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"'Glory'
Daze"
by Scott Mantz
"The Price of Glory"
Jimmy Smits, Jon Seda
Directed by Carlos Avila
In his classic
poem "The Road Not Traveled", Robert Frost examined the significance
of approaching a fork in the road and comparing it to the choices
we have to make in our everyday lives. Making an important decision
is often marred by speculation later on about what might have been
if things had been different. That speculation can sometimes lead
to reliving the past through our kids. When that happens, it's important
to determine that what we're doing is what's best for them, not
what's best for us. In other words, don't be selfish. In "The Price
of Glory", Jimmy Smits tries so hard to recapture the past that
he pays the ultimate price. While the film is filled with strong
performances and examines many ethical and moral issues, it ends
up being far too contrived and predictable (and long) to leave any
lasting emotional impact.
Arturo Ortega
(Jimmy Smits) is a former middleweight boxing contender who's best
days are behind him. When not one, but all three of his sons begin
to show promise in the ring, he sees a second chance to recapture
the past. His oldest is Sonny (Jon Seda), a promising fighter who's
more concerned with raising a family than spending his life in the
ring. There's Jimmy (Clifton Collins Jr.), the stubborn middle brother
who can't seem to do right by his even more stubborn father. Finally,
there's teenager Johnny (Ernesto Hernandez), who's just waiting
in the wings to become the biggest boxer of them all. As the "Fighting
Ortegas" move up the ladder, Arturo tightens his grip and oversteps
his boundaries as their manager and trainer. Where he was once crucial
to their development, he now threatens to hold them back from the
big time.
For a film that
strives to say so much, "The Price of Glory" ends up saying surprisingly
so little. Instead of spending so much time focusing on the same
old boxing techniques that we've seen before in countless other
films, perhaps more time should have been spent on the values of
this closely knit Mexican-American family. With a running time of
close to 2 hours, certain scenes tend to drag on and outstay their
welcome. Some of those scenes, while emotional and powerfully acted
in their own right, feel far too contrived and cliched to really
ring true.
Despite the
shortcomings of the script, Jimmy Smits is still a commanding presence
and does his best with what he is given. He is a man with broken
dreams who clearly loves his family, but he winds up using them
as a means to an end to nurse old wounds. This leads to plenty of
internal conflicts, but after a while, you expect him to wake up
and smell the coffee. Even after he makes the ultimate sacrifice,
he still doesn't quite get it. When he finally comes through by
the film's predictable climax, it's hard to be happy for him. He
takes far too long and makes too many sacrifices before he finally
realizes what he should have known all along.
As the boxing
siblings, all three actors put in convincing performances. John
Seda and Clifton Collins Jr. are strong (in more ways than one)
as they struggle to overcome their contestants and their father
at the same time. Ernesto Hernandez clearly has the best head on
his shoulders as the youngest of the three, and Maria del Mar is
decent as the supportive and strong mother and wife. Ron Perlman
effortlessly displays all the sleazy characteristics that go along
with being a boxing promoter, but in the end you realize that he's
not such a bad guy after all.
There are a
few powerful scenes (which I can't tell you about) and the film
pushes all the right emotional buttons. Still, I demand a rematch.
It feels too much like a missed opportunity. Perhaps screenwriter
Phil Berger and director Carlos Avila will look back at the road
not traveled and realize that they delivered a sucker punch instead
of a full-blown knockout.
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