A Patch of Blue

Selina is eighteen and blind. She lost her sight as a small child during an incident. She lives at home with her mother and grandfather; the mother makes her work, beats her and does not let her out. Selina cannot read or write. One day her grandfather takes her to a park and leaves her under a tree; she strings beads there. A man sits down beside her. Gordon is kind, helps her, and comes again the next day. Selina does not know he is black. Guy Green writes and directs. Elizabeth Hartman plays Selina, Sidney Poitier plays Gordon and Shelley Winters the mother. Shelley Winters won the Oscar for supporting actress for the part. The matter it treats is that prejudice is learned; because Selina sees nothing she has learned nothing, and the narrative builds that directly. A kiss was cut from the prints shown in the southern states of America; the film lived through the distribution practice of the period directly. The narrative offers no romantic resolution; Gordon wants the girl to be independent and does not see himself as a rescuer. Elizabeth Hartman entered cinema with this film and was nominated for an Oscar for the part. Its limit is register; some sections are explanatory and the mother is one dimensional. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties American drama and films centred on acting. Who it is not for: the narrative is didactic, the scenes at home are hard, and the plot carries the shapes of its period.