James.S.Davies
Joined May 2000
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Reviews20
James.S.Davies's rating
If the boxing game has its own genre, and the sheer number of them compared to other sports certainly suggests it warrants one, then this is one of the best of them.
Boxing has often been used to explore family values, moral disorder and the reality of an American dream that extols social climbing but, in this world at least, bounces you back like a ring rope. Certainly Midge Kelly, one of Kurt Douglas's great characters, finds hitting his opponents far easier than it is to punch through society's ceiling of power and fortune.
The film sets itself up as the tale of a poor boy done good; a rags to riches story. Indeed, there are the now all too familiar training and fights' montages as we witness his endeavour and ascent up the middleweight rankings. However, it soon becomes clear that hard work in the ring isn't enough to climb society's own rankings ladder. Kelly ruthlessly turn his back on the people who helped him on his way including his own family, and we see that the higher he climbs the more corruptible he becomes – choosing money, sex and his name in the papers over moral value.
The climb to the top has left him at odds to those closest to him, most notably his disabled brother Connie (movingly played by Arthur Kennedy). The film seems to extol the virtues its central protagonist has himself abandoned but at the same time suggests that without his ruthless streak he would have been left in the boxing wilderness without a shot at a title. Ultimately the system portrayed is corrupt and it seems that those trying to play it are destroyed by it. A bleak, dystopian conclusion, in keeping with the film noirs of that time.
Champion, both stylistically and thematically, feels like a forerunner to Raging Bull and to a lesser extent, the more recent The Fighter. This alone would make it worth a look, but the film packs enough of a punch through the quality of its performances and style to make it recommendable viewing in its own right.
Boxing has often been used to explore family values, moral disorder and the reality of an American dream that extols social climbing but, in this world at least, bounces you back like a ring rope. Certainly Midge Kelly, one of Kurt Douglas's great characters, finds hitting his opponents far easier than it is to punch through society's ceiling of power and fortune.
The film sets itself up as the tale of a poor boy done good; a rags to riches story. Indeed, there are the now all too familiar training and fights' montages as we witness his endeavour and ascent up the middleweight rankings. However, it soon becomes clear that hard work in the ring isn't enough to climb society's own rankings ladder. Kelly ruthlessly turn his back on the people who helped him on his way including his own family, and we see that the higher he climbs the more corruptible he becomes – choosing money, sex and his name in the papers over moral value.
The climb to the top has left him at odds to those closest to him, most notably his disabled brother Connie (movingly played by Arthur Kennedy). The film seems to extol the virtues its central protagonist has himself abandoned but at the same time suggests that without his ruthless streak he would have been left in the boxing wilderness without a shot at a title. Ultimately the system portrayed is corrupt and it seems that those trying to play it are destroyed by it. A bleak, dystopian conclusion, in keeping with the film noirs of that time.
Champion, both stylistically and thematically, feels like a forerunner to Raging Bull and to a lesser extent, the more recent The Fighter. This alone would make it worth a look, but the film packs enough of a punch through the quality of its performances and style to make it recommendable viewing in its own right.
The film starts like a glossy 50s melodrama with colourful suburban gardens complete with white picket fences and a neighbourly shiny red vintage fire engine serenely passing by. However, it isn't long before we're left with little doubt that a darker, murkier side is awaiting us, as the peacefulness is broken by a gardener's cripplingly sudden cardiac arrest followed by stark close-ups of parasitic beetles. This is a clever and beautifully shot taster of the film's overriding theme; that violence is always a threat even within America's seemingly most ideal small town environments.
The plot centres around the gardener's son, Jeffrey Beaumont, who is brought home from school after his father's collapse, finds a severed human ear and his youthful curiosity gets him involved in the intriguing mystery of singer Dorothy Vallens which ultimately leads into the violent world of local sociopath Frank Booth.
This is one of my favourite films of the 1980s although, like one of my other favourites Raging Bull, because of the realism of its violence, it can be hard to watch. The direction is superb and the cast all turn in career best performances. MacLachlan is likeable in a Jimmy Stewart kind of way as the all American boy (Jeffrey's father owns the local hardware store as did Stewart's in real life). His character was no out and out rebel but the film shows that even wholesome naïve adventurousness can be enough to fall into American society's seedy underbelly.
While Dern is endearing in her portrayal Jeffrey's robin loving sweetheart and is the film's purest representative of innocence, Hopper and Rossellini's characters represent the darker possibilities of life. Valens is one of film's all time great femme fatale's whose world has been made intolerable by the gas guzzling Booth, possibly cinema's scariest psychopath. Rossellini was required to gain weight for the film and is both vunerable and self-destructive, yet her sexuality is understandably appealing to the young Jeffrey. Hopper is quite simply scary but somehow manages to make his despicable character sympathetic. What makes Frank Booth so terrifying is that he is allowed to move freely among society seemingly without detection. This is no caged psychopath we're dealing with here.
This film gets 10 out of 10. It's a classic but not one for the faint hearted.
The plot centres around the gardener's son, Jeffrey Beaumont, who is brought home from school after his father's collapse, finds a severed human ear and his youthful curiosity gets him involved in the intriguing mystery of singer Dorothy Vallens which ultimately leads into the violent world of local sociopath Frank Booth.
This is one of my favourite films of the 1980s although, like one of my other favourites Raging Bull, because of the realism of its violence, it can be hard to watch. The direction is superb and the cast all turn in career best performances. MacLachlan is likeable in a Jimmy Stewart kind of way as the all American boy (Jeffrey's father owns the local hardware store as did Stewart's in real life). His character was no out and out rebel but the film shows that even wholesome naïve adventurousness can be enough to fall into American society's seedy underbelly.
While Dern is endearing in her portrayal Jeffrey's robin loving sweetheart and is the film's purest representative of innocence, Hopper and Rossellini's characters represent the darker possibilities of life. Valens is one of film's all time great femme fatale's whose world has been made intolerable by the gas guzzling Booth, possibly cinema's scariest psychopath. Rossellini was required to gain weight for the film and is both vunerable and self-destructive, yet her sexuality is understandably appealing to the young Jeffrey. Hopper is quite simply scary but somehow manages to make his despicable character sympathetic. What makes Frank Booth so terrifying is that he is allowed to move freely among society seemingly without detection. This is no caged psychopath we're dealing with here.
This film gets 10 out of 10. It's a classic but not one for the faint hearted.