REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT

US, 1962, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris, Cassius Clay, Jack Dempsey.
Directed by Ralph Nelson.

Requiem for a Heavyweight was originally a T.V. play written by popular author Rod Serling. It marked the entry to movie direction of Ralph Nelson, who has since made such films as Lilies of the Field, Charly, Soldier Blue. This film was voted as one of the best films of 1962.

Anthony Quinn plays Mountain Rivera in the film. At the opening he is an ageing boxer being knocked out by Cassius Clay. With sclerotic damage to his eye, he is finished as a professional. The film covers only a few days in its action. But we grow to understand Mountain in his search for work. He is a simple man, a good man, loyal to his friends and trying 'not to step out of line' in his dealings with others. The dramatic conflict of the film comes in his encounters with a social worker, a kind spinster, played beautifully by Julie Harris. Mountain finds something of himself through the interest of Miss Miller, but he is bound in loyalty to his manager, Malsh. Mountain has to make a momentous decision for himself at the end of the film, and the last images of him are truly moving.

Anthony Quinn is a master actor and has won two Oscars (for V1va Zapata in 1952 and for Lust for Life in 1956). Since then he has shown his versatility in Zorba the Greek (and the consequent variations on this theme in too many films) and in The Shoes of the Fisherman where he makes a dignified Pope. His ageing fighter in this film is one of his best roles. He is supported excellently by Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney (who shows that he could have been a good actor) and Julie Harris.

This is a very moving film for any audience.

1. What was the point of making this film? What was the main concern of the writer and the director?

2. Comment on the impact of the opening of the film: the men in the bar, the fight, Clay, the subjective shot of Mountain's vision of the fight, the knockout and Mountain 'a being token of', his look in the mirror.

3. First impressions of Mountain? Was he likeable? Just punch-drunk and past his prime?

4. First impressions of Amish during his talk with the doctor, his treatment of Mountain? His betting against Mountain?

5. What comment did the film make on the world of professional boxing?

6. First impressions of Army? Why did he like Mountain?

7. Did your impression of Mountain change when you saw more of him and heard him speak? Did he idolize Maish too much? What did his job-hunting reveal about him?

8. What was the function of Miss Miller in the film? What did she represent? Did she handle the first interview well? How did Mountain reveal himself in this scene?

9. Why was Maish's forcing Mountain into wrestling so selfish and despicable? What did Army feel? Was Maish entitled to play on what Mountain owed him?

10. The sequence where Mise Miller visited the beat and met
Mountain? Why? Did they communicate? How? What did this show
of Mountain's potential as a human being?

11. Why did Mountain miss the opportunity for a job - did he really want it or not?

12. Why couldn't Miss Miller persuade him not to wrestle but to get a job? Was Maish's analysis of the situation to Miss Miller on the stairs a realistic one?

13. Why was wrestling such a humiliation for Mountain?

14. Why did Mountain change his mind? Did he see Maish for what he was? Was there any hope for reconciliation? Why did he go on?

15. How effective was the ending? What meaning did it convey without words about Mountain as a man?