The Defiant Ones (1958) - film review

A party of convicts in a chain-gang are being transported under armed guard when their van falls over the edge of a ravine.  Two of the convicts, a white man named Jackson and a black man named Cullen, are uninjured in the accident and go on the run, chained together.  The men’s first priority is to find tools to remove their handcuffs, but when they attempt to break into a general store in a small town, they are captured and nearly lynched.  One of the townsfolk helps them to escape and they continue their flight across open country.  They then run into a young boy who takes them back to the small farmstead where he lives with his mother.  The latter takes an instant liking to Jackson and plans to head south with him, hoping to start a new life.  The woman tricks Cullen into crossing a swamp in order to get to the railway, knowing full well that he will drown in the attempt.  Realising that his friend is in danger, Jackson hurries to his aid....

The Defiant Ones was one of the most effective racially themed dramas to come out of America in the late ’50s, early ’60s, a time when the race issue had risen to the top of the socio-political agenda in the United States thanks to the work of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.   The film may appear naively optimistic and a tad contrived by today’s standards, but when it was released it was generally well-received, winning Oscars for its screenplay and cinematography.

This is the film that secured Sidney Poitier’s standing as Hollywood’s leading African-American actor, making him an overnight star.  The humanity and realism that Poitier brings to his performance in this and his subsequent films contributed significantly to the cause for racial equality, and not only in the United States.  Here, he is effectively partnered with Tony Curtis, who is just as impressive in his portrayal of a hardened racist thug who is compelled to overcome his racial prejudices in order to survive.  Many regard this as Curtis’s finest hour; it is certainly his best dramatic role.

The Defiant Ones was directed by Stanley Kramer, a leading independent filmmaker who tackled a wide range of important social issues in the films he produced and directed around this time.  He would return to the race theme in a later film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), which again featured Sidney Poitier championing the cause for racial tolerance, albeit from a lighter perspective.  Whilst this later film is better known and more accessible for a mainstream audience, The Defiant Ones is without doubt its superior, despite the all to obvious symbolism and clunky narrative.  The authentic performances from Poitier and Curtis bring a sobering reality to what was, at the time of the film’s release, an unpalatable truth: a person’s worth is not revealed by his skin colour but by what he does and how he treats his fellow man.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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