Taylor Levant
FMS 508
Defying the Odds:
The Defiant Ones and Interracial Buddy Films
Audiences have long been fascinated with interracial buddy films. From comedy to sci-fi, moviegoers love the opposites attract chemistry that these on screen homosocial relationships spark, as well as the stories they tell about men and the times in which they live. Though interracial films are commonplace today, the genre didn’t even exist until The Defiant Ones was released in 1958. Directed by Stanley Kramer, The Defiant Ones depicts the story of a black convict (Sidney Poitier) on the run after escaping a failed prison transport. However, Cullen is not alone; in fact, he is chained to fellow inmate John “Joker” Jackson (Tony Curtis), a bigoted …show more content…
Throughout their journey together, Joker is hurt and sick which complicates his power over Cullen. Instead, Cullen is seen as the leader both physically and intellectually (Hamilton and Saxby 84). When Cullen smears mud on Joker’s face so he is less visible in the night sky, Joker suddenly becomes the same as Cullen. Joker’s black face rejects the Vaudeville stereotypes of the black buffoon and instead shows the audience that sometimes being white comes with disadvantages. As the scene progresses, the two men try to break into a building through a roof. When Cullen loses his grip and hangs from the rafters, the imagery is reminiscent of a man being lynched. The men’s’ chain looks like a rope and as Joker dangles, legs flailing, he even makes noises that sound like he’s gasping for air. These two scenes “aim to convey the constructed nature of race and specify that the boundaries separating groups are not rigid and impermeable, but malleable and porous” (Hamilton and Saxby 83). Until this time, audiences were accustomed to seeing white male protagonists as the ideological chaperone, the one who guides black characters towards the audience’s hegemonic views of the world. However, The Defiant Ones subverts this construction through Cullen. Cullen shows that black protagonist can change their white counterparts and creates a sameness between the races. For the first time in film we are seeing how the interracial buddy film will function, how the characters are supposed to be equal and brothers-in-arms” (Vera and Gordon 172). Furthermore, these scenes show how Cullen becomes the archetype for what Vera and Gordon later refer to as the tame black man by helping his white friend save himself from both physical and mental destruction (Vera and Gordon 173). In the end, by subverting traditional filmic characterizations, The Defiant Ones illustrates the idea of sameness to reflect
FMS 508
Defying the Odds:
The Defiant Ones and Interracial Buddy Films
Audiences have long been fascinated with interracial buddy films. From comedy to sci-fi, moviegoers love the opposites attract chemistry that these on screen homosocial relationships spark, as well as the stories they tell about men and the times in which they live. Though interracial films are commonplace today, the genre didn’t even exist until The Defiant Ones was released in 1958. Directed by Stanley Kramer, The Defiant Ones depicts the story of a black convict (Sidney Poitier) on the run after escaping a failed prison transport. However, Cullen is not alone; in fact, he is chained to fellow inmate John “Joker” Jackson (Tony Curtis), a bigoted …show more content…
Throughout their journey together, Joker is hurt and sick which complicates his power over Cullen. Instead, Cullen is seen as the leader both physically and intellectually (Hamilton and Saxby 84). When Cullen smears mud on Joker’s face so he is less visible in the night sky, Joker suddenly becomes the same as Cullen. Joker’s black face rejects the Vaudeville stereotypes of the black buffoon and instead shows the audience that sometimes being white comes with disadvantages. As the scene progresses, the two men try to break into a building through a roof. When Cullen loses his grip and hangs from the rafters, the imagery is reminiscent of a man being lynched. The men’s’ chain looks like a rope and as Joker dangles, legs flailing, he even makes noises that sound like he’s gasping for air. These two scenes “aim to convey the constructed nature of race and specify that the boundaries separating groups are not rigid and impermeable, but malleable and porous” (Hamilton and Saxby 83). Until this time, audiences were accustomed to seeing white male protagonists as the ideological chaperone, the one who guides black characters towards the audience’s hegemonic views of the world. However, The Defiant Ones subverts this construction through Cullen. Cullen shows that black protagonist can change their white counterparts and creates a sameness between the races. For the first time in film we are seeing how the interracial buddy film will function, how the characters are supposed to be equal and brothers-in-arms” (Vera and Gordon 172). Furthermore, these scenes show how Cullen becomes the archetype for what Vera and Gordon later refer to as the tame black man by helping his white friend save himself from both physical and mental destruction (Vera and Gordon 173). In the end, by subverting traditional filmic characterizations, The Defiant Ones illustrates the idea of sameness to reflect