What makes The Sidney Pointier Collection worthwhile is not that it that it contains his better known films — the only one included here that may be largely familiar is A Patch of Blue, and that because it was released at a post-segregationist awakening. It’s certainly not the special features included in the set. They mostly consist of the individual films’ theatrical trailers — only A Patch of Blue offers any special features, and even those are sparse — a commentary feature by director Guy Green, and some stills galleries and notes. All of the movies here are presented in widescreen, and with the exception of A Warm December, they’re all black and white, with excellent reproduction and very good contrast.
Where this collection ultimately succeeds is that it shows that even in his earliest work, Poitier (and the people who worked with him) wanted to present a portrait of America where dignity, love, prestige, and worth knew no color. We take those principles for granted today, but in the 1950s and '60s, those were radical concepts. Sidney Poitier paved the way, at least in film.
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