Play It to the Bone
USA 1999
Reviewed by Geoffrey Macnab
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Las Vegas, the present. The promoters behind a Mike Tyson match learn that two of the boxers on the undercard are indisposed. In need of replacements, they call the gym in Los Angeles where Cesar and Vince work out. Both are fighters who have never fulfilled their potential. They accept the terms offered: $50,000 each and a shot at the title.
Cesar's girlfriend Grace (who used to go out with Vince) agrees to drive them to Vegas. En route, they joke, argue and fret about the fight. A hitchhiker whom they pick up has sex with Vince behind a gas station.
Once in Vegas, Cesar and Vince sign their contracts and square up against one another in the ring. Their riveting 10-round bout is judged a draw, which means neither gets a shot at the title, although the promoters, who short-change the boxers, hint at a possible rematch. Vince and Cesar blow a large part of their winnings in the casino. Grace, who has been trying to whip up interest in various business schemes, meets a businessman who tries to seduce her, then hits her. The trio leave Vegas together and drive back to Los Angeles.
Review
Writer-director Ron Shelton's sports movies rarely celebrate winners. A former minor-league baseball player, he is preoccupied with the sporting world's more marginal figures, old-timers who have squandered or been denied their shot at glory. In Tin Cup, for instance, an over-the-hill golfer blows his chance of becoming US Open champion by blasting ball after ball into the water, while in Cobb legendary baseball star Ty Cobb is exposed as a racist misanthrope. But while Shelton seems to understand the tawdry politics and dirty business of sport, his films still stubbornly preserve a sense of child-like idealism.
Play It to the Bone is typical Shelton in this regard. He spends much of the film revealing just how corrupt the professional boxing world really is. The promoters and Vegas bigwigs treat their fighters with contempt - if a boxer inconveniently dies, they simply send for another. And the fighters - in need of money, or desperate for a stab at the title - allow themselves to be abused. Vince and Cesar, both coming to the end of their careers, jump at the chance to fight each other at a few hours' notice on Mike Tyson's undercard. They're best friends and past their prime - one has a detached retina - but nothing can stop them from beating each other up.
Play It to the Bone is as much a road movie as a fight film. As Shelton follows the fighters and Grace, the woman they both love, driving from LA to Vegas - they're too poor to fly - his dialogue captures the bravado, childishness and nostalgia of the two men. Both have their foibles: Vince is a born-again Christian who keeps thinking he has sighted Jesus on the sidewalk; Cesar is naive and diffident. When Vince announces that "all the great ones get laid before a fight" and disappears behind a garage with a female hitchhiker, Cesar, who is copying everything he does, tries forlornly to talk Grace into having sex with him. As with so many buddy movies, there is an erotic undertow to the two men's friendship, one which Vince's homophobic rants only bring closer into focus.
Once the fighters reach Vegas, the film begins to rehash old sports-movie clichés. The boxing commissioners, bent lawyers and stony-faced corner-men, are familiar types, whose equivalents can be found in Ring Lardner stories and countless other boxing movies. Tom Sizemore gives an outrageously hammy performance as the cigar-chomping, Don King-like promoter who's putting the bill together. The fight itself is brutal, bloody and expertly choreographed. It lasts for a small eternity and teeters on the verge of absurdity throughout, but the outcome - which sees the judges declare a draw between Cesar and Vince - is a missed opportunity. It would surely have made for a more interesting, ambiguous movie had Shelton singled out one of his two heroes as the winner.
Whereas John Huston's Fat City (1971) - arguably the most honest boxing movie ever made - feels like a film directed by an insider, somebody who understands at first hand the squalor, pathos and macabre comedy of the sport, Play It to the Bone ends up as an old-fashioned wish-fulfilment fantasy. Here the fighters' innate decency transcends the corruption of the professional boxing world they inhabit. It's an amiable, low-key yarn which suggests that Shelton, like the athletes whose exploits he celebrates, is a perennial under-achiever.
Credits
- Director
- Ron Shelton
- Producer
- Stephen Chin
- Screenplay
- Ron Shelton
- Director of Photography
- Mark Vargo
- Editor
- Paul Seydor
- Production Designer
- Claire Jenora Bowin
- Music
- Alex Wurman
- ©Play It, Inc.
- Production Companies
- Touchstone Pictures/ Shanghai'd Films
- Executive Producer
- David Lester
- Associate Producer
- Kellie Davis
- Production Office Co-ordinator
- Daren Hicks
- Production Manager
- David Siegel
- Location Managers
- Lauren Ross
- LA:
- David L. Wolfson
- Location Consultant
- James H. Wheelan
- Post-production Supervisor
- Brad Arensman
- 2nd Unit Director
- David Lester
- Assistant Directors
- H. Gordon Boos
- Emily E. McGovern
- Script Supervisor
- Wilma Garscadden-Gahret
- Casting
- Victoria Thomas
- Location:
- Marshall Peck
- Associate:
- Kim Coleman
- Las Vegas, Additional Location:
- Ray Favero
- Voice:
- L.A. MadDogs
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- David B. Nowell
- Camera Operators
- Harry Garvin
- Additional:
- Robert Presley
- Steadicam Operator
- Harry Garvin
- Special Effects Supervisor
- Gary D'Amico
- Film Editor
- Patrick Flannery
- Associate Editor
- Clay Rawlins
- Art Director
- Mary Finn
- Set Designer
- Theodore Sharps
- Set Decorator
- Danielle Berman
- Costume Designer
- Kathryn Morrison
- Costume Supervisor
- Leslie Eve Herman
- Make-up
- Design/Supervision:
- Steve LaPorte
- Artist:
- Ken Chase
- Hair
- Supervisor:
- Melissa A. Yonkey
- Stylist:
- Cheryl Jones Eckert
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Solo Vocals
- Carmen Twillie
- Slide Guitar
- Edward Kumpel
- Hammond B3 Organ
- Alex Wurman
- Orchestra Conductor
- Gordon Goodwin
- Orchestrations
- Tom Calderaro
- Choral Arrangement
- Alex Wurman
- Music Supervisors
- Dawn Solér
- Sterling Meredith
- Supervising Music Editor
- Jim Harrison
- Drum Programming
- John Lehmkuhl
- Music Score Engineer
- Michael Verdick
- Soundtrack
- "Here's to Life" - Jacintha; "Shakey Ground" - Fishbone; "Boom Boom" - John Lee Hooker; "Why Are You So Mean to Me?" - Jimmy Rogers; "Corazone" - Los Lobos; "Grecian Formula One Stop", "Macedonian Meadows", "No Money" - Marty Blasick; "I Must Tell Jesus" - Linda Jackson; "Dangerous Mood" - B.B. King with Joe Cocker; "Too Blue" - Ann Farnsworth; "Memory Gospel", "Bedhead", "Machete" - Moby; "Island Ways" - Sandy Cressman; "Step Aside" - Fred Tucker, Mark Prudeaux; "Gonna Be a Lovely Day" - Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation Project
- Sound Design/Supervision
- Stephen Hunter Flick
- Sound Mixer
- Art Rochester
- Re-recording Mixers
- Jeffrey Perkins
- Samuel Lehmer
- Recordist
- Ryan Murphy
- Supervising Sound Editor
- William Jacobs
- Dialogue Editors
- David Bach
- Alex Gonzales
- David V. Butler
- Jeff Kaplan
- Sound Effects Recordist
- Patricio Libenson
- Effects Editors
- Charles Maynes
- Dean Beville
- ADR Mixer
- Greg Steele
- Foley
- Artists:
- Zane Bruce
- Joseph T. Sabella
- Mixer:
- Bruce R. Bell
- Editor:
- Dana Gustafson
- Boxing Trainer/ Choreographer
- Darrell Foster
- Boxing Technical Adviser
- Bill Caplan
- Aerial Unit Pilots
- David Paris
- Alan Purwin
- Rick Shuster
- Cast
- Antonio Banderas
- Cesar Dominguez
- Woody Harrelson
- Vince Boudreau
- Lolita Davidovich
- Grace Pasic
- Tom Sizemore
- Joe Domino
- Robert Wagner
- Hank Goody
- Lucy Liu
- Lia
- Richard Masur
- Artie
- Willie Garson
- Cappie Caplan
- Cylk Cozart
- Rudy
- Jack Carter
- Dante Solomon
- Aida Turturro
- mad Greek waitress
- Louie Leonardo
- Freddy Green
- Slade Barnett
- Vegas cop
- Cameron Milzer
- Vegas paramedic
- Julio Garcia
- Chiquito Rosario
- Johnny Ortiz
- gym owner
- Jordy Oakland
- Julie
- Will Utay
- Sal
- Joseph Arsenault
- Bobby
- Fred Lewis
- Maurice Singer
- Vegas lawyers
- Robert Sale
- Robert Velario
- Joe Cortez
- Garden referee
- Bruce Buffer
- Garden ring announcer
- Teddy Atlas
- Cesar's Garden trainer
- Dana Lee
- man with Ferrari
- Rob Ingersoll
- Jesus
- Robby Robinson
- Skeeter Lewis
- Mitch Halpern
- Vince's big fight referee
- Chuck Hull
- Vince's big fight ring announcer
- Jim Lampley
- HBO commentator
- Al Bernstein
- Reynaldo Rey
- sportswriters
- Eloy Casados
- Vince's trainer
- Henry G. Sanders
- Cesar's trainer
- Vasil Chuck Bodak
- Cesar's cutman
- Jacob 'Stitch' Duran
- Vince's cutman
- Al Benner
- Cesar's cornerman
- Pat Barry
- Vince's cornerman
- Steve Lawrence
- himself
- George Foreman
- Larry Merchant
- HBO commentators
- Mike Tyson
- himself
- Darrell Foster
- referee
- Michael Buffer
- ring announcer
- Rod Stewart
- himself
- Bill Caplan
- Doctor Velvil Ginsberg
- Marc Ratner
- boxing commissioner
- Jane Broadfoot
- Carlos Padilla
- timekeepers
- Debbie Caplan
- Elizabeth Caplan
- press assistants
- Denise Pernula
- Veronica Becerra
- ring card girls
- Tamara Gibler
- Fulvia Sanchez
- Faye Mangabang
- fantasy girls
- Alison Walsh
- bartender
- Ana Divac
- Grace's party friend
- Tom Todoroff
- croupier
- Kevin Costner
- James Woods
- Drew Carey
- Tony Curtis
- Wesley Snipes
- Natasha Gregson Wagner
- Jennifer Tilly
- Bob Arum
- Lovey Arum
- Angel Manfredy
- Yvette Manfredy
- ringside fans
- Buddy Greco
- Dick Williams
- Gennifer Flowers
- Tony Tucker
- Joey Maxim
- Lezlie Anders
- Patricia Ford
- Steve Schirripa
- Bo Bolinski
- John Momot
- party guests
- Bill Dwyre
- Bruce Trampler
- Bert Sugar
- Royce Feour
- Michael Katz
- Randy Harvey
- Michael Rosenthal
- Bernard Fernandez
- Tim Graeham
- Steve Springer
- Rick Reilly
- Jason Levin
- Ron Borges
- Doug Kirkorian
- Tim Smith
- George Kimball
- Timothy Dahlberg
- Joe Hawk
- Chris Thorne
- ringside sportswriters
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Redbus Film Distribution
- 11,151 feet
- 123 minutes 54 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- 2.35:1 [Panavision]