"The Defiant Ones" gave me a whole lot more than I had expected. I always had thought this was a semi-sensational action film that exploited racism to attract notoriety. It actually is a poignant story of two men on the run who must cooperate in spite of their mutual animosity. The original screenplay by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith won the Oscar for 1958, and I am hard-pressed to think of a script more deserving of every accolade possible. Joker Jackson (Tony Curtis, a revelation) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier, fierce and fatalistic) are chained together and are in flight from a posse of local deputies led by Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel) and State Trooper Capt. Frank Gibbons (Charles McGraw). The ongoing quarrels between the two pairs of mismatched partners throughout the film paints a vivid picture of life in the rural South of the 1950s. Bikel is simply stunning in his offhand performance as the humanitarian leader of the manhunt, and McGraw is unyielding in his determination to bring in the escapees swiftly and by any means necessary. Claude Akins is intimidating in a small role as the inhabitant of a work camp the prisoners stumble across. Lon Chaney Jr. dominates the screen during this passage, as we learn that he has good reason to empathize with Joker and Cullen (as Curtis calls Poitier). The duo ultimately seek refuge at the modest farm of an unnamed and abandoned single mother and her child. This portion of the film becomes a vignette straight out of a Tennessee Williams play, and the heat radiating from Cara Williams could warm an entire Arctic outpost.
I cannot stress enough how fine the acting is by the entire cast. I have never seen Tony Curtis do such good work, and Poitier is excellent as always, with a a haunting mix of melancholy and mirth that is best displayed by his boisterous rendition of William C. Handy folk song "Long Gone" at key points in the movie. Cara Williams is riveting every second she is on screen, and Lon Chaney Jr. acts as a counterbalance to the casual prejudice of the other Caucasian characters. The various Southern accents are underplayed but lend authenticity to the dialogue, as do sundry colloquialisms they use. Stanley Kramer, a well-known social activist, directs the film without judgement, as the actions of the players speak for themselves. I cannot find a single flaw in "The Defiant Ones", and I have no choice but to give it the Highest Recommendation possible.
"I fill it up wit' dreams."
I cannot stress enough how fine the acting is by the entire cast. I have never seen Tony Curtis do such good work, and Poitier is excellent as always, with a a haunting mix of melancholy and mirth that is best displayed by his boisterous rendition of William C. Handy folk song "Long Gone" at key points in the movie. Cara Williams is riveting every second she is on screen, and Lon Chaney Jr. acts as a counterbalance to the casual prejudice of the other Caucasian characters. The various Southern accents are underplayed but lend authenticity to the dialogue, as do sundry colloquialisms they use. Stanley Kramer, a well-known social activist, directs the film without judgement, as the actions of the players speak for themselves. I cannot find a single flaw in "The Defiant Ones", and I have no choice but to give it the Highest Recommendation possible.
"I fill it up wit' dreams."