What a delightful feel good movie! I can see why I fell in love with it so many years ago. Lighthearted humor mixed with real issue drama.... and not a bad rendition of a down home "go to meeting" camp song :D (I sang in the church choir my whole growing up life and ALWAYS preferred "gospel hymns" to the more "sophisticated" and restrained hymns of European origin)
This 1963 movie was tremendously important in changing the face of USA movies. It was the first time (at least that I remember) a black person was cast in a leading role. I can remember the sensation of the familiar being given a disrupting twist when the movie started and Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) developed as the main character. By the end of the movie, I no longer saw skin color. It was an important Aha! moment for me at 12 or 13 as I got caught up in the underlying human stories beneath the skin of the superficial.
Now, 53 years later, I can also see how this movie may have influenced my becoming a "hit and run helper" in later life, aspiring to pass through the world as the wind does, bringing relief to others from stagnant heat, being useful to them in the same way the wind is in drying sheets, driving windmills and sailboats, pollinating plants, etc., and finally disappearing, leaving no trace of itself, while all the while, just being what it is, (which includes sometimes blowing too hard and ripping shingles off roofs and killing trees). I cried when Homer left the nuns he had shared part of his life with, but it felt "right" somehow .........and now, thanks to my Zen experience, I have a word to describe that "rightness" - non-clinging.
Now - bear with me as I ramble through the rest of this.
Part of what struck me as I watched this movie through again this time is the utter equality of all the characters. There was no hierarchy evident even within the hierarchal composition of the sisters and mother superior. There was no submission by Homer to the "religious" (not having had the cultural upbringing to do so being Baptist?), nor, was Homer submissive to any white person in the film which was much more important in 1963. They all were just themselves - being the "role" they were.
Then the most touching of all for me, was the coming together of folks in "good works", in their freely giving of themselves and learning to receive in equal measure, and in so doing, suspending/escaping for a while the usual self-centeredness of "what's in it for me?" fear and resulting behavior. As Homer leaves, we know (or I do), that not one of the folks involved in this story has not been changed by their interaction with one another, (and being the "pollyanna" that I can be at times, I am sure that the changes were for the "better").
The qualities demonstrated by various characters in the film that I value are:
1) faith (which for me translates into trust)
2) the various faces of humility demonstrated - from the Mother Superior's attributing everything happening to God, through Homer's simple factual declaration that he is a good man with heavy equipment.
3) flexibility and letting go
4) non-contentious standing of one's ground.
5) and of course, forgiveness of, and non-clinging to, slights - real and imagined
(I identify with both Homer and Mother Superior - the teacup and the skull cup :) And - I see myself in all the other characters as well)
And finally, when I go back and look at the communities in each of the 3 films I have talked about here in this blog, I see my clear preference for this one. In Billy Budd, the community of the ship is formed by the need to make a living and each is under contract to be there in one way or another. It is a highly regimented and law bound community and most of the individuals would rather be someplace else. In The Nun's Story the community is created by folks aspiring to an ideal of seeking to perfect the individual, and therefore the community in many ways is incidental to the individual's search for the individual's sake, (which of course translates into benefit for others). But in Lilies of the Field, the community of everyday folks is brought together by circumstance of the moment (chance). It is created by attraction and is held together by the process of being/doing together rather than the idea of the end product which many of the participants will never use, This community is fluid and amoebic like - and as I fantasize about it, is ever-changing and the parts (folks) who split off do not die but continue in their amoebic way to live and pass on this immortal, ever changing aliveness in the same way the remaining "church" (both the physical edifice and the community of members) will be ever-changing in their staying. (Life has the property of, is the property of, mercury :D
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