Sammy Davis, Jr: I’ve Gotta Be Me is an eloquent examination of his life and his show-business career of 60 years. Nicknamed “The World’s Greatest Entertainer,” Sammy Davis, Jr. did it all. He was a singer, dancer, actor, comedian, musician and impersonator. Yet in spite of his wonderful talent, his life was complex and complicated. Director Sam Pollard and writer Laurence Maslon create this wonderful documentary about a truly amazing entertainer who grew up in America’s Jim Crow era; specifically, in the fifties and sixties when people of color were discriminated against, making Sammy’s success extremely difficult and rare. Pollard ultimately concludes that Sammy Davis Jr. was a trailblazer: the first black American to sleep in the White House, the first to do impressions of white celebrities, the first to kiss a white co-star on the Broadway stage (Paula Wayne in Golden Boy)—and the first to kiss Archie Bunker’s cheek on an episode of his favorite TV show, All in the Family. To some, his friendship with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) made him look like a black man seeking white approval. Consequently, some black audiences shunned him; and he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America. To a TV host, Sammy described the horrors of the time he was drafted into the first ever integrated U. S. Army unit where he was constantly humiliated by the white G.I.s. and where he endured PTSD, not from war but from racism. Clearly, this is an extraordinary documentary that chronicles an entire turbulent era, and a memory lane excursion through the complex and complicated life of an extremely gifted entertainer. Sammy Davis Jr.,: I’ve Gotta Be Me “consistently describes an ambitious talent always reaching for the top, but also a man plagued by insecurity, who remained sadly unsure of his own value,” says Deborah Young of Hollywood Reporter. 1:40. Not rated.