In Sidney Poitier’s debut film — ‘No Way Out’ — Poitier played a young doctor, in charge of a hospital’s prison ward on the night two bank robbers were brought in for treatment after being shot in their legs. When one of the robbers dies as Poitier is treating him, his brother — a racist named Ray Biddle played by Richard Widmark — thinks Poiter intentionally killed him.
What follows is a most vicious film. The year was 1950, and director Joe Mankiewicz called it “the absolute blood and guts of (black) hating.”
Widmark, who was one of the greatest actors of his time and a loving, liberal man in real life, hurled words at Poitier that were so shocking and graphic, every time Widmark spoke, it felt like a punch.
Widmark is most famous as the hyena laughing gangster Tommy Udo in ‘Kiss of Death’, who throws a wheelchair-bound woman down a staircase. Playing bad was in his repertoire.
But ‘No Way Out’ was a different level, and during filming, Widmark kept apologizing to Poitier in between takes.
The brother’s widow, played by smoking hot queen of noir, Linda Darnell, was also racist. They all came from a poor white district called Beaver Canal, where racial tension was always at full boil. When an autopsy clears Poitier of any wrongdoing, Widmark is only more enraged — facts won’t get in the way of his blind hate.
I’m going to fast forward to the end — although I recommend you watch it for its complexities and enjoy seeing both Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee in uncredited rolls.
The film ends with Richard Widmark attempting to kill Poitier, with Darnell interfering — waking up out of her learned hate and seeing that Widmark is a sick man — literally and mentally — and on the brink of death from his untreated wound — literally and figuratively.
So what does Poitier do after being shot at and verbally attacked again and again? He saves this racist man’s life — the final indignity for Widmark, who breaks down and reveals himself to be an unloved son, a scared man, crying that no one cares what happens to people like him, crying for the little boy who felt less than, who felt abandoned.
As Widmark breaks down and cries ugly — hate replaced by overwhelming self-pity — Poitier says, ‘Don’t cry, white boy. You’re gonna live.’
The point of my writing about ‘No Way Out’ is there is a way out.
Love harder.
We all know the type, let down by life, fluent in victimese. But we also know that a kind teacher, a wise uncle, a knowing friend, a good listener, can sometimes light that spark that moves people away from hate.
Yes, the people intentionally radicalizing the disaffected to hate must feel the full force of justice — why do you think I write the American Monster series? It’s not because I enjoy revisiting these criminals — it’s because I know what they’re doing.
I watched an entitled young man tonight interact with the world around him. I could tell he was a Bannon zombie by the smell of misogyny and white rage.
Another radicalized young man committed racially motivated murder in Florida, and a woman had to flee an ice cream parlor with her child in Texas because a radicalized man started going ballistic on her for being a ‘democrat’. And it wasn’t that long ago that a young man in Buffalo, who wasn’t a hateful kid, got radicalized in a chat room and went out and committed mass murder on innocent black victims.
This epidemic that my podcast partners and I warn about week after week can be cured if leaders step up and acknowledge the root causes and work toward a cure with the urgency of a global pandemic, which it is. Until then, we have to make our decency more appealing than the lure of hate.
In general, people don’t become hateful animals because things are going great in their life.
They’re not to born to hate.
They’re taught it. For some, it feels like love. They’re love bombed into hate cults — cults sucking people in through online portals, exploiting the fear of unloved men who may not love themselves and who find power in these communities. Like gang members.
We have an inorganic infection of hate, paid for by those trying to ensure fascist rule.
We have to love more than they hate. We have to love harder.
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“We just have to see that the battle for democracy is broader. It's deeper.”—David Pepper
“I need people to see they're on the frontline. Wherever you live, if you’re doing this work, you are the frontline.”—David Pepper
“The message should be a fair deal… fairness everywhere.”—Martin Sheil
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“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.
“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, who can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
“Non-violent protest is a life-affirming activity as it seeks to promote a more humane society.”-Ellen Zucker
“Nothing but blue skies from now on…”-Irving Berlin
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(In a film that couldn’t be made today, Mankiewicz tackled the brutality of racism and identified root causes — in the end, racism is defeated by decency.)
