Viver É Lutar

A young Rita Moreno playing the sweet girl next door,Jack Elam in a tweed sport coat and floppy hat as a sleazy boxing promoter...Wow,I can't ask for much more.Movie was made when I was a youngster,watching it now it looks so nostalgic almost like being in a dream for me.Many scenes look to be shot on location and remind me of my own slum.Shiny old cars,carhops,old houses,etc are just icing on the cake.The story?Young Chicano trying to bust out of poverty by being a boxer also facing discrimination which was more blatant back then.All the cast gives realistic presentations...Some things don't change with time,like an angry young man being calmed down by the soft words of his girl(Rita)...Although crazy about boxing I don't like boxing movies which this is,part of the reason I didn't give it a 10.

Writer Irving Shulman was a talented screenwriter and novelist (including the classic "The Amboy Dukes"), and this is an adequate if cliched boxing story of his. Lead actor Lalo Rios is weak as a young Mexican-American in Los Angeles who learns the hard way that boxing is not such an attractive ticket to the American dream, but Rita as his girlfriend steals the show.

Sure, her part is underwritten, but what beauty from an iconic talent still going strong 72 years later! Director Kurt Neumann does a workmanlike job, obviously not on the level of his sci-fi and fantasy classics like "Kronos", "The Fly" and "She Devil".

Sticking out here is a memorable early scene where Rita takes our hero out to a movie but they're turned away at the box office, pointing to the sign that lists "Colored Night" and "Mexican Night" for segregation -it's not their night!

Even the cheap production values of The Ring which admittedly looks like it was shot on chump change give it a look of authenticity. The Ring is a fine film about a young Mexican-American kid who thinks that boxing could be his ticket out of the slums. The lead here is played by young Lalos Rios who went on to a substantial career for the next twenty years.

Better known of course is Rita Moreno who was doing her fourth film and she plays Rios's girl friend. It's a part light years different from Anita in West Side Story.

Lalos Rios plays young Tommy Cantanios whose family is going through a real financial crisis. His father is laid off from work and they owe a lot of money for furniture on credit. Young Tommy asks to help, but his father, Martin Garralaga sluffs off the offer.

In the history of Mexican-Americans, The Ring tells its story in a time almost halfway between the zoot suit rioters of the Forties and the organization of migrant farm laborers by Cesar Chavez in the Sixties. Still a time when the discrimination that brought on the zoot suit riots was very real.

After a couple of encounters with some discrimination young Rios gets a lift by chance from fight manager Gerald Mohr who sees some possibilities in the kid. He takes him under his wing and changes his professionally to Tommy Kansas. He and trainer Robert Osterloh bring him up the ranks slowly.

Of course Rios is impatient and Mohr starts to question whether he really does have the talent to make it really big in the fight game.

The Ring is a very realistic film about the fight game and life in East Los Angeles in the Fifties. Look also for good performances from Jack Elam as a sleazy fight promoter and from Art Aragon who was a popular welterweight boxer from back in the day who later went into acting after his ring days were done.

Rios learns two very valuable lessons, one is best summed up by that eminent American philosopher Clint Eastwood who once remarked a man's got to know his limitations. But even more important Rios learns that The Ring is not the only place he can fight for his beliefs and his people. The arena of life is not just a squared circle.

Vidal Cantanios struggles to find honorable work in East Los Angeles. He's been laid off by the Anglo boss. Rebellious son Tomas 'Tommy' Cantanios gets into a street fight with a couple of racists and gets picked up by boxing promoter Pete Ganusa. He starts prize fighting despite his father's disapproval. Lucy Gomez (Rita Moreno) is his girlfriend.

It's an early film examining institutional racism with a boxing film. It's a little jarring to see overt racism against Mexicans done so plainly. The lead's acting is rather amateurish. He does act opposite future star Rita Moreno. This is one of her first non-dancing acting jobs in a non-racist role. Overall, this is an important indie for the themes of racism and lower class struggles. The lead's poor acting does hold this back. If only, they had somebody real.

"This is Los Angeles: sprawling metropolis of the west. It's a beautiful city. It walks like a young giant from the mountains down to the sea. It has shiny buildings and modern freeways. Almost engulfed by the city surrounding it lies a little street "Olvera street." A street that appears to be forgotten by time."

Thus starts the movie with tourists taking pictures of "the lazy Mexicans."

A Mexican family falls on hard times when the father is laid off. Bad timing, it turns out. The family had just bought new furniture and are very proud of the blue sofa and matching chairs (the film is b&w so the chairs look grey to us). "Send it back!" demands the father. The son says he will get a job to help pay for the furniture but the father says "you are only a boy." Storming out of the house the son goes to "the clubhouse" to see his friends. Harassed by bigoted white police and denied service by white owned businesses "Tommy" lets his rage out and gets in a fight.

Tommy is seen fighting by a talent scout - one who is interested in making Tommy a professional fighter. "Don't you want to be something? Do you want to be pushed around like your dad?" Tommy is convinced and "Tommy Kansas" is born.

Tommy's father thinks it's a disgrace. "I am a poor man, but I am not a brute!" But the rest of the family is behind him. "If you do not give up fighting you will leave this house!" exclaims his father as he storms off.

I will admit to not being a big boxing fan. This film, however, kept my interest. The main character "Tommy" is well played and his transformation from naive street kid to young seasoned boxer makes this film worthwhile.