Grade: A
Synopsis: Two convicts (Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier) who hate each other escape shackled together.
The Defiant Ones is an extremely well crafted look at racism in America that works just as well today as it did when it was released fifty years ago.
Director Stanley Kramer and screenwriter Harold Jacob Smith do a fantastic job of avoiding the heavy-handed techniques that tend to plague most films on the subject, but instead allow the audience to mimic the character’s journey of self-discovery. As the film unwinds you, and the characters, realize that racism is a manifestation of a hatred that has less to do with skin color and more to do with privilege and power. It’s a subtle point that’s never spelled out, but one that resonates nonetheless.
Kramer can afford to be subtle because his two leads, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, deliver such nuanced and commanding performances. Both maintain a shimmering frustration and anger in their eyes, along with a hint of mania, like a caged animal ready to strike. They’re men who’ve spent their lives being slowly dehumanized, only to face a prison system that just about finishes the job. The fact that both men were nominated for Best Actor (which split the vote) is probably the only thing that kept them from the Oscar.
Finally, there’s the length. At only 97 minutes, The Defiant Ones is only as long as it needs to be. Kramer could have easily padded it out to over two hours, but he tells his story efficiently, which allows the film to stand to repeat viewings with ease. Yet another lesson films like Crash (2004) could learn from this superior, and timeless, classic.
