Review of Play It To the Bone

Introduction

Ron Shelton has made a career of what could be called "sports movies". He came to prominence with Bull Durham - a rather excellent movie revolving around baseball. He has followed this with, among others, White Men Can`t Jump (basketball) and Tin Cup (golf). Tin Cup wasn`t bad, but it is fair to say that Shelton has never recaptured the heights of Bull Durham.

"Play It To The Bone" is his latest attempt and, as you might expect, it is sports related. This time the sport is boxing.

Vince (Woody Harrelson) and Cesar (Antonio Banderas) are boxers and best friends. While they both exhibited promise in the early days of their careers, they have fallen on hard times. We first meet them in a downbeat gym in South Central LA. They get a call from a promoter who needs two fighters for an undercard bout in Vegas that night. The boys negotiate what seems like a good deal - $50,000 each plus the winner gets a shot at the title.

The downside is that they are going to have to beat the crap out of each other.

Video

The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is spotless. Crisp and clear. Colours are bright and realistic.

Much of the early part of the film features a drive from LA to Vegas and the landscape looks gorgeous. Shots are well framed and the transfer does the imagery justice.

The fight at the end is (if you can stomach the violence) another highlight. Depending on the condition (both physical and psychological) of the fighters, the visuals are hyper-realistically clear or muted and blurred.

Technically excellent.

Audio

The DD 5.1 soundtrack is absolutely fine. Given the nature of the film - two thirds road movie and one third fight, there is little scope for really outrageous audio but what is there is very well done.

During the road movie sections, the audio comes into its own with the musical accompaniment. Mostly gospel and blues, the mix is expansive and warm.

However, it is during the fight scenes that the audio comes into its own. As with the visuals, the audio changes to match the state of the fight and fighters, moving from crisp and detailed to muddy when a fighter goes down. Stadium ambience is well presented and you get a good sense of place and occasion.

The film has to get a black mark, though, for the ill-advised cod-gospel reworking of Bill Wither`s "Lovely Day". Shame.

Features

In addition to the compulsory trailer, we get a couple of TV Spots, a Featurette and 20 minutes of interviews.

The trailer is an effective teaser for the movie and might have tempted me to go see it at the cinema (I didn`t though). The TV Spots are just (as you would expect) shorter trailers. The Featurette just regurgitates the trailer material and isn`t worth watching. And that leaves the interviews.

These aren`t bad. Of the actors Banderas and Davidovich come off best seeming intelligent and pretty decent. Robert Wagner seems as slimy as the characters he portrays, Harrelson seems insufferably arrogant and Tom Sizemore seems psychotic. The best bits though are those of Shelton talking about the film. He has an obvious love for both movies and sport and you wish that there had been a commentary rather than just a 5-minute interview.

So, the features are better than many but nowhere near as good as the best.

In previous review, I feel I have been too lenient on the Features scoring. No longer. If we take T2 as deserving a 9 (hey, the studios need an incentive to do even better), this deserves a 2.

Conclusion

While Ron Shelton is a well-respected writer/director, his films never seem to live up to expectations. He is so obviously knowledgeable about both sports and the filmmaking craft that the movies should be better than they are and you really want to like them.

But, Bull Durham excepted, he seems to always underachieve and this is no exception.

Again, all the correct pieces are in place. The subject matter is intriguing. We`ve had fight films before but rarely do we get to root for both protagonists. It is a good opportunity to examine the nature of the sport and how the fighters feel. The cast should be good (Harrelson, Sizemore, Davidovich and Liu are all reliable). But, it doesn`t really work.

The first problem is that the film doesn`t really know what it wants to be. The first two thirds of the film is a comedy/road movie. Except that it isn`t particularly funny. The last third is the fight. This is technically excellent but is brutal and unpleasant viewing. This is undoubtedly intentional but may well alienate those who had enjoyed the previous 80 minutes. If you came to see fighting, the first 80 minutes would probably bore you to tears.

Another problem (again probably intentional) is that the movie builds up some affection for both Vince and Cesar and then makes you watch 20 minutes of them beating hell out of each other. And I`m not exaggerating; the fight is particularly brutal, rivalling Raging Bull at times.

I`m not totally convinced by the portrayal women in this film. Shelton is normally good at this - witness the Sarandon role in Dull Durham or the Russo role in Tin Cup. Both strong, empowering roles. Not so here. Davidovich comes out best as the (ex) lover of both Vince and Cesar. She is stronger and more comfortable with herself than either Vince or Cesar but she still allows herself to be abused by the Wagner character. The biggest problem with the female portrayals is the Lucy Liu role. I guess that she is supposed to be some sort of free spirit. But she just comes across as a thoroughly nasty slut. No redeeming qualities at all. This is probably partly the fault of the script and partly the way in which Liu plays the role.

Of the male roles, Cesar is probably the best defined and (remarkably) Banderas gives the best performance of the film. He has been involved in so many crap movies that it is easy to forget that he is actually a pretty good actor. He gives a likeable and sensitive performance and goes some way to redeeming the film.

Shelton has made a good looking, good sounding movie. However, you are unlikely to come away with any insights into the mindset of boxers. And, if you`re squeamish, you might want to skip the fight at the end.