Tags
Language
Tags
March 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
25 26 27 28 29 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

The Defiant Ones (1958)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | Cover | 01:32:15 | 3,89 Gb
Audio: #1 English, #2 German, #3 French, #4 Spanish, #5 Italian - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each)
Subtitles: English SDH, German SDH, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
Genre: Crime, Drama, Classics

Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel

Convicts Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier escape from a chain gang. Curtis' character, John "Joker" Jackson, hates blacks, while Poitier's character, Noah Cullen, hates whites. However, the men are manacled together, forced to rely on each other to survive. Captured at one point by a lynch-happy mob, the convicts are rescued by Big Sam (Lon Chaney Jr.), himself a former convict. The men are later sheltered by a lonely, love-hungry widow played by Cara Williams, who offers to turn in Cullen if Joker will stay with her. By the time the two men are within hailing distance of a train that might take them to freedom, they have become friends. The script for The Defiant Ones is credited to Harold Jacob Smith and Nathan E. Douglas. The latter was really Nedrick Young, a blacklisted writer, whom producer Stanley Kramer hired knowing full well that Young was using an alias (when "Douglas"' credit appears onscreen, it is superimposed over a close-up of a truck driver – played by Nedrick Young). Both the script and the photography by Sam Leavitt won Academy Awards. If you look closely, you'll notice that the actor playing Angus is former Little Rascal Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, making his last screen appearance. The Defiant Ones was remade for TV in 1986, with Robert Urich and Carl Weathers in the leads.

IMDB - Won 2 Oscars | Wikipedia | Rotten Tomatoes | TCM


The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

This Academy Award nominated film was an early race relations look at two prisoners, one White - one Black, who escape, yet are chained to each other. Both Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier received Best Actor Oscar nominations. Theodore Bikel, who plays the lawman leading the pursuit, and Cara Williams, who plays a woman they meet along the way that helps them, picked up their only nominations (in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories) as well. Producer Stanley Kramer also received a Best Director nomination. The film won Oscars for its B&W Cinematography (Sam Leavitt's only win on his first of three nominations) and its Harold Jacob Smith-Nedrick Young original screenplay. Lon Chaney Jr., Whit Bissell and Claude Akins are among those who also appear. Watch for a cameo by a grown-up Carl Switzer ('Alfalfa' from The Little Rascals), the young man with the radio. #55 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.
The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are handcuffed together as white and Black escaped convicts in the South in this classic liberal adventure from Stanley Kramer. Their plight is an all-too-obvious metaphor for American race relations. Though the political lesson drives the movie, the action is also effective as the odd couple flees from their oppressors. This is an engrossing depiction of racial tensions and an oppressive penal system. Both Poitier and Curtis give memorable performances. Curtis's portrayal of a bigoted uneducated Southern "cracker" is probably the best performance and role of his career. This was the film that established Poitier as a star.
The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Released in 1958, The Defiant Ones is important in cinema history as one of the films that helped break down racial tensions that were starting to escalate. Starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier (arguably the most important black actor of the last century), the film won two Oscars and still regarded as a seminal and influential piece of work, and even caused remakes and rehashes such as Fled.

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Two convicts escape after their prison transport derails on route to jail. Chained together by the wrists, the two men are at different ends of the racial spectrum. 'Joker' Jackson (played unusually straight by Tony Curtis, who would later camp it up in such memorable classics as Some Like It Hot and Paris When It Sizzles) is a white man charged with stealing who has aspirations of leading a more charmed life. Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) is a black man charged with assault and battery, who longs to return to his family and escape the tyranny of his white masters. Pursued by the honest and yet determined Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel), who himself is under pressure by Captain Frank Gibbons (Charles McGraw), the two men are initially at odds with each other over their skin colour. Soon however, the pair quickly learn to accept that friendship and teamwork are the only qualities that matter, and have to overcome their prejudices in order to survive on the run.

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Directed by Stanley Kramer, a man who earned himself a respectable career with such efforts as Judgement At Nuremberg, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Defiant Ones is utterly simplistic in its dealings with racism and yet coolly hits its targets. The film throws in a basic concept of having a black and white convict chained together in order to suit its Huckleberry Finn-esque racial study, and thankfully both of the men seem equal apart from colour. On occasions, the film is too bogged down with the machinations of the actual police hunt, and would have been better had it steered clear of the manhunt on concentrated solely on Jackson and Cullen's gradual friendship. Having said that, Theodore Bikel is very good as the likeable Sheriff Muller, determined to maintain the escaped cons human dignity even if his Captain Gibbons won't allow it. Curtis and Poitier effectively cancel each other out in terms of acting praise, as they both give as good as they get from each other, and were rightly both nominated for Best Actor at that year's Academy Awards ceremony. Curtis is snarling and minimalist as Jackson, whilst Poitier flaunts an outgoing and cynical persona in Cullen, and the contrast between the two is expertly heightened by the director Kramer.

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Visually, The Defiant Ones is very impressive in the form of Sam Leavitt's stunning Oscar winning black-and-white cinematography. Leavitt incorporates a gritty, dirt-filled grey colour that combats effectively with some stunning natural Californian locales. Indeed, the director Kramer uses the locations as some sort of odyssey stage, in which the two escaped convicts must travel along in order to reach racial enlightenment.

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Although the screenplay received an Oscar (probably more because of its theme and not its structural storyline), the film in hindsight doesn't actually achieve as much as it thinks it does in terms of depicting racial equality. Although Jackson and Cullen despise each other's skin colour and the connotations that are associated with it at the beginning, and learn to care and respect one another as the film develops, one has to ask the question of whether any deep routed prejudices have actually been freed from their minds. Yes, the two have overcome racial dislike amongst themselves, but have Cullen and Jackson's minds actually been changed totally with regards to their views on the opposite race on the whole? This is the film's main problem, in that it so rigidly ties the issue of race with Jackson and Cullen that it prevents itself from dealing with the issue on any sort of wider context.

The Defiant Ones (1958) [Re-UP]

Despite these misgivings, The Defiant Ones tries desperately to tackle the problematic issue of racial hatred in America, and deserves high credit for its efforts. The film is an enjoyable escape movie and a very passable racial one, and features two famous lead roles and excellent cinematography. It could have achieved much, much more in terms of generating racial awareness, but it still is a winning film that practices the right principles.
Special Features: Trailer

Many Thanks to Original uploader.