Requiem for a Heavyweight

This film is one of the great forgotten masterpieces. Rarely do you see such depth of emotion as displayed by the three leading characters: Anthony Quinn, Mickey Rooney and Jackie Gleason. This is undoubtedly Quinn's greatest and most poignant performance, he delivers a knock out interpretation of the brain-damaged Mountain Rivera. Make-up and a false nose disguises Quinn's good looks and he resembles a drunken Victor MacLagen here. Mickey Rooney, always seriously underrated, is magnificent as Mountain's assistant. And Jackie Gleason is perfection as the greasy, sleazy manager. The scene of him on the stairwell with Julie Harris is one of the great moments in cinema history. What a movie!

I'm at a loss to explain why this brilliant film is not universally recognized as one of the great movies ever made. The acting is superb, the screenplay gripping and the ending will mesmerize you. A thinking man's flick, to be sure. This is definitely a keeper.

I purchased this DVD after viewing a portion of the movie on TV - What I saw on TV that made the biggest impression on me, was a scene towards the very end of the movie. Jackie Gleason confronted by the up and coming boxer and his handler gives one of the most powerful speeches of the movie, and some of the most memorable acting I've ever seen. He chides these two for believing that they could be a champion for believing that they'll turn out any different than the Mountain, and rejects their offer to be their manager.

Not only was the speech powerful, the acting superb but also the scene gives insight into the future of Gleason's character. Maish, has learned his lesson, he isn't going to be manager another boxer for 17 year while chasing the ghost of a championship. He is still a bum who betted against his own fighter, but the story goes to great lengths to make Gleason more than just a one-dimensional rotten manager, and this final scene brings that point home.

I don't why these scenes were excluded. Maybe this is the original release version - but then why weren't they included as extras on the DVD? I don't know. I hope that at some point, this movie, with the missing scenes is released on DVD. If it is I will happily buy that version - While this DVD is crisp and clean, while the story is still great and the acting perfect - to know that these other scenes are missing, particularly the one I mentioned, well in this case this DVD isn't enough

- Complete its a 5 stars - incomplete its still great - but I can't help feeling I'm missing an important part of the movie without it including these scenes - so I am giving it 3 stars - to draw attention that something is missing from this movie - and not as a reflection of the movie that is on the DVD which is still great -