There is no movie I can think of more ahead of its time than this one. It tackles America’s favorite political hot button (racism) by following the story of an interracial couple breaking the news of their controversial engagement to their parents. It’s also notably the movie Spencer Tracy made immediately before he died, which adds a poignant gravity to his speech about undying love to Katharine Hepburn in the last scene.

Despite the presence of these two enormous stars, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” manages to keep the focus on the task at hand, which, in this case, is shocking the socks off of conservative America. I audibly gasped twice at how unabashedly radical this movie is, even 40 years after its release. There are those among my grandparents who certainly did not approve of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” despite Sidney Poitier’s dreamy dreamy face. There are bigger political fish to fry than good looks.

What makes this movie so groundbreaking is that it confronts the issue of racial tension and prejudice head-on, using the most straightforward language possible. The entire movie is built around this young couple, who fell in love and became engaged after a number of days, coming home and trying to think of the easiest way to break the news to their parents. They know it’s going to be a huge deal, and it is.

Neither set of parents approves, and their anger reaches its boiling point when they all converge upon Kate and Spencer’s enormous white-person pad, and sit down to dinner. Served by a black maid, by the way. She’s responsible for one of my audible gasps, in an earlier scene involving the ‘n’ word.

Here is a film that does what “Crash” set out to do, except 40 years earlier and in my opinion more effectively. It should be required viewing.