Requiem for a Heavyweight
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Movie Reviews of Requiem for a Heavyweight
Movie Review: A superlative movie, in need of a full restoration of the missing plot sequences and of the image-quality.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie, which concerns a boxer, was written by Rod Serling, famed writer of most of the black and white TWILIGHT ZONE television shows. The best of these TWILIGHT ZONE stories include, e.g., TO SERVE MAN, CAVENDER IS COMING, STEEL, A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY, NIGHT CALL, THE BIG TALL WISH, WHAT'S IN THE BOX, and KICK THE CAN. Of these, THE BIG TALL WISH and STEEL are about boxing. THE BIG TALL WISH was written by Mr.Serling, but STEEL was written by Richard Matheson.
In a nutshell, Anthony Quinn has been a successful heavyweight boxer for some 17 years. However, a physician informs him that he is suffering from eye damage, and must quit boxing or else go blind. Anthony Quinn agrees to quit, and goes to an employment agency, and meets young Julie Harris, a career counselor. After a few missteps (she inadvertently tells him that he has "problems" similar to those of a returning war veteran), she suggests the career of athletic coach for boys. Anthony Quinn impulsively takes a liking to this, but he is not really compatible with this sort of job. One reason Anthony Quinn is not really compatible with a job as an athletic coach is that he prefers bars to boys.
Jackie Gleason, who is Anthony Quinn's manager, makes certain that Anthony Quinn flunks his interview for the atheletic coach job, by taking Anthony Quinn drinking at popular bar immediately before the interview. Throughout the movie, Jackie Gleason steers Anthony Quinn towards a new career as a wrestler, in part, because Jackie Gleason needs to pay a huge gambling debt. A wrestling career is initially seen as a humiliation by Anthony Quinn, for example, because he has to dress up as an Indian chief and wear a headdress of feathers. But a number of factors persuade him to agree to be a wrestler and that is how the movie ends, that is, by him accepting his new career move.
Actor Stan Adams plays "Perelli," a sleazy wrestling promoter. The experience of seeing this particular sleazy character, alone, is worth the price of buying this film. One wishes for days long past, before the public's interest in computer graphics technology replaced the public's interest for interesting character actors.
This movie is much, much more than simply an amusing "plot" or a "storyline." What the movie is really about his how a person's motivations rise and fall, what provokes shifts of one's motivations, and what makes one person faithful towards another person throughout life's journeys.
There are also plenty of treats-for-the-eye in this movie. We see the real Cassius Clay, playing the part of a triumphant boxer at the start of the movie. We see a half dozen dwarves, in the boxing ring towards the end of the movie. We see a female gangster (Ma Greeny), putting the screws on Jackie Gleason. Another interesting female gangster can be found on the ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, in the episode called, "BARNEY'S FIRST CAR" (1963).
My videotape version of the movie is terribly blurry. Fortunately, the quality of the sound on the videotape is perfect. This is in contrast to a handfull of other classic movies on videotape, that are characterized by continual buzzing sounds. Don Ameche's version of the Alexander Graham Bell movie has horrible unbearable buzzing sounds throughout. Spencer Tracy's version of the Thomas Edison movie also has these buzzing sounds on the videotape, I recall.
CONCLUSIONS. If you are interested in actor Anthony Quinn, then this film is a must-see. If you are interested in stories that depict career changes, or job changes, then this movie is right on-point. If you are a fan of the TWILIGHT ZONE series of black & white stories, and yearn to see one more great T.Z. story, then this film is a must-see. If you are interested in "film noir" movies from the 1950s, then this film will satisfy your urge. If you like boxing movies, for example, RAGING BULL or MILLION DOLLAR BABY, then this film should be on your list.
Movie Review: Brutalization of innocence
Summary: 5 Stars
"Requiem for a Heavyweight" is a number one contender for the best movie concerning the "sweet science" that I have ever seen, along with Scorsese's "Raging Bull". Trademark Rod Serling, this powerful little film (originally made for TV) is a remorseless and scathing indictment of a society that worships force while it flourishes and edges toward the top, then is quick to jeer when it falls to the inexorable canvas of nature.
Anthony Quinn gives a gut wrenching performance as the quirky, sensitive and slightly punch-drunk Mountain Rivera, an aging prizefighter who falls at the hands of a young Muhammad Ali (still Cassius Clay at the time this film was made) at the beginning of the film and suffers a detached retina. From the opening scene to the last, "Requiem" is determined to give the viewer a bitter taste of what it meant to be a boxer when mafia thugs controlled the sport and fighters were chewed up and spat out with all the grace and empathy of an ugly car accident. Here Quinn transcends even his portrayal as Zampano the Australian strongman in Fellini's "La Strada".
The forces that control Rivera's destiny are pitiless (his manager Maish, played by Jackie Gleason, is a self-divided man occasionally showing signs of real tenderness toward Rivera but ultimately interested in saving his own neck) and only one other man in this whole tragic story seems to understand his plight--a young Mickey Rooney, turning in an Oscar worthy performance as his trainer Army, a former fighter turned cut-man who despises Maish for his cruel manipulation of Mountain's almost childlike loyalty to him for his own purposes. Unfortunately, Army doesn't have much say in what happens and only has the guts to stand up to Maish in spurts, his resignation getting the better of him as he carts the old pug from employment agency to employment agency, trying to make him understand that the world is no longer his oyster and hasn't been for quite awhile.
Rivera's abrupt and somewhat unrealistic relationship with social worker Grace Miller played by Julie Harris ("The Haunting"), is possibly the only real spark of hope in Rivera's doomed life. I don't see where Mountain couldn't have become a camp counselor or something to that effect: he does not seem so incapacitated or punch-drunk that this would be an impossibility. Maish, with the mob breathing down his neck for the money he lost betting against his own fighter, makes sure that this doesn't happen, getting him drunk on the night of his appointment with yet another famous guest star of boxing lore, the huge Jack Dempsey.
Each scene of this film is an excruciating exercise in degradation, but somehow we feel compelled to watch. You almost hate Serling for getting us to identify so strongly with this tough but very innocent shell of a man, and then throwing him into a pressure cooker he is neither smart enough nor mature enough to even glimpse a way out of. That is real talent.
The ending is perhaps the strongest part of the film and is achingly honest. When faced with the decision to pursue his own dubious prospects in life or save his manager's skin--by extension sacrificing every value he has lived by his entire ugly, violent life--the decision is inevitable. An unforgettable, heart rending artistic accomplishment and more evidence that Serling could have been much more than the creator of that groundbreaking television series "The Twilight Zone".
Movie Review: There Were Giants in Those Days
Summary: 5 Stars
Rod Serling died almost 30 years ago. He thought he would not be remembered. Lord! How he is so remembered and how he and his work are still beloved. It is great that his theatrical film of "Requiem for a Heavyweight" is finally out on DVD. His script is beautifully directed by Ralph Nelson. There's a lovely score that is perfectly blended as well.The DVD looks freshly minted. It is one of his finest works. Acted by the best, who seem to live the roles, not portray them. Anthony Quinn as Mountain Rivera, the shambling man of the broken eyes and voice and heart, face massively scarred, is a towering testament to the ability of man to survive at the saddest, most desperate level. He is loyal to his manager Maish (Jackie Gleason; again showing what a good serious actor he was), to the extent of letting Maish "sell his soul on the streetcorner." Maish is not a thoroughly bad man--he stood beside Mountain at times, but "when winning doesn't pay, losing does."
You can see the cast reveling in Rod's words. It's a movie about integrity and friendship and giving everything away because you owe something to someone that you really don't owe at all. It's about having values and standards. The real kind that aren't hollow words. People talk in this film. They communicate. You have to listen to the words. You did back then. It was called writing and acting. Rod was one of the best. Still is.
In the print used for this DVD, one particular scene is cut. It is after Maish gets Mountain drunk. Army, the cut man, (an equally superb Mickey Rooney, of the compassion and the heart)said to Maish, "this is not a side of beef you can job off on the market by the pound; cause if you do, Maish, if you do, you'll rot in hell." Powerful dialogue--not one liners, insights instead; some of which were on the print ads when the film was first released.
Julie Harris is luminous as the social worker who finds there are facets of a man's worth that can't be put in a box on a form. She wants to help; and tries so hard. The great character actors, Herbie Faye and Stanley Adams are nice to see again. In a "sport" such as this, Rod finds humanity. He showed us shards of life and he delivered them with such strong stirring words that have lived in my mind from childhood on. They are places where I hide and find sustenance.
Rod is gone. His work lives on. That way, the giants still loom. As he often wrote, "it is to weep." Indeed.
Movie Review: See It For The Cameo Appearence By Young Cascius Clay
Summary: 5 Stars
Requiem For A Heaveyweight, the feature-length movie was released in 1962. It was initially written for television three years earlier by none other than Rod Serling. It aired on Playhouse 90 in the Fall of 1960. That production starred Keenyn Wynn in the role of Mesch, the desperate and mercinary fight manager. His dad, legendary comic, Ed Wynn played Armie, Mountain Rivera's sympathetic handler. Jack Palance was cast in the lead role of the over-the-hill pugilist, Mountain Rivera. It was shot live and played to a national auidence, a daring event for actors in the primitive new media.
The casting of the movie release is considerablly more inspired. Jackie Gleason stars as Mesch, a man desperatly attempting to stay one step ahead of the bookies and willing to sell the soul of his washed-up fighter to save his own skin. Mickey Rooney turns in an oscar worthy supporting role as Armie, Mountain's handler, confidant and "brother's keeper". And in the lead role we have one of Hollywood's finest dramatic actors, the inimitable, Anthony Quinn. Julie Harris plays a supporting role, as the Social Worker trying to save Mountain from becomming the side show attraction, Mesch has in store for him.
Requiem is a fascinating look at the seemley underbelly of the world of prize fighting. Like the Bogart movie "The Harder They Fall" Requiem loosely resembles the story of former Heavey Weight Champion, Primo Carnarra. Canarra, a giant of a man from Italy who faced a seires of bum-of-the-month has-beens to climb to the heavey weight crown. Many of these bouts were perported to be fixed. Carnara it was said had a glass jaw. Fighters then were viewed largely as commodities, expendable and easily replaced. Both movies speak directly to the heart of the grim reality of the "sweet science", during one of boxing's darkest periods. The film still packs an enormous punch, (pardon the pun) and holds up remarkably well over the years. See it for the great story-telling by Serling, the brilliant acting by Gleason, Quinn, Rooney and Julie Harris. And finally catch it for the marvelous cameo by a very young and irrasable Cascius Clay.
Movie Review: A Knockout Cast in a Knockout Story
Summary: 5 Stars
'Requiem for a Heavyweight' is not only one of the great forgotten boxing pictures, it's also one of those movies that has almost vanished. Thankfully this DVD release will help keep this great film alive.Anthony Quinn superbly plays Mountain Rivera, a 37 year old fighter who risks losing his eyesight if he continues to fight. His manager (Jackie Gleason), his trainer (Mickey Rooney), and a new-found lady friend (Julie Harris) all have different ideas about Mountain's future. Just what CAN a fighter do after 17 years in the ring?
While most of the drama takes place outside the ring, Rod Serling's script delivers tension, conflict and suspense in way you wouldn't expect from a 1962 film. You can almost see the characters thinking about where they are, where they're going, and how Mountain Rivera can and does affect their lives.
The brilliance of the film's cast is electrifying. Every actor is in absolutely tip-top form. These performances are a real pleasure to watch. This film contains no weak links.
Other reviewers have commented on the several different versions of the film. The film originally aired on television on a show called "Playhouse 90." This is the only version I have seen, so I have no other standard for comparison. I suppose it's possible, but I don't see how any version could top this one. Well worth your time and money.
Approx. 90 minutes in black and white