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Jun 24, 2023 · Directed by Stanley Kramer and released in 1958, this powerful drama tells the story of two escaped convicts, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, who are shackled together and must overcome their differences to survive and find freedom.
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
- Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
The Defiant Ones, American dramatic film, released in 1958, that was considered provocative at the time because of its focus on racism and its call for racial harmony.
In the racially segregated South, convicts John (“Joker”) Jackson (played by Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) are chained together. After their prison truck crashes, the two men escape. As they desperately try to elude the police, they are forced to overcome their racial prejudices.
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Classic Closing Lines
•Studio: United Artists
•Director and producer: Stanley Kramer
•Writers: Harold Jacob Smith and Nedrick Young (as Nathan E. Douglas)
•Running time: 96 minutes
•Sidney Poitier (Noah Cullen)
•Tony Curtis (John [“Joker”] Jackson)
•Theodore Bikel (Sheriff Max Muller)
•Charles McGraw (Capt. Frank Gibbons)
•Lon Chaney, Jr. (Big Sam)
•Kevin Coughlin (Billy)
•Picture
•Director
•Cinematography* (black and white)
•Screenplay*
•Editing
•Lead actor (Sidney Poitier)
- Lee Pfeiffer
The Defiant Ones is a 1958 American drama film which tells the story of two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive. It stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. The film was adapted by Harold Jacob Smith from the story by Nedrick Young, originally credited as Nathan E. Douglas.
The American dramatic film The Defiant Ones (1958) was considered provocative at the time because of its focus on racism and its call for racial harmony. The movie was nominated for nine Academy Awards; it won in the cinematography and screenplay categories.
The Defiant Ones is a 1958 American film that explores themes of race, friendship, and societal prejudice through the story of two escaped convicts—one black and one white—who are shackled together and must cooperate to survive.
A prison truck is transporting a group of convicts when it runs off the road and crashes. Two convicts escape: Joker (Tony Curtis), a white man, and Cullen (Sidney Poitier), a Black man. They loathe each other, especially as Joker is an ignorant racist.
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Jul 29, 2006 · In Stanley Kramer’s best film, “The Defiant One,” two escaped convicts, one white (Tony Curtis), the other black (Sidney Poitier), make an odyssey toward freedom in the Deep South. It’s a journey that’s both physical (literally) and figurative (symbolically).
