have to agree with review by bgh48, this is one total fantasy Cinderella is more believable. this young woman sits in the park alone all day and nothing at all ever happens to her? she doesn't know about the public restroom, so how does she survive? she does..both bodily functions behind a tree? in public? how does she clean up? Her new friend brings her pineapple juice and she guzzles it down? how does she survive all day with nothing to drink? how is it that no law enforcement officer has ever noticed this pathetic creature sitting alone all day? since when do blind people get around by simply waving their hands in front of them? how about getting her a cane or a seeing eye dog? I could go on endlessly...this is an insane fairy tale. It made my cry too...to see something this ridiculous.

This movie is a lifelong favorite.I recently bought the DVD and I was intrigued to learn from the director's commentary that the book, "Be Ready with Bells and Drums" by the Australian author Elizabeth Kata, on which "A Patch Of Blue" is based, is written in first person.The reader doesn't find out that Gordon is African American, until Salina does.That is fascinating!This review has to be ten lines long, but I really don't have much more to say, except everyone should watch this movie.

This movie is one of my all-time favorites. I first saw it back in the 1960s and have been haunted by it ever since. Just amazingly beautiful story, well acted and directed. Sidney Portier is such an amazing man and actor and this is his best film in my opinion, followed closely by To Sir With Love and Lillies of the Field.Shelley Winters portrayal of the hussy mother deserved an Oscar. She was really mean in this movie. Old Pa was perfectly cast. Elizabeth Hartman simply gave the performance of a lifetime in her role as Selina.The bittersweet story will grip you from beginning to end. They just don't make 'em like this anymore.

This film is sad and effective,touching and indelible. Elizabeth Hartman is very sympathetic in this role as a blind teenager, growing up in a borderline white-trash home, with an alcoholic grandfather,and promiscuous down-at-heel mother,capably portrayed by Shelley Winters.Sidney Poitier delivers another effective performance here,as a sympathetic friend to Selena (Hartman) who tries to help better her life,even as his brother,a med student tells him to forget it, Selena is a hopeless case from "a human trash heap".The performances are touching and understated as one feels what it may be like to live as a disabled blind woman. Hartman is trampled and pushed to the ground simply because street people have no time to help her. The world is a cold place, but Poitier offers his friendship and compassion as a small patch of blue in Selena's otherwise dark world. Highly recommended.9/10.