The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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The Defiant Ones
Crime · Drama · Adventure · 1958
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
Movie details
The Defiant Ones
“One of the great ones!”
1958 Crime · Drama · Adventure 1h 36m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.1 / 10
Community rating
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Defiant Ones?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Instinct
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In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven by ambition and a hunger for the truth, Caulder will eventually risk everything—even put his very life on the line—in a harrowing attempt to understand the bizarre actions of this madman.
Rosewood
Drama · 1997
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
Devil's Knot
Crime · 2013
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
The Parts You Lose
Drama · 2019
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Kiss of Death
Crime · 1947
An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.
A Perfect World
Drama · 1993
A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.
Brute Force
Crime · 1947
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
White Heat
Crime · 1949
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.
The Great Escape
Adventure · 1963
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Traitor
Drama · 2008
When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer Samir Horn.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Stanley Kramer
Written by
Harold Jacob Smith · Nedrick Young
Tony Curtis
John 'Joker' Jackson
Sidney Poitier
Noah Cullen
Theodore Bikel
Sheriff Max Muller
Charles McGraw
Capt. Frank Gibbons
Lon Chaney Jr.
Big Sam
King Donovan
Solly
Claude Akins
Mack
Court is in session
Put The Defiant Ones on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.