Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me

The documentary tells the life of Sammy Davis Jr. He was on stage at three years old. He grew up on vaudeville stages. He sang, he danced, he did impressions. He became one of the best known performers in America. He joined the group around Frank Sinatra. There is another side to the story, though. In the army he met with violent racism. He had his lack of schooling to contend with. In 1960 he married the Swedish actress May Britt and faced a huge backlash. He converted to Judaism and did so openly. On one hand he walked with the civil rights movement. On the other he was criticised for contradictory positions. The film does not paper over those contradictions. Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal speak in the hundred minute documentary, an American production Sam Pollard finished in 2017.