Line #29 Film/TheDefiantOnes


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b2c30a5f2d7bdf61c80f1b7cb82beca9.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:ChainedHeat becomes a trope.]]
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4	''The Defiant Ones'' is a 1958 drama film directed by Creator/StanleyKramer, starring Creator/TonyCurtis and Creator/SidneyPoitier.
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6	Curtis and Poitier are John "Joker" Williams and Noah Cullen, two convicts who are among a group of prisoners being transferred by truck somewhere in the DeepSouth. When the truck crashes, Noah and Joker make their escape, which is made more difficult by the fact that they're chained to each other.
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8	As Noah and Joker travel cross-country on foot, their mutual racial hostility slowly thaws into shared respect and even something like friendship. Meanwhile, Sheriff Max Muller (Creator/TheodoreBikel) leads a posse in pursuit of the fugitives.
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10	TropeCodifier for the ChainedHeat genre. Received eight UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations--Poitier's Best Actor nomination was the first ever given to a black actor. Has been remade many times, including with a GenderFlip as ExploitationFilm ''Film/BlackMamaWhiteMama'' and a 1986 MadeForTVMovie with Creator/CarlWeathers and Creator/RobertUrich.
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12	----
13	!!The Defiant Tropes:
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15	* BittersweetEnding: Joker and Noah are captured but neither some too upset about it and a real friendship has been born.
16	* BookEnds: Noah singing the same spiritual at the beginning and the end.
17	* {{Blackface}}: In-Universe, it is done out of necessity, to conceal Joker's pale skin when he and Noah are trying to break into a general store.
18	* ChainedHeat: Not the first film to use this trope--it pops up in the Creator/AlfredHitchcock version of ''Film/{{The 39 Steps\|1935}}''--but [[TropeCodifier the one that made it famous]].
19	* CreatorCameo: Co-screenwriters Nedrick Young and Harold Smith appeared as the drivers of the prison van in the opening scene. Their names pop up in the credits right under their faces in the scene. This was because Young was [[UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist blacklisted]] and writing under a pseudonym, and Stanley Kramer wanted him properly credited. (The blacklist lasted until Dalton Trumbo was credited under his own name for ''Film/{{Spartacus}}'' in 1960.)
20	* CreepyCrows: A creepy raven gives a scary squawk as Joker and Noah are trying to sneak into the general store.
21	* HaveAGayOldTime: Billy's mom describes her poster as "a scene of gay revelry at the Mardi Gras in old New Orleans".
22	* LettingHerHairDown: If the carnivorous glances that Billy's mom was shooting at Joker weren't enough of a mating signal, she makes it even more obvious by unpinning her hair.
23	* NoNameGiven: Billy's mother, the sexy abandoned farmer's wife who sleeps with Joker, is never named.
24	* NWordPrivileges: Joker does not have them, which is what starts the fight in the prisoner transport truck, which is what leads to the crash and their escape.
25	* SexyDiscretionShot: The camera pans away as Billy's mom crawls into bed with Joker.
26	* SleepCute: With a very strong dose of HoYay, as Joker wakes up after a night in the rain and is startled to find Noah snuggled up next to him.
27	* SoftGlass: Joker and Noah jump through a glass window, and emerge without a scratch.
28	* SpitefulSpit: Noah does this to a redneck who is about to lynch him and Joker.
29	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Billy's mother casually admits that the swamp she sent Noah into is a death trap--she is afraid that he will rat them out. Joker has the opportunity to run away with her, escaping in her car to certain freedom. Instead, he abandons her and goes into the swamp to save Noah. While not explicitly stated in the film, it seems likely that both Joker (with Billy's mom) and Noah could have continued running separately, for some time.

Context Film / TheDefiantOnes