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.
Rosewood
Drama · 1997
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
Devil's Knot
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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.
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.
The Night of the Hunter
Crime · 1955
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
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.
He Ran All the Way
Thriller · 1951
A crook on the run hides out in an innocent girl's apartment.
F.I.S.T.
Drama · 1978
Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.
In the Heat of the Night
Crime · 1967
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
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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.