Requiem for a Heavyweight

Rating:
Summary: requirem for a heavyweight and a neighborhood
Review: This is a remarkable film. Remarkable because it is the death of a man's life style. It teaches that many people's lives are cut short without being killed. A person's life is more than their physical life. It is their way of life that attributes to their life. Cut a man's reason for living and you might as well kill him physically. Ironically, the film was filmed on location in the Washington Market Area of lower manhattan. Any area that was in it's own dying days which can be seen from the decay of the neighbor hood. And area that would be totally destroyed to make way for the World Trade Center some 5 years later, another tragitic story in it's own right.My father actually watched some of the filming of this fim on Murray Street. The film crew actually brought the old Susquehanna Hotel back to life for most of this film. The dreary sceens are real, filmed in the dead Susquehanna Hotel. Sadly, the most depressing thing about this film is the fact that the Jerks who put the movie on DVD used an edited version. Why? I will never know. Rod Serling must be spinning in his grave!!! The producers of this DVD owe each of us that purchased this film and updated UNEDITED VERSION!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: One of the few truly heartwrenching films
Review: This movie is one of the very few I have seen that I call truly heartwrenching. All of the main characters act out of complicated motives, and no one is wholly bad or good. I found it difficult to watch at times, probably because the acting was so good and the characters were so fully realized. The ending is crushing, but the motivations for the decisions are true to the characters. The black and white cinematography complements the story. The opening sequence is really well done as it is shot "looking out of the eyes" of Mountain Rivera...we see a young Mohammed Ali (still called Cassius Clay in those days) coming at us through a confused fog. Excellent. Highly recommended.