Lilies of the Field
Staring Sydney Poitier
1963
This movie may well mark the 'tipping' point of racial relations in America, released the year of my birth. Poitier won the best actor Academy Award for his lead role in this film, playing an out of work construction worker/GI, heading west.
On the way he runs into a group of east german nuns recently escaped from behind the Iron Curtain who need him to build a church.
Curiously, there are only two white men in the entire film. A poor Irish priest with an impoverished Latin parish and a rich white Contractor. The Contractor is goosed a bit, but it is done very respectfully and realistically. FWIW, the construction scenes of the chapel reminded me of a well run Habitat for Humanity site.
The scenes where he teaches the nuns some black baptist gospel are particularly memorable and the sound track is top notch all the way through.
