes that if you trust in God you needn't worry about anything else, but she delivers. You might not think so when you see her in action because the character is so stern and lacking in humor. Poitier is to Skala as fire hydrant is to dog. But it takes skill to play such an unpleasant role.And this must be ranked among Sidney Poitier's better performances. (He won an Oscar for it but that means nothing.) Poitier's forte was similar to Gregory Peck's. He could project sincerity and moral fury almost flawlessly. But this role gives him a chance to lighten up. There's hardly a moment when he's on screen that you can take your eyes from him. He invests the smallest moments with something unique. Nobody else could have done it quite the same way. And there are some keenly observed moments: Poitier and the men have finished the chapel and are playing music, dancing, and getting drunk, while the nuns and the wives sit on benches and glare at them. Women don't like seeing men have a good time and getting drunk with other men. I enjoyed watching it again.Having said that, I'm forced to admit that a second viewing, after years of marination in movie conventions, means hauling one's aesthetic sensibilities stark naked through some exceedingly prickly beavertail patches.Are you familiar with the scene in which some worldly outsider teaches a couple of uptight nuns how to sing a raucous spiritual con mucho gusto? Clapping their hands and swaying from side to side? No? How about the scene in which somebody teaches some non-English speakers how to speak English -- in a REGIONAL DIALECT? As in, "Sit yo' self down, y'all?" Would you believe an Irishman who drinks too much? An Irish priest? There were times when I winced, when I turned my face aside, as I tend to do when a large animal is slaughtered on screen.Yet, for all that, it's still an uplifting and, in its own limited way, a satisfying fable. Have the kids watch it too. The more innocent among us will get more out of it.

Sidney Poitier in a Academy Award Winning Performance plays Homer Smith, a man who was the answer for the prayers of a group of German nuns led by Sister Mary (Lila Skala) who wanted someone to built a chapel in a almost forgotten place in the nice "Lillies in the Field". Homer accepts the task, reluctantly and with constant arguments with Sister Mary, who seems to don't have any kind of money and she keeps these subject to the other day (quoting a Bible versicle), almost forcing this man to do the job but he was just passing through the city. With the help of Juan (Stanley Adams) and the local residents Homer's gonna built the chapel and teach some valuable lessons to the nuns and to the town's people."Lillies in the Field" deals with themes of solidarity, comprehension, faith yet it is a funny and moving film that doesn't seem to preach anything more than love and respect among people. However, I found that the story could work more on the nuns in the sense of teaching something good to Homer and not only backwards, because it worked as if these nuns were only exploiting this man, who built a chapel for them, teach them English and some songs, and bought material and different kinds of food for all them, and in return they only gave him a place to stay, thousands of work to do and lot of complaints. The film's intentions are good, plausible, commendable but to some might look as a advantage situation explored by the Church and that denies everything it was trying to present. The small supporting cast is great, but the outstanding performances of Poitier and Skala and all of the scenes between the two are excellent. Surprising as it might be this film haven't portrayed any situation of prejudice themes which was something recurring in Poitier's films during the 1950's and 1960's. The characters here are presented as human beings that help each other without caring about the skin color; it had one or two undertones about this issue (the guy in the construction shop who couldn't believe in Homer being a contractor), but it wasn't nothing so sad or uncomfortable.It goes for 10 stars because it's a small film that achieves great levels, great things and as long as I live and watch films I want to remember of films like this that are simple, has fantastic moments and a positive message. 10/10