The Defiant Ones (1958)'s comments

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caley

A lot better than I was expecting (for some reason). It's gritty, it's exciting and it's really well-acted. Poitier, in particular, blew me away here.

12 years 9 months ago

pallmallandcoke

amazing movie with brilliant performances especially Poitier.

12 years ago

The Defiant Ones are Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier (in his first above-the-title credit), playing escaped criminals chained together, on the run from the authorities in rural Southern U.S. As a straight-up fugitive movie, while I've since seen the "chained together" trope, I don't remember seeing it so well realized. The actors do a fair bit of their stunts, and the journey looks really difficult and dangerous in their situation. Things are further complicated by racism, Curtis and Poitier bristling with anger and resentment at being stuck to the other. If you want to see a metaphor for America in this, you certainly can. Curtis is a bootstraps kind of guy - white conservative America - who hates being saddled with a black man who "doesn't know his place" - the civil rights movement that, in 1958, was on the rise. The film dips in the third act with the introduction of a woman entirely too keen to get with Curtis - her motivations are murky and her character detestable - but it's not much of a dip. And you can count on cutaways to the police force for light comic relief and relieve the tension (comic, but never incompetent, just real, and that's a subtle high wire act).

5 years 1 month ago

muzzlehatch

I assume ClassicLady finds Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation to be more accurate and enjoyable portrayals of the black experience than this film.

1 year 8 months ago

gama_jr

Noir?

7 years 1 month ago

Dieguito

Great movie for the period.

11 years 10 months ago

nicolaskrizan

A good one, »Magical Negro« aside

http://1001movies.posterous.com/1062

11 years 3 months ago

ClassicLady

I have had my full of movies with Sidney Poitier claiming how he wants to be treated like a man and not a black man. I know it was needed at the time the movies were made but now it just seems like so much nagging preaching. Yes, Poitier is a great actor. Yes, he is a great gentleman. But I just can't watch his movies anymore. By the way, Tony Curtis was in this movie, too. He's a white guy who just happened to be a great actor, too.

10 years 9 months ago