After a stumble with Supernova, one of the most underrated directors of our time, Walter Hill, returns to form with Undisputed, a super-stylish boxing flick.
It starts with Heavyweight Boxing Champ James ‘Iceman’ Chambers (Ving Rhames) headed for Sweetwater Prison on a rape charge he vehemently denies. Unbeknownst to him, Sweetwater also houses Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes), a lifer with fast hands and a spotless prison boxing record. And just like that, the stage is set for an old-fashioned yarn in which two undefeated men climb into a cage knowing that only one will leave with that reputation intact.
This isn’t just a pride fight, though. Just like in real boxing, the real action involves the money and power from outside the ring. Wielding that power and money is “Mendy” Ripstein (Peter Falk), an aging gangster and pugilism enthusiast from way back (think John L Sullivan’s bare knuckle days). He hopes to pull all the right strings to put together one last great match-up before the bell rings on his final round.
As the only true movie star in Undisputed, Snipes shows a level of talent we haven’t seen a glimmer of since his Spike Lee films. But the picture brims with a cast of character actors finally allowed to step up to the plate. Rhames makes a great champ, with his hulking physique and broiling anger. Not too bright but never stupid, his Iceman only knows how to fight and does so with everyone and everything, stylishly and skillfully.
Falk’s Ripstein might out-tough the tough guys in Sweetwater with his untouchable confident air. In the smaller roles, Michael Rooker, Wes Studi, and Fisher Stevens (who is becoming Tracey Walter at an alarming rate) all comport themselves with the manner straight out of the classic Warner Bros. stable.
Hill introduces us to all of these characters with on-screen statistics in a really nice stylized touch. Sure, the picture obviously owes the set-up to Mike Tyson’s legal troubles, but that’s the only part indebted to reality. Sweetwater prison exists purely in the world of pulp novels and B-pictures, and that’s the way it should be.
In fact, some of the characters actually seem to be from Hill’s masterpiece The Warriors (possibly the greatest film of all time). The skinhead gang looks a lot like The Warriors‘ Turnbull ACs, and Sweetwater’s Saladin wears the uniform headpiece and sunglasses sported by The Riffs.
Undisputed lacks bad guys. Actually, better stated, the film has only bad guys. Every character is out for himself, with fully understandable reasons for his actions. This picture will split audiences whom they are rooting for. Personally, I took Iceman’s side, but I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who were all about Hutchen.
A wiser man than I once said that everyone in a Walter Hill film is pissed off for no particular reason, and although these inmates have their reasons, Undisputed has that ‘fable of men’ feel that Michael Bay has spent his career hollowly mimicking. Hill made his reputation writing and later directing hardboiled guy pictures like The Getaway, Streets of Fire and The Warriors. Undisputed may not quite equal those classics, but it’s closer than anything we’ve gotten in a long time.
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