Rod Steiger is a personal favorite thanks to Al Capone, Doctor Zhivago,
and The Sergeant. This is considered his best movie
but is more of an actor's workshop. He chews gum like someone without
gum jacked-up on crystal meth. It's not only distracting, it reeks of
performance. In the business, this is called an "activity" and it's simply too... active.
Sidney Poitier on the
other hand is good, takes his time, and doesn't need to distract the
audience from believing in his character. The opposite of overacting.
And the best aspects of the movie have him not only surprising the
narrow-minded locals that he's a good investigator because of his color,
but the audience because of his young age: In his cadence
there's a sort of edgy experience, but the film fails to back this up
and seems, in a directorial sense, far too aware of itself (and its
timely importance) while stretching a 48-minute story into two hours,
and has dated elements that needed about five years to really hit
home... in a realistic, non-forced, and at this point, less dated
approach. GRADE: C+
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