Roles of the African American Actors in Two Films Essay

In this project I’m going to discuss two films that contain roles for African Americans. One film of my choice is The Defiant Ones that was filmed in 1958 by Stanley Kramer and the second one is Nothing to Lose that was filmed in 1997 by Steve Oedekerk. It was specially used these two films for this project, because they have somewhat similar plot, but different time of their appearance. Thus, the main aim of this project is to compare and contrast the roles of the African American actors in both films of my choice.
First of all let’s describe the plot of both films in a short way. Thinking about The Defiant Ones it is possible to say that this kind of story has repeatedly appeared on screens in different years, but invariably captured the audience and gave an excellent fund. Typically, two completely different persons forced to flee the slammer together and in further life their existence and freedom are completely dependent on the ability to find a common language, understand the desire of another and come to terms with being different companion in misfortune. So, in this film we see the way how the couple of really different people has formed due to the hard circumstances. Narrow-minded and one-sided white racist in the performance of Tony Curtis and a hefty black man played by Sidney Poitier found themselves in one situation where is necessary not only to talk to each other, but also to live in one rhythm and become friends in their misfortunes. Comparing the plot of this film with other one it is necessary to say that Nothing to Lose show us another black and white couple. In the life of every person can happen something sad or bad and similar situation we see in the film Nothing to Lose, where the main character Tim Robbins begins to think that his wife have an affair with his boss. In this case it is necessary not be frustrating, and most importantly, do not lose yourself and try to find something – anything new or do something – something that nobody expects from you and something that will help to find the real withdrawal from existed situation. The same plot we can find in the film Nothing to Lose, because when an ordinary life presents an unexpected blow to the main character he decides to drop everything and most importantly fact is the unexpected meeting with unaccomplished burglar (Martin Lawrence), who eventually turns out to be not a bad guy…
Contrasting two films we see that both the African American actors are criminals, but Martin Lawrence is more positive in his role than Sidney Poitier. In the base of the film The Defiant Ones we see the relationships between two strong men, moreover, these relationships can not be called friendship, but definitely they can be called steel respect and sympathy to own ‘brother’ in misfortune.
Nothing to Lose is a comedy that allows to spend a time in a pleasant way, but The Defiant Ones is vice versa a criminal drama that makes us to be involved in events without any laughter and composure. Comparing characters of both films we see that all of them are absolutely different, but their similarity is in their black and white couples. In The Defiant Ones one hero killed a man protecting his family, the other was caught during the robbery. One of them wants to live nicely and the other just wants to live. One of them is convinced racist, confident in own superiority, the second is the personification of what he hates. And they found themselves very close, confined by a thick metal chain. Now they should flee as far as possible, hoping to break the hated for both chain and live in freedom. But the police are chasing them with dogs with a delicate scent.
In the film Nothing to Lose there is no such hard social situation between two races, because film was produced much later and race questions became not as popular as they were popular in 1958. But both characters have nothing to lose, because life gone awry. In this case the film is not about losers, but rather about the funny absurdities, which at times turned the heroes in themselves.
Thus, taking everything into consideration it is possible to conclude that both films are very different in their emotional and psychological essence, but have the similar plot, where two different persons find true friends in each other under the weight of formed situation. One more interesting moment is in fact that subject of film is based on social acuteness, because African American and white person are dependent on each other completely. Producers of both films showed in excellent way how common difficulties and hardships unite people regardless of skin color and racial prejudice.