The Last Brickmaker in America

I don't know why my original comment on this film never showed up. So here is my much abbreviated version that I can remember. Even though Sidney Poitier plays the "title" role as the Last Bricklayer, he is really incidental to the story. It is about a young boy who is caught up between his busy mother and demanding father who are separated. In trouble again at school, he is digging a ditch when Poitier comments on the clay, how it wants to be a brick. Intrigued, the boy visits Poitier who has the contract for the bricks to build the new library addition in honor of his deceased wife.

Boy actually moves in with the brickmaker, helps him. A storm washes out the first batch of drying bricks, so they get behind. Son asks mom to help, she says she doesn't have time. Son is disappointed, not so much because Poitier may not meet his contract, but because mom refused a favor her son asks. Eventually she helps, dad helps, gets fired for it, bricks are delivered on time, son, mom, and dad begin a new understanding of what is important, and perhaps a family reconciliation. Good story, well-done, and Poitier is his usual superb self.