If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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

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.

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

The time of extreme racism has long gone, but this chained-together white and black convicts' escaping adventure simply hasn't waned much for its in-your-face impact of genuine thrill and sympathy, director Stanley Kramer's (from SHIP OF FOOLS 1965, 6/10) third feature, gathering Curtis and Poitier as the "impossible pair", the film would successfully pave the way for Poitier and Kramer's prospective Oscar-winner echelon and afford Curtis a splendid career-turn with his only Oscar nomination. One could easily be aware of the shooting condition since clearly Curtis and Poitier have taken their toll in their harsh fugitive surroundings, wrestling with the precipitate torrent, the mud pit under the pouring rain, a perilous marsh and finally a running train. But those are only default set pieces to sustain the film in its narrating procedures, a sharp and sound script does remind me how slowly the civilisation progress we have achieved since only 50 years ago, the world could be utterly colour-sensitive. Curtis and Poitier's two handers are meticulously orchestrated, but among the supporting group, Cara Williams and Theodore Bikel also obtained two Oscar nominations. The former partook in the latter half and induced the most poignant confrontation for Curtis' character, choosing between freedom (even love) and the brotherhood with a black prisoner (mercifully, the finale reciprocates with the same dilemma for Poitier). Meanwhile, Williams exhibits a dooming desperation out of the unsatisfied woman without being sidelined as a cipher in the plot. Bikel, is the Sheriff with a kind heart, whose gritty and congenial persona has re- established the integrity of the police force. Last but not the least, Poitier's a cappella rendition of W.C. Handy's "Long Gone (From Bowlin' Green)" has been repeated three times in the film, the beginning, the middle section (where they are caught by the village people) and the ending, precisely elevating the film's brio and set a great example of how a theme song could generate such an ineffable passion and evocation into a film's texture. ps: the film got two Oscars among its 9 nominations, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY BLACK & WHITE and BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY.