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| The Defiant Ones (1958) | |
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| Background
According to Pixar’s John Lasseter, the relationship in Toy Story (1995) between Woody and Buzz Lightyear was modeled after Joker and Cullen. Liberal director-filmmaker Stanley Kramer was well-known for directing heavy-handed, social issues dramas, including this "message movie" about racial tolerance and equality - in addition to Inherit the Wind (1960) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). Other important Kramer-directed works included: On the Beach (1959) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He also produced Champion (1949), Home of the Brave (1949), The Men (1950), the acclaimed western High Noon (1952), The Wild One (1953) (uncredited), and The Caine Mutiny (1954) (uncredited). From its nine nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director), The Defiant Ones was the recipient of only two Oscars: Best B/W Cinematography (it marked Sam Leavitt’s only win in his first of three nominations), and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen. Tony Curtis received his first (and only) Oscar nomination as Best Actor, and Sidney Poitier also received a Best Actor nomination (his first of two career nominations), although both lost to David Niven for Separate Tables. Poitier's nomination was the first time a male black actor received a nomination for a competitive Oscar. The original story by blacklisted scriptwriter Nedrick Young (credited as Nathan E. Douglas), who had refused to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee, was adapted by Harold Jacob Smith. Just six weeks before the Academy Award nominations were made, the Academy revoked its long-standing anti-Communist rule that people who testified to being Communist or who had refused to testify were not eligible for Oscars. When the film won its nomination for the Best Screenplay Oscar, director Kramer boasted: "At least we beat the blacklist." There were a number of other inferior TV movie remakes, and one blaxploitation film:
It has been noted as the last film (before his death) of Our Gang's Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer - who portrayed the annoying character of Angus, one of the civilian members of the pursuit group who was always identified as having a blaring transistor radio hanging around his neck. Plot Synopsis The film opened on a dark night of torrential rain in the South in the 1950s, as a truck was transporting chain gang prisoners. Two of the prisoners who were chained together, seated in the back, were:
When Jackson ordered the "nigger" to shut up, Cullen lashed back: "You call me nigger again, Joker, and I'm gonna kill ya!" Just then, their truck was sideswiped and crashed over a guard rail barrier. Nobody was killed, although Jackson and Cullen were able to escape from the wreckage. The next morning, a pursuit was headed up by local "humanitarian" Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel), liberal, compassionate and non-chalant but feeling pressured by the governor during an election year to quickly find the fugitives. He was accompanied by state troopers, deputized redneck civilian volunteers, and penned-up, high-strung vicious Dobermans and bloodhounds pampered by Solly (King Donovan). Muller made it clear to Lou Gans (Whit Bissell) that they were not hunting rabbits but human beings: "It's not the same thing." He was not intent on killing the two escapees who had a 12-hour lead, and was often in conflict with over-zealous, brutish police Captain Frank Gibbons (Charles McGraw) who wished to capture them either alive or dead. Allegedly, the two cons were chained together because Warden Comisky had "a sense of humor." The Warden also said "not to worry about catchin' 'em. They'll probably kill each other before they go five miles." The Warden's words were prophetic - the two Southern fugitives instantly displayed racial animosity toward each other - expressing strong disagreement, and prickly tempers. Johnny and Cullen faced tremendous difficulties during their flight, mostly from their own mutual hatred, belligerence, and bigotry toward each other. They also disagreed on whether to flee to the South to Pineville (which would be dangerous for "a colored man"), or to flee to the North, where Cullen had once worked at a turpentine mill. However, they also faced environmental challenges, including incessant rain, mud in a deep clay pit or ditch (into which they jumped to avoid detection), and swollen rushing rivers. Little by little, they were forced to overcome their racial animosity and rely on each other to survive as reluctant partners (Johnny stood on Cullen's shoulders to get out of the pit). After crossing a dangerous fast-flowing river when Cullen almost drowned and was saved by Johnny, the two exchanged more harsh words with each other:
The convicts managed to kill a frog, and as they devoured it over a fire (how did they start a fire with the drenching wet conditions, and often light cigarettes with matches?), Johnny advised Cullen to be less sensitive about racial epithets: ("You're just too sensitive, man...You gotta take things as they are. You can't keep fighting 'em"). Cullen was particularly incensed when Johnny continually called him "boy", and asserted that Johnny had been racist since birth. However, Johnny retorted that calling him the N-word was justified, and that he didn't make the 'white man's' rules:
When the two arrived at the turpentine camp, they viewed the "company store" supplied with tools and food, and broke in through the roof to steal supplies, but the sound of their crashing to the floor and knocking over a large storage unit alerted the whole area. They were captured after assaulting one of the townsmen and Mack (Claude Akins) threatened to lynch the two men, although Big Sam (Lon Chaney, Jr.) stepped in and halted the bloodthirsty injustice after shouting down the townsfolk for wanting to commit murder. He promised to lock them up and deliver them to the authorities the next morning. However, Big Sam sympathetically released the two convicts to escape in the middle of the night - after showing the scars on his wrist that he was an ex-con himself. Eventually in their flight, the convicts came across a young pre-adolescent boy named Billy (Kevin Coughlin) who was hunting. He took them back to his isolated farm home to meet his single mother - needy, lonesome ("empty inside") and love-starved (Cara Williams), and abandoned eight months earlier by her husband. As she prepared a meal for them, Billy searched for a chisel and hammer to break their chains off their wrists. She informed them that nearby, they could catch a train the next afternoon at 1 pm, when it slowed down climbing a ridge. She then cared for Jackson's infected wrist, and gave him a clean shirt the following morning - after an interlude that suggested they had sex. The opportunistic mother was infatuated with Johnny and schemed to escape her lonely life by running off with him to New Orleans and Mardi Gras, or Rio - anywhere but the South (and enroute dropping Billy off with relatives in Cumberland). Cullen realized that he had a better chance running on his own rather than with the weakened Johnny. A plan was devised - Johnny and the mother would pretend they were husband and wife and flee in her car, while Cullen was given directions to the train - using a shortcut saving a few hours of time through the swamp. After Cullen raced off, she admitted that she lied to him ("They ain't gonna catch him, 'cos he ain't never gonna get out of that swamp alive"). The swamp was a deadly route, with impenetrable bogs and quicksand. Her double-crossing idea was to prevent Cullen from being captured and possibly ruin her intentions with Johnny to get away with her in the big city ("We could go dancin', and eat in restaurants, and go to shows. You could start a whole new life"). Furious at being deceived and betraying Cullen, Johnny yelled back at her: "You don't even know me!...You don't even know my name." She pleaded with him to reconsider, and help her escape her worthless life: "From the mud gumbo, and the loneliness...Oh, Johnny, I'm beggin' ya! Oh, please take me with ya! Don't leave me here, Johnny, please..." As Johnny fled out the door to chase after Cullen, Billy shot him in the shoulder. When Johnny caught up to Cullen, he revealed: "That woman told you wrong." He explained her rationale for lying - she feared that if Cullen was caught, he would squeal. The authorities arrived and questioned the woman, asking if the fugitives had taken anything. Uncooperative, she replied knowingly (implying that she had sex with Johnny): "Nothin' you could put 'em in jail for." The final sequence was the most memorable. The two men pursued an approaching freight train to escape to freedom. Cullen was able to get onto one of the moving cars, and locked hands with his white companion (a memorable image of black and white hands and arms locked together), but he could not pull the wounded Johnny up onto the moving train, as Johnny yelled out: "I can't make it! I can't make it!" So he sacrificed his own freedom and fell back off the train onto the ground. Both were exhausted. In their final few moments of freedom, they shared a cigarette, reflected back ("We gave 'em a helluva run for it, didn't we?"), and Johnny admitted: "Charlie Potatoes. I'm mashed potatoes now." Cullen defiantly sang the blues classic "Long Gone" as the sounds of bloodhounds on their trail closing in on them were heard in the distance. By himself, Sheriff Muller came up to the two men, finding Johnny resting in his buddy Cullen's arms. |
The
Defiant Ones (1958) is a swift and exciting dramatic action-crime
film, known for its symbolic and memorable image of two escaped
convicts (Joker and Cullen), one white and one black. The two were
tied together by 29 inch long shackles, and faced a hostile posse
of townspeople and authorities, a lynching mob, barking bloodhounds,
and a swamp. As they struggled together, they slowly began to accept
each other. The tagline described their plight: