Films involving Blind

Blind: Major Films

Title	Patch of Blue, A (1965)
Alternative/Original Title
Disability	Blind
Country	USA
Length	105
Genre	Drama
Rating	3
Director	Guy Green
Cast	Sidney Poitier Elizabeth Hartman Shelley Winters Wallace Ford Ivan Dixon John Qualen
Notes	B/W. A blind young woman (Hartman) is abused by her mother (Winters). She has to cook all the meals, clean the appartment and to earn a bit of money she threads beads. They live with her grandfather. This is a picture of white trash living in a slum appartment. She sleeps in the living room, the mother behind a curtain in the same room and who knows where grandad sleeps. All her days are spent in the appartment but grandad who is more sympathetic than her mother takes her to a nearby park. There she manages to run around without bumping into trees. She has no stick, no guide dog just her outstretched hands. She walks over confidently for someone who hasn't been outside though at other times she pats her way along walls. She became blind at 5 when her father found her mother with another man and in the ensueing fight the mother threw a bottle which hits her. In the park she meets Poitier and they become friends. His way of 'leading' her is to drag her along instead of offering his arm. The crazy conceit of this film is that she doesn't know he is black. Can we accept really accept this? What do they talk about? It is revealed that she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Poitier finds a school for her. She wants to marry him even though by this time she knows he is black. Mum besides being a bully is a racist. Overall she is portrayed as a victim and helpless without a man to lean on. At one point when Poiter's character's brother turns out to be a doctor I thought she was going to be 'cured' but thankfully we are spared that. A film which is an historical lump of cement. From the novel by Elizabeth Kata, Be Ready with Bells and Drums.

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