1. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

2. Bellringer
Who is your favorite on-screen couple? Why do you feel that way? Is it their chemistry? Their look? Their movie relationship?

3. History
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner follows the story of a young white woman (Houghton) who brings her fiance (Poitier), an African-American doctor, home to meet her parents.
The parents, who were quite liberal for the time period, always claimed they believed all races were equal. However, they also never believed their daughter would marry a black man.

4. More History
Until the landmark 1967 civil-rights case Loving vs. Virginia, which was decided just five months before Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released, marriage between blacks and whites was still illegal in parts of America, and Kramer’s film was notable for its willingness to tackle this taboo topic.

5. Cinema’s Impact on History
Different means were used as tools of protestation; literature, art, political meetings, music, and cinema are good case in points for the protest movements of the 1960s’ America.
Characters like Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Simon and Garfunkel in music, Marin Luther King, Betty Friedan in politics, Marilyn Monroe in cinema, Alice Walker in literature and many others reflect the rebellious America through a protest prism.
However, Cinema was a large mirror of the American society of the 1960s.

6. Reaction
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and collected two Oscars, including Best Actress for Hepburn, the second of her career.
However…

7. Reaction The reaction to this film was not always positive.
As you watch, jot down what the biggest criticism was.
Do you agree that Kramer’s approach to film is a positive or a negative?
Film Reaction

8. Cast Director: Stanley Kramer Spencer Tracy as Matt Drayton
Sidney Poitier as John Prentice
Katharine Hepburn as Christina Drayton
Katharine Houghton as Joey Drayton

9. As you view… Complete your film analysis sheet
Consider the major themes and conflicts presented.
Develop Socratic questions