Robert Tanitch reviews the latest DVDs
Sidney Poitier, now 91 years old, was the first black American to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor Award and the first black American to become a major movie star. Handsome, charismatic, charming, intelligent, understated, he was immensely popular and a promoter of Racial Harmony. He led the way and other black actors followed. In 2002 Poitier won an Honorary Oscar “For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence.” In 2009 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
The Defiant Ones (Eureka). Stanley Kramer 1958 film, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, is an efficient little chase thriller with a social conscience about race relations. Two convicts, one white, one black, are chained together. On their way to prison the van taking them crashes and they escape. They are pursued by sheriff, police and hound dogs. They start by hating each other but quickly learn that in order to survive rain, rapids, clay pits, swamp and lynching, they have to co-exist. By the end of the film they care for each other so much they could be moving into Brokeback Mountain territory. The sharp photography is by Sam Leavitt. Both actors were nominated for Best Actor.
No Way Out (Eureka). Joseph L. Mankiewicz directs this 1950 melodramatic thriller, released during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement and tackling racial issues head on. A black doctor tries to save a criminal’s life but fails through no fault of his own. The man’s brother accuses him of murder and refuses to allow an autopsy. Sidney Poitier, in his first major feature, is the patently good and honest doctor. Richard Widmark (in his familiar role of dirty scumbag) is the racist maniac, a vicious, smiling nigger-hater.
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