HotToastyRag
There's a good chance you've seen a clip of The Defiant Ones interspersed into a montage of famous films. If you've seen Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis chained together and running from bloodhounds, an angry mob, or alongside a train, those famous images are from Stanley Kramer's Oscar-winning drama.The plot is simple but intense. After a truck carrying a load of prisoners crashes and most of the passengers are killed, it's discovered that two have escaped: Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. They have a deep and bitter hatred of each other, but because they're shackled together at the wrist, they're forced to depend on and trust one another in order to survive.Both Sidney and Tony gave excellent, career-defining performances, and they were both nominated for Best Actor at the 1959 Oscars. Unfortunately, they were both beaten out by David Niven, whose role in the ensemble Separate Tables should have been included in the Best Supporting Actor category instead. The Defiant Ones was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Editing, Supporting Actor for Theodore Bikel, and Supporting Actress for Cara Williams. It won for Cinematography and Original Screenplay, but when you watch the film, you'll be appalled that the two leads didn't bring home matching statues.If you haven't seen this classic, rent it this weekend and get ready for an extremely thrilling screening. It's difficult to make the entire running time of a film suspenseful, but this film is filled with emotional and physical conflict and keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
MarieGabrielle
John "Joker" Jackson (Tony Curtis), and Noah Cullen (excellent portrayal by Sidney Poitier), have escaped from prison and are shackled together. The story, well directed by message film director Stanley Kramer (see also the excellent "Ship of Fools", as well as his masterpiece "On The Beach" with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner).At any rate, the film has some good scenes, they are in the brush and swamps of Georgia, trying to escape a pack of bloodhounds, and the Sheriff well portrayed by Theodore Bikel The fact that the way Poitier is treated , simply because he is black, is a time warp as when a woman offers the refugees food, but first asks Curtis if she "should give the other guy some as well". Tony Curtis is good in the role of a desperate malcontent, his accent a bit too NY but his acting usually overcomes this. He is angry at society, that he wants to be a "success". The dated phrase "Charlie Potatoes", humorously shows us the society of 1950's America and its values of what success means. Money, at any cost.The sheriff;s bounty hunter assistant has several bloodhounds and Dobermans "I hope you treat them dogs as go as your grandma" cracks Bikel. The dogs and how they are cared for (better than minorities and the poor) is a point of reference.Bikel as sheriff has a run in with Lon Chaney Jr., a man who lets the prisoners free from a town lynch mob. The seething anger and hypocrisies of small town America are well manifested here. Racism, ignorance, bigotry.This film was made in 1958, an important message. 10/0
ElMaruecan82
"The Defiant Ones" was retitled in French, "The Chain", as if the real issue was the relationship between John "Joker" Jackson and Noah Cullen, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two fugitives from a chain gang, a white and a black man shackled together and forced to cooperate and trust each other in order to survive. The chain would become such a symbol that during Sidney Poitier's AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, Curtis asked him to lift his left hand, he did the same, and suddenly, we could almost see the chain magically reappears as the symbol of this brotherly bond that transcends the color of the skin. But I guess "The Defiant Ones" resonates as a more complex and thought-provoking title, because it doesn't rely on the obvious, but rather on the two character's resentful attitudes, that visually fits the beautiful black and white cinematography. Both have accumulated anger and frustration all their lives, Jackson is tired of being an average nobody saying "thanks" to the big shots to get more money, while Cullen as a black man from the South, is tired of "being nice" and being called "boy" and swallowing his pride in moments where a nice punch on the face is tickling his hand. As prisoners, both incarnate the same consequence to two different kinds of exclusions: by class and by races Yet their escape is not meant to inspire our sympathy or to portray them as two unfortunate individuals victims of circumstances. "The Defiant Ones" is a powerful social commentary about the way America is viewed from the very bottom and how the vision encourages criminal vocations by perverting what could be a stimulating legitimate desire for revenge. But the movie avoids the kind of patronizing preaches à la 'Atticus Finch', the script is surprisingly modern in its tone, reminding of the New Hollywood independent wave of the 70's. Take the sheriff, played by Theodore Bikel, he's not your typical racist bigot, but a professional man assigned to get the prisoners, and no one in his team is portrayed as a cold-blooded killer either.The only bit of fantasy is the idea of a chain between a black and white man: "the warden had a sense of humor", they say, maybe he thought that in a case of an escape, the toughest prisoners would end up killing each other anyway. Even if the explanation doesn't convince some purists, seriously, I'm glad the writers didn't abandon such a great premise for the sake of realism; the film is still a drama but not a documentary. Yet, there is something sincere and truthful in Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier's performances. Curtis makes it hard to believe that he'd be Daphne in "Some Like it Hot", and Poitier exudes a tough coolness that contrasts with the elegant and soft-spoken roles of the 60's, and I could never resist to his "bowling green, sewing machine", the blues song that helps him to keep a good spirit in hopeless situations.Whether by singing, grunting, or fighting, the defiant attitude has its limits, because the success of the escape only depend on cooperation. Yet the film trusts its material enough not to jump into inspirational conclusions quickly. When they cross the river, Cullen thanks Jackson for having pulled him out of the water, Jackson rectifies: he prevented himself to drown. Their solidarity is only built on survival instinct, like when they successfully get out of a pool of mud. They're confronted to a new situation when they break into a small town's grocery store, to get food and tools and risk a lynching. Curtis tries to reason the men, but when it gets desperate, he invokes his whiteness (the look Poitier gives him at that moment is a killer). Cullen knows it's over and doesn't hesitate to spit on the guy who teases him, even if it got him a slap in the face.The mob's depiction is compensated by the intervention of 'Big' Sam, Lon Chaney Jr. as a former chain prisoner who frees them in the morning. The journey goes on, when after an ultimate fight, they end up in the house of a single mother living with her son. The two prisoners finally get rid of the chain and the morning after, they finally take different directions. Before taking the car with his new woman, Jackson learns that she gave Cullen wrong indications using him as a bait. Jackson leaves her in a state of rage that earns him a bullet in the process. Only Jackson and Cullen could see how similar they were, how brothers they became in the same fight. And it's out of respect, earned the hard way, that Jackson goes to Cullen.The two men reunite in the swamp, and hearing the train whistles and the dog coming after them, they run for the most emblematic moment of the film. Cullen hops in the freight train but is incapable to drag Jackson aboard. In recognition of Jackson's previous gesture, Cullen sacrifices his only chance of freedom by jumping and both tumble to the ground as if they still had a chain. They're exhausted physically, but their spirit is as high as it never was, they can only wait for the police to come after them. When the sheriff finds them, Cullen sings his song, while Jackson in his arms, about to pass out, smiles at him. The chase is over, but it's not an unhappy ending, the three men are smiling, and Poitier concludes: "bowling green, sewing machine"It's only by defying their own selfishness and racial boundaries, that the defiant ones gained in humanity at the price of freedom. And when Poitier raises his hand, asking Curtis to join him as if they were still shackled, they've never been as shackled as when they didn't have the chain, and maybe that's the key of tolerance, to act as if we were all chained to each other.
