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The Defiant Ones Details

1958 Certificate U
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 796 members

Two escaped convicts -- one black (Poitier), one white (Curtis), and both shackled in the same pair of handcuffs -- battle the elements and each other as they travel Southern back roads eluding the ever-approaching posse. Though the device of binding two racial antagonists together for survival may be rather obvious, the .. Read more

Starring Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Charles McGraw, Theodore Bikel
Director Stanley Kramer
Genres Drama

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The Defiant Ones

Two escaped convicts -- one black (Poitier), one white (Curtis), and both shackled in the same pair of handcuffs -- battle the elements and each other as they travel Southern back roads eluding the ever-approaching posse. Though the device of binding two racial antagonists together for survival may be rather obvious, the performances make the result compelling. Watch for Chaney, Jr. along the way.

Starring Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Charles McGraw, Theodore Bikel, Claude Akins, Cara Williams, Lon Chaney, King Donovan, Kevin Coughlin, Lon Chaney Jr., Whit Bissell, Lawrence Dobkin, Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer
Director Stanley Kramer
Studio MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 36 mins
Certificate Certificate U
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Dubbed French, German, Spanish
Hearing-impaired English, German
Subtitles DVD: Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish
Released DVD: 15 Apr 2002
Production year: 1958
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (3) of The Defiant Ones

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    A solid remake of Stanley Kramer's 1958 racial drama, with Robert Urich and Carl Weathers in the roles originally created by Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. As a story about black and white, the plot offers few grey areas, dealing with two escaped criminals shackled to each other and to each other's prejudices. In 1958, Kramer's picture anticipated the civil rights movement, yet it hectored its audience constantly; the remake lacks the original's power, but is still gripping. The screenplay is by James Lee Barrett, who once wrote the ultra-right wing The Green Berets for John Wayne.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • Typical piece of liberal pleading from Kramer in which two escaped cons (Curtis and Poitier) go on the run manacled... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of The Defiant Ones

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  • 5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    The Defiant Ones

    Gripping drama of racial tensions as two convicts, one black, one white escape from the authorities chained together. A real winner with superb performances from Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.

      • A customer from UK
      • Posted 04 Sep 2004 10:02

  • Most recent members' review of The Defiant Ones

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    Underrated classic

    This was a very good film for its time, concentrating as it did on the racial tension between two prisoners chained together on the run. Tony Curtis gives a superb performance as the white prisoner with Sidney Poitier as his black colleague in their vain attempt to escape. The copy of the film was updated in 2002 and looked extremely fresh. Some of the dialogue was maybe a little too theatrical, and the plot inconsistent at times (how come they always managed to produce a dry cigarette after all their travails in rivers and swamps?) but for all this it was an exciting and well directed film by Stanley Kramer.

      • Cato
      • Posted 01 Sep 2006 11:52

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Rating breakdown

796 Member ratings
  • 100
73
  • 90
61
  • 80
130
  • 70
135
  • 60
157
  • 50
86
  • 40
46
  • 30
39
  • 20
45
  • 10
24

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      • Two escaped convicts -- one black (Poitier), one white (Curtis), and both shackled in the same pair of handcuffs -- battle the elements and each other as they travel Southern back roads eluding the ...