GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

bombersflyup Requiem for a Heavyweight is an excellent film, that falls a little short of greatness.I had no expectations coming into this and was pleasantly surprised. There are many films that are categorized as romances that I feel have none, yet this isn't categorized as having romance and I feel that it does. It is a rather sombre film, there is no triumph or happy ever after, maybe that's why it's not a romance, not sure. The film had a very good cast who acted well in it, the dialogue was weak at times though and brought the film down a little. Muhammad Ali was briefly in the opening scene as he knocks out our man, which is pretty awesome. After the Mountain is knocked out the film drags a bit until he meets Grace, the last portion of the film was truly brilliant however. Requiem for a Heavyweight isn't quite Rocky but it has many similarities, without the triumph and joyous ending.Maish Rennick: Do you really want to help him? Here's how you can help him. Leave him alone. If you gotta' say anything to him, tell him you pity him. Tell him you feel so sorry for him you could cry. But don't con him. Don't tell him he could be a counsellor at a boys' camp. He's been chasing ghosts so long he'll believe anything. Any kind of a ghost. Championship belt, pretty girl... maybe just 24 hours without an ache in his body. Doesn't make any difference. It all passed him.

connorbbalboa Outside of the Rocky films and Raging Bull, I will admit that I have not seen many boxing films; they end up being the most popular examples to the extent that I almost completely forget about all the others. Requiem for A Heavyweight was one that was recommended to me and one that I finally got myself to watch. I did like it, but not enough to reach the same levels of greatness of those other films.The film starts with a blurred and slightly disorienting POV shot of 37-year-old boxer "Mountain" Rivera (Anthony Quinn) as he is beaten badly in his latest match by the real Muhammad Ali (back when he was still called Cassius Clay). After the match, he is told that he will go blind if he fights again and should retire. Meanwhile, his manager (Jackie Gleason from Smokey and the Bandit) is in trouble with the mob for making a faulty bet against Rivera and tries to get him to take up phony wrestling to make money. However, Rivera becomes attracted to an employment agency worker named Grace Miller (Julie Harris) who sees the kindness and desperation in him and tries to get him a summer camp job.Anthony Quinn gives the best performance in the film and convinces you that he is a punch-drunk has-been who wants to stay relevant. Gleason is also convincing, taking the opportunity to be as despicable as possible. The black-and-white cinematography helps to make the street settings suitably unpleasant, letting you that this is not a hopeful film. Also, it's a common, but enduring story of a has-been trying to rescue himself from the oblivion of nothingness.There are, however, two major problems I find with this film that tie into each other. The first is that the film is too short. Things like Grace stepping away from Rivera's life after failing to help him and the relationship between Rivera and his manager feel rushed and it feels like this film needed more material to completely get its points through. It would have also helped establish the relationship between Rivera and his manager better. Rivera says that his manager treated him well and was there for him whenever he was badly beaten in his fights, but we don't even see flashbacks to any of those moments, only scenes where his manager tries to sign him up for the phony wrestling, claiming that he's trying to do what's best for Rivera when his real goal is getting the money for the mob. Seeing more of the relationship would have also helped with the climax.In the end, Rivera signs up for the phony wrestling, tries to quit at the last minute, finds out that his manager bet against him in the fight with Ali/Clay, and decides to do the wrestling and make a disgrace of himself anyway after the mob shows up. My first problem with the ending is that Rivera would still wrestle to save his manager even after he had just found out how much his manager had betrayed him. Secondly, it runs the risk of sending the wrong message, that punch-drunk has-been boxers like Rivera who try to make something of their lives afterwards will always end up in dishonor and emotional pain. It is incredibly harsh, even for the type of film this is. It reminds me of what Sylvester Stallone said about changing the ending of the First Blood movie and how the original ending where (spoiler) Rambo kills himself would negatively affect Vietnam veterans. The teleplay that the film is based on had Rivera quit the wrestling and return to his hometown. There, it gives Rivera a second chance and plenty of opportunity to do something with the last years of his life. Why the ending was changed for the film, I don't know.In conclusion, I don't dislike this film; it just seems to go in the wrong direction by the time it ends (for me, at least). There are plenty of good things to say about it, like Rivera's and Gleason's performances. I just think that a longer runtime would have made it better.

clanciai Which is your favourite Anthony Quinn film? (100 today) My candidate would be this one, a thorough debunking of the whole boxing business, with noteworthy appearances of the young Cassius Clay, Mickey Rooney and Jackie Gleason as his managers, one human and the other one seemingly corrupt but in fact the only realist, and Julie Harris as his one female friend, while Anthony Quinn as the wreck of a finished and humiliated boxer is one of the strongest characterizations ever made on film in almost unbearably straightforward realism. Note in the beginning and opening scene, that you never see his face until he himself sees it in the mirror. Add to this a fantastic music score by Laurence Rosenthal. The Swedish boxing champion at the time Ingo Johansson wanted every Swede to see this film, but this is not only for boxers. It's a universal study in humiliation, and no one is spared, humiliation is a fact of life, and there is nothing more difficult to handle. The film mercilessly displays all the ingredients, like shame, guilt, treason, failure, hypocrisy and defeat, and the chalice is emptied to the last drop. Still, in all his humiliation, ruin and disgrace, Anthony Quinn's failure of a boxing character in the end still stands on the floor as some kind of a victor by accepting his self-humiliation. It's a grotesque tragedy but an impressing abyssal dive and fall into fathomless humanity with infinite richness in spite of its extreme confinement in the small ugly corrupt world of the gladiator sport of boxing.

DKosty123 This film grew out of a great television drama script being converted to a Hollywood film. With Rod Serling in charge, the results had to be good and they are. It is the same story as the live broadcast on television except it has additional characters, more story and a different ending.Anthony Quinn plays "Mountain" a washed up boxer who on television was played by Jack Palance (US) and Sean Connery (UK). While I have never seen the UK version, both of these actors are tough acts to follow. Quinn does it by making the character pretty much like some real life boxers of the era. Jackie Gleason puts in an excellent performance as Mountains manager, and Mickey Rooney excels in the role as the trainer of Mountain and the guy who is between Mountain & Gleason. Julie Harris is excellent in her role as an employment office worker who takes on the challenge of trying too find the washed up boxer another job.While it is the story of a washed up boxer and his manager, there isn't really much boxing. That is because drama is the way the script is written. It works very well and the new ending is every bit as dramatic as the ending in the Palance version. When you look at them together, both have great casts, and the film has the advantage of not being live so it can work in more story and characters than the former.Still, both have such good scripts, they are both great entertainment. I'd watch both versions if you have the chance because they are both well done.