Film review: A Patch of Blue (1965)

Probably the most warm-hearted and touching movie I have watched in 2010.

The story is simple, but what I fell in love with in this black and white film is the unique atmosphere, and also the chemistry between the two main characters is timeless. The atmosphere reminded me of "To Kill A Mockingbird”, which is a favourite book of mine. The music by Jerry Goldsmith is also beautiful and memorable.

The movie is about blindness and the difficulties this can cause for the blind person, their family and friends. If I was blind, this is how I would want to be treated by a stranger. I read actress Elizabeth Hartman during the shoot used special contact lenses that deprived her of her sight.

The film was one of the first to deal with a relationship between a black man and a white woman, this aspect of the movie was less interesting to me, and obviously was more groundbreaking and controversial in the 60s.



The movie was intentionally filmed in black and white, even though colour was available. The reason for this I am unsure of, if you know the answer, please let me know.

I don’t feel this passionate about older films that often. But I can see myself revisiting this several times in the future. I have a soft spot for films about blind characters, a couple of others I love are The Color of Paradise, & Scent of a woman.

A Patch of Blue is among the 10 best I’ve seen so far in 2010 for sure. The story may not be that complex, but the warmth of the characters makes this a must-see. 9/10

The only bad thing about this movie was that it had to end ( :

Readers, any thoughts?

IMDB

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Favorite blind movies listmania amazon.com

2 comments:

  1. Well, in a film where I have made the white girl blind so that she only sees the man not the color of his skin, I would shoot it in black and white to even further emphasize the color difference. Also, in the 1960's color was still seen as the dream and black and white reality.

    As far as movies with the blind in them. Have you seen Wait Until Dark?

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  2. @Jump_Raven
    Thanks for answering the question. I see it that friendship transcends the colour of your skin. She is drawn to his warmth and not his skin colour. So the morale of the film is to accept all colours and all handicaps, I think. And look at the inner rather than the outer . But I believe you can interpret the story in various ways.

    No, haven't seen "Wait Until Dark", thanks for telling ( :

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