Analysis Of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner & Guess Who “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" was a film that shocked audiences because of the controversial topic yet also reflected society’s prejudices in the 1960’s time period. Both of these films are based on interracial marriage, and the impact it has on the parents of the couples. Although, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" was filmed in 1967, racial tension is still a relevant issue today. “Guess Who", the 2005 remake, also touches on racial prejudices but, lacks the political relevance of the original.
The original movie is pretty straight forward, with little humor, because its whole purpose was to inform the audience about the issues of interracial marriage and racial
In 1967, racial prejudice was prominently significant, but Director Stanley Kramer wanted to address the problem head on. In his movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner," the issues of racism, prejudice and interracial marriage are portrayed in a serious, political manner. Racial prejudice has always been a major social issue, particularly at this time in the 60’s when racial tension and rioting was occurring, as well as the campaigning led by Martin Luther King Junior for Civil Rights. In Kramer’s 1967 film, John (Sidney Poitier) and Joanna (Katherine Houghton). "After all, a lot of people are going to think we are a shocking pair."(GWCD, John Prentice, 1967). The film premiered in the racially volatile year of the Civil Rights Movement in 1967. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was a box-office hit in 1968 throughout the United States, this also included Southern states where few white filmgoers would go see a film with a black lead. *
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner came out in 1967, which was also the year that the United States Supreme Court ruled in a case called Loving v. Virginia that all laws which banned interracial marriages violated the United States Constitution. Facts tell us that until that year interracial marriage which had been illegal in most U.S. states, and was still illegal in 17 states. June 12, 1967, six months before (GWCD) was released, the anti-miscegenation laws
Prentice says his classic line to his father: “You think of yourself as a colored man! I think of myself as a man.” Poitier lectures his father and accuses him of being an “Uncle Tom” Even with the emerging black power movement and those of color who saw some value in claiming their identities this was a very bold statement. (Your generation will always think of itself as Negro first and a man second. I think of myself as a man.")Culture changes every generation, things that were once unacceptable become acceptable things as an everyday occurrence. Within the movie (GWCD) there are clear cultural changes depicted by both Joanna and John’s parents are struggling because of the culture they were raised in. Tilly the maid was also brought up in a different culture where people of color had no business becoming successful like Dr. John Prentice had. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner accurately addresses the differences between the older generation’s conservative opposition and the younger generation’s more open minded acceptance of miscegenation during the late 1960s in America. %^
“Guess Who” is a 2005, directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. Is a film about the same interracial issues as the original 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, While the 1967 film was about the interracial romance of a black man with a white woman, the 2005 film covered the topic of a white man with a black woman. The film stars Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, and Zoe Saldana, where the racial roles reversed