Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)

This is the real America. We’re told growing up that if you work hard and stay true, you can be anything with the American Dream waiting just for you. Not in “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” a true-classic film that shows the world outside the boxing ring as far crueler than the one between the ropes. In life one never sees the punch coming until it’s too late. We focus on Luis “Mountain” Rivera (Anthony Quinn) a boxer who -– as the movie opens –- sees his final fight when he’s knocked out, and the doctor deems him unfit to go again as blindness or a fatal aneurysm is assured. Born poor with no education, Rivera had and has zero chance, and now he and his “cut man” (Mickey Rooney) are at the mercy of the duo’s longtime manager, a gambler (Jackie Gleason) swallowed whole by booze and selfishness. The sick tragedy: Rivera remains true to his “master” because he knows of no other option. His loyalty is his doom. Rod Serling of “Twilight Zone” fame wrote the dagger sharp screenplay that draws blood with ripped dialogue. The final scene is one of Hollywood’s greatest gut punchers, leaving any compassionate viewer reeling hard. A+