Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Given this was a Stanley Kramer film, I expected a much heavier handed social message movie. Instead, "The Defiant Ones" is spare and lean, and it eschews righteous speeches about the evils of bigotry for commentary that is more potent because it is allowed to emerge organically from the situations and the way the characters respond to them. I'm thinking of how ahead of its time this film was when it was released in 1958. Almost 10 years later "In the Heat of the Night" would galvanize audiences with the image of Sidney Poitier slapping a white man; in this film, not only does a black man punch and spit on white men, but a white and black man share a cigarette and snuggle for warmth. This film was mentioned in the James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," and Baldwin held it to task for what he believed was its cop-out ending that only existed in order to make whites feel better about the racial divide. I get where Baldwin is coming from, but I would challenge him on his point. Like it or not, "The Defiant Ones" wasn't made for a black audience. It was made for a white audience, a vast majority of whom came into the movie with preconceived notions about black people based on limited experience. Would Baldwin have rather the movie reinforced stereotypes about blacks or offered its white audiences an alternative to challenge their perspective? Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis give terrific performances, as do Theodore Bikel, as the humanistic sheriff tracking them down, and Cara Williams, as a single woman who gives the men shelter and emerges as perhaps the most vile representative of a kind of white racism rampant then and still rampant now. All four were nominated for Oscars, and the film also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Stanley Kramer), Best Original Story and Screenplay (which it won), Best B&W Cinematography (which it also won), and Best Film Editing. That this film lost Best Picture in the same year that "Gigi" won should tell you all you need to know about white indifference to racial turmoil.Grade: A

Chained together, two prison escapees (one Caucasian; the other African-American) have to learn to overcome racial prejudice to successfully flee together in this emotionally charged drama from Stanley Kramer. The film was considered quite important in its day for its advocating of racial tolerance - winning an Academy Award for its screenplay and the Golden Globe for Best Picture no less - however, it is questionable how much impact the film would have on contemporary viewers today. Certainly, the acting is great, with both leads in fine form and allowed the opportunity to soliloquise their thoughts and dreams. The stark black and white photography (which won the film a second Oscar) is excellent too with several remarkable nighttime shots. There is a particularly great bit in which the two leads are tied up on opposite ends of a pole and the camera creeps back and forth between them. As a narrative though, the film is shaky at best. The constant cutting between the prisoners on the run and the policemen tracking them down adds little to the film and often provides an unwelcome break in the tension mounting between the prisoners. The characters' trajectories from intolerance to acceptance are also obvious from the get-go and the film is never particularly subtle with its messages. The symbolism of the pair being chained together is especially too obvious to be effective. All the events in the film do, however, spiral towards an admittedly potent final few minutes in which we truly see how much the characters have transformed for their experiences.

This is a perfect film. Deep with poetic subtlety. It won best screenplay and best cinematography at the 1958 Oscars. The story is effortlessly vital. Sidney Poitier's performance is incredible. There are no words to describe it. He expresses himself meaningfully through small gestures. I also like this side of Tony Curtis. He keeps an echo of his trademark charm while showing the ruggedness and skepticism of a convict. There's even a small vignette which relates the life of a 50s housewife to that of a prisoner. The cinematography is exceptional. The shots blend noir and American naturalism. Look out for the close up of Sydney and Tony's hands in the last scene. I must have rewound and watched it four times... Possibly the greatest ending to an American film. Highly recommended.

"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.