Tarus Bulba and The Defiant Ones

268. Taras Bulba (1962) - Thompson. Co-stars Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner. 121 minutes. Set in 16th Ukraine, Brynner is a Cossack Chieftain determined to regain his lands from the Poles. Tony Curtis plays his son in love with a Polish Girl. Historically inaccurate to say the least, Taras has two things going for it. First, lots of action - Calvary horses sweeping over the Steppe (actually Argentina) and Cossacks fighting and having wild parties. Second, Yul Brynner who dominates every scene and made me kinda sorta believe he was a Cossack. But there's also a long, tedious Curtis-Kauffman love affair and a so-so script. Curtis is miscast but adequate. Summary: An enjoyable, if mindless, action movie. Must be seen on a big screen TV. Rating **1/2

269. The Defiant Ones (1958) Kramer Co-stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier . B&W 96 minutes. Two convicts - one a white racist, one black - escape from a Southern Chain-gang. Chained together, they must cooperate or be captured. Nominated for nine Oscars and not really deserving any of them. "The Defiant Ones" is basically a propaganda film - a good propaganda film, in a good cause - but still a propaganda film. Drama and character development, not mention believability, all take a backseat to Kramer's beating the anti-racism drum & it sometimes gets annoying. Pros: The two leads do well. While Curtis' Southern accent comes and goes, he's credible as the bigoted Southern Con who learns to respect his Black partner. Poitier, by far the better actor, is hampered by the requirement to play a Symbol: the good, intelligent black man angry at the racism that put him in prison. Despite endless provocation, he's still more patient, decent and gentle than anyone else. The photography won an Oscar and its quite good. Cons Besides the often silly story, unbelievable plot twists, and average direction, the supporting characters are paper thin. Israeli character actor Theodore Bickel is miscast as a humanistic Sheriff (where was Rod Steiger?), and the movie suffers from the usual angry Southern Stereotypes running around forming lynch mobs and making nasty racial cracks. Actress Cara Williams does what she can as the "evil" poor white who tries to drive a wedge between our two heroes. Usually Hollywood sympathizes with poor, lonely widows with small children, but she's a racist and therefore up to no good. Summary: Not bad if you lower your expectations, it won the Oscars for politics not excellence. Younger viewers may find the anti-racism message boring and the ethnic slurs shocking Rating **1/2