Turner Classic Movies, Seattle, WA

**** / ****

By Scott Muoio

An aging boxer unsuccessfully attempts to move on from his punishing sport in the Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) penned classic, Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Anthony Quinn is sympathetically downtrodden as Luis “Mountain” Rivera, the massive, fallen athlete with minimal hope for a rewarding future. With his body beaten, his psyche damaged, and his manager trapped by his own debts Quinn’s Mountain is struggling for a life comeback. A fortuitous meeting with Miss Miller (Julie Harris), an unemployment counselor promises a new beginning for Rivera as a camp counselor. Unfortunately, Mountain’s life in the ring can’t easily be forgotten and the punch drunk giant quickly resorts to his pugilistic ways stripping him of the opportunity to try for a different path in life.

Shot in gritty black and white, which helps illuminate the realism of a sport that relies on the downtrodden for its performers Requiem is a quiet revelation. Society’s washed-up are portrayed as individuals to be pitied but who wish for anything but that particular sympathy. Requiem also expertly depicts the quiet sadness of a man stuck in the body and mind of a brawler whose instincts know no other way. The film’s ability to get both portrayals spot on is its masterstoke, and its unyielding admission that life must go on even when one’s career can no longer support the person who has devoted his life to it is as heartbreaking as it is poignant and true.

While Rod Serling’s script is certainly excellent and director Ralph Nelson’s unrelenting yet personable touch perfect, it is the film’s cast that makes Requiem a classic.

Jackie Gleason is exceptional as Mountain’s manager, Maish, a hard yet realistic man who once believed in his charge but whose gambling debts have forced him down an unfortunate avenue. Mickey Rooney is likewise great as Army, Mountain’s trainer and seemingly the one man who understands the inevitability of both Maish’s and Mountain’s transitions. Julie Harris as Miss Miller is another wonderful addition, providing the film with its heart and understanding.

All three are wonderful, but the movie is undoubtedly Anthony Quinn’s. The actor is superb at making us sympathize but never pity Mountain, a man with a past, present, and future that seem to have been written in stone for ages. Quinn makes us not only understand but also feel Mountain’s limitations, doubt, and quickly diminishing hope. Indeed, Quinn’s turn is as mesmerizing now as it must have been in 1962, as is the film, a must view for boxing fans as well any student of the cinema.

Additional Note: Requiem for a Heavyweight must have been a huge influence on Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 masterpiece, The Wrestler. Both are terrific films that masterfully deal with the athlete’s struggle for life after sport.

Director: Ralph Nelson

Producer: David Susskind

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris

Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal

Cinematographer: Arthur J. Ornitz

Editor: Carl Lerner