The Defiant Ones

THE DEFIANT ONES is an unlikely buddy film. Sidney Poitier stars as Noah Cullen, an educated black convict in a chain gang whose “other half” is John “Joker” Johnson, a white, Southern bigot played by Tony Curtis. The two men, shackled together with chains, decide to escape when their prison truck crashes on the highway, providing them with a chance for freedom.

“THE DEFIANT ONES, only his third film as a director, was made a full decade after he had become a producer. The film’s statement of racial equality was fairly shocking for a Hollywood release at the height of the Civil Rights movement, and it must have entailed some degree of chutzpah and courage on Kramer’s part. This film was a significant milestone in Hollywood’s painfully slow efforts to transcend the legacy of D. W. Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Sidney Poitier (along with his great buddy, Harry Belafonte) had already opened up new opportunities for African American actors in films like EDGE OF THE CITY — opportunities that had been denied to great performers like Bill Robinson and Paul Robeson.” (Charles Silver)