Denzel Washington offers a powerful performance as a proud, intelligent black man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit in “The Hurricane” (1999). Of course, it’s not surprising, since Washington has been nailing variations of the proud, intelligent black man since “A Soldier’s Story.” It would be fair to say Washington has become something like Gary Cooper, James Stewart or John Wayne in that the characters and the man have merged to form a single icon. Sometimes it can imprison an actor. Washington’s challenge, and ours, is to keep finding fresh nuance, as he did with his boxing champ here.
Archives for posts with tag: boxing movies
To say “Rocky IV” (1985) is simplistic is to say two more words than I think Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago said in the entire movie. Sylvester Stallone cashes in (or sells out?) by exploiting the Cold War in what turns out to be, more or less, a 90-minute music video of workout montages, flashbacks and forgotten ’80s hits. But there’s also James Brown singing “Living in America” when Apollo Creed enters the ring to fight Drago. That scene says more about the spectacle of boxing than anything ever filmed. If this movie only exists for that one purpose, it’s enough.
I thought “Begin Again” (2014) was going to be a romantic comedy that takes place in the music industry. I also thought it might be a dud. Wrong and wrong. There’s romance and comedy, and much more music than I thought, but this film defies convention. It’s almost like a boxing movie, but with the music industry substituting for boxing. Mark Ruffalo is a washed-up former champ who gets his groove back thanks to the inspiration of an up-and-coming bantamweight played by Keira Knightley. There’s lots of familiar faces (Catherine Keener, Mos Def, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, etc.). Nicely done.
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