Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

clanciai The fantastic feat of this film is to turn an ordinary story delving into the gutter depths of the lousiest of sports, boxing, and its established system of corruption, into a drama of the highest class and universal interest. The credits are many, first of course to the team of the writer and the director, Abraham Polonsky and Robert Rossen, while the writer perhaps here is number one. He was only able to make a few outstanding films noir in Hollywood before he was blacklisted and chased out of the country, hindered from making any more films for next to 20 years, turning him very bitter against America and Hollywood - what a waste! The actors are all at their best and more than outstanding, especially Lilli Palmer at her most beautiful with the loveliest eyes ever seen on the screen, John Garfield as the simple but more than straight-forward boxer, Anne Revere as the mother who sees everything through, Hazel Brooks as the irresistible temptation, a downright bombshell of beauty, the unforgettable Canada Lee as the fellow honest boxer who gets all the beatings, and all the others, most of them crooks, and most of them blacklisted like Polonsky - all except Robert Rossen, who was one of the few that, like Elia Kazan, got away by cooperating with the infamous inquisition. But the strongest weight of the movie lies with the architectural composition - it all towers up towards the final boxing match, which the audience throughout the movie learns to have ever greater expectations of, with ever more troublesome complications in the way for John Garfield and his friends and family, one of them even getting killed, the definite turning point of the drama for the worse. When the finale of the boxing match finally comes you are not disappointed - it's a thriller in itself. And strange enough, this totally noir film comes out safe on the other side, which you had every good reason to expect least of all.

pocomarc I have to comment on a review here by 'kayaker', who wrote: "The great lightweight champion of the 1920's Benny Leonard (true name: Benjamin Leiner) was the model for Charley Davis. Leonard's closeness to his mother was played up in the sporting press of the time. She wanted her son to play the violin, not box. Leonard reminded her in telegrams after each victory that he was "bringing home the bacon"--earning far more with his fists than he ever could as a fiddler." Reviewer kayaker is badly in error.It was black lightweight champion JOE GANS who telegraphed his step-mother from Goldfield Nevada after his 42 round victory on a foul over challenger Battling Nelson in the year 1906 that "I brought home the bacon--and lots of gravy too." Benny Leonard was 10 years old at that time.

kayaker36 The great lightweight champion of the 1920's Benny Leonard (true name: Benjamin Leiner) was the model for Charley Davis. Leonard's closeness to his mother was played up in the sporting press of the time. She wanted her son to play the violin, not box. Leonard reminded her in telegrams after each victory that he was "bringing home the bacon"--earning far more with his fists than he ever could as a fiddler. Sadly, Leonard lost all his money in the stock market crash and was forced to make an ill- advised comeback. When he retired as a boxer for keeps, he was given referee work. After officiating at six bouts on a hot New York night, Leonard suffered a heart attack and died in the ring.By today's standards this picture is oversentimental, lacking in subtlety and full of clichés. What hoists it is the gritty intensity of John Garfield. Due in large part to his early death, John Garfield's movies enjoy a cult following which time has not diminished. Garfield's pictures, even back in the 'thirties, often included black actors. This was unusual for the time, marking him out as politically liberal and perhaps helping make him a target for congressional red-baiters.

edwagreen John Garfield delivers a worthy Oscar nominated performance in the story of "Body and Soul."Poor and from a tough neighborhood, Garfield sees boxing as a way out of his current existence.As usual, veteran pro, Anne Revere, was called upon to play Garfield's mom. This terrific Oscar winning actress (1944 for National Velvet, in a supporting role) played just about everyone's mom in Hollywood during the 1940s. "Mom" to Gregory Peck in "Gentleman's Agreement," Linda Darnell's mother in "Forever Amber,"Montgomery Clift's mom in "A Place in the Sun" and Jennifer Jones'mother in "The Song of Bernadette." To me, Miss Revere, who was a descendant from Paul Revere, delivers a memorable line in the movie. To paraphrase, she states: "I want you to be respected. I want you to be a teacher." Sure, in 1947, the teaching profession was looked up to-to use a pun, it was revered. Unfortunately, this great line has been overshadowed by the line, "Everybody dies." Must we always be true to life?A hard-nosed, gripping film dealing not only with human emotions, but the fighting ring as well along with its corruption. A film exhibiting one wallop of a punch.