The All-American Boy

Before Jon Voight became love and sex object Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy he did this film The All American Boy which was shelved. Released due to the success of Midnight Cowboy, this film sadly provides the reason it was shelved in the first place.

Voight is playing another Joe Buck, not that he's outright selling his body for sex, but he's got good looks and charm and that's good enough for a lot to get by on and he does. What puzzled me is why would he want to ruin all that and become a boxer? A life of that sport and he'll wind up a version of himself that he played in the remake of The Champ.

Sadly the film drags on in the telling. It has several spots guaranteed to give you yawns. Did like that rather surreal ending.

Best in the film is the gay fight manager and Ned Glass takes one look at him and he's an instant houseguest. A harbinger of Midnight Cowboy.

A half hour less this film might have been Voight's breakout role rather than Midnight Cowboy.

Former top amateur boxer Vic Bealer (Jon Voight) walked away from it all for no apparent reasons. He lives an aimless life. One day, he walks into a boxing gym.

This is a very 70's character and movie. He's an aimless wanderer searching for something. When he first enters the gym, I thought they would just go with the boxing movie. Then he keeps taking detours meandering around. This movie needs to cut down and streamline. It's too 70's and feels a bit self-indulgent. This came after Deliverance and it's falling flat. I'm not sure what I'm watching. I'm not sure what he's feeling half the time. This is divided into six rounds and each one feels episodic and disconnected. I guess all that is the point of the movie, but there is no tension in this.

This is a wonderful surreal gonzo movie of the early seventies. Why it was ever released is beyond me! John Voight is perfect as the boxer hoping to get to the Olympics from the small town of "Buddyville". The relationship between Voight and his girlfriend is fascinating. Anne Archer is stunning in one of her early roles. Charles Eastman directed his original screenplay which reminds you of the later works of Terence Malick. The ending has a "Days of Heaven" feel to it. I enjoyed the use music in the film especially "Laugh Laugh" by the Beau Brummels. When was the last time you heard the Beau Brummels? The dialog has a "inner" quality to which adds to surrealness of the film. Check this one out you won't be disappointed!

I have always confounded this movie with PAPERBACK HERO. Same year, same kind of offbeat drama, a kind of character, psychological study, sometimes very sad, sometimes funny. The tale of a man in search of himself, with actors who look like one to each other. An existential tale with of course a down beat ending; at least bitter sweet which leaves you an ash taste in the mouth. Another point in common, sport drama; I guess there are many more like this one.

Jon Voigt has endless possibilities in front of him, so he heads down to Vacaville, gets Ned Glass as a trainer/manager and starts getting ready to become a great boxer. But things come too easy to him -- women most especially -- so he never has to commit to anything until it's too late.

Jon Voigt has proven himself a willing and bold actor over the decades, but he gives a closed and boring performance in this long-winded and turgid story about "the Many Art in Six Rounds". It was an era in which important movies had anti-heroes and old values were dead, so this movie was pulled off the shelf after MIDNIGHT COWBOY had made Voigt a star.... and it flopped hard.

It flopped because it's a bad story, a story about someone who threw it all away for no reason but laziness and fear and unwillingness to commit. It's not a message that anyone really needs to hear: "Don't be afraid to work hard and commit to a goal. That's the way to succeed." We all know it, even if we can't do it ourselves. We don't need a precautionary tale to tell us that.