{"id":3756,"date":"2024-08-29T22:07:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T22:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3756"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:45:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:45:48","slug":"body-and-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/29\/body-and-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Body and Soul (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Body and Soul <\/strong>(1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sports violence, nudity, sexual content, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Bowers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Leon Isaac Kennedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Webster Lewis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Forrest\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 9, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leon Isaac Kennedy, Jayne Kennedy, Perry Lang, Nikki Swassy, Mike Gazzo, Kim Hamilton, Peter Lawford, Gilbert Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Danny Welles, Johnny Brown, Al Denavo, Chris Wallace, Robbie Epps, J.B. Williamson, DeForrest Covan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Many boxing-related movies followed in the wake of the success of Rocky in 1976. One of my favorites is Body and Soul<\/strong>, a remake of the 1947 film starring John Garfield and Lilli Palmer. I know it\u2019s not well regarded among cinephiles, but this one likes it for several reasons, not the least of which is that it bears the Golan-Globus label of B-movie excellence. By now, you all know how much I love 80s-era Cannon so I don\u2019t need to defend myself on that front. Oddly enough, I forgot Body and Soul<\/strong> was Cannon until I popped in the DVD yesterday. As soon as I saw Golan and Globus\u2019 names come up on the screen, a smile spread across my face. I felt a certain sense of nostalgia as I settled back to watch a flick I first saw on cable in November 1983. It\u2019s a good feeling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Leon Isaac Kennedy (the Penitentiary trilogy) stars as Leon \u201cThe Lover\u201d Johnson, an amateur boxer who decides to go pro in order to raise money for his little sister Kelly\u2019s (Swassy, Diff\u2019rent Strokes) mounting medical bills. Poor kid suffers from sickle cell anemia. His mother (Hamilton, Odds Against Tomorrow) is against it; she wants him to finish medical school and become a doctor. He argues that a successful run as a boxer means he can make something of himself. He asks none other than \u201cThe Greatest\u201d (Muhammad Ali as himself) to train him. He takes on \u201cThe Lover\u201d persona at this point. Every good fighter needs a gimmick, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Leon\u2019s continuous winning streak catches the attention of a sleazy promoter, Big Man (Rat Pack member Lawford), who promises him a shot at the title if he signs with him. You can probably guess that signing a contract with Big Man is tantamount to making a deal with the Devil. Leon wins his fight against an unstoppable Terminator-like fighter named Iceman (Epps) but in gaining the title, he loses his soul as well as the love and respect of his sports reporter girlfriend Julie (Leon\u2019s real-life wife at the time Jayne). You don\u2019t have to be a genius to guess that Leon rises back to the top of his game to take on the new young boxer, a mean brute called \u201cMad Man Santiago\u201d (Denavo, The Main Event), his boss is grooming to be the next champ.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll gladly concede that Body and Soul<\/strong> is a collection of clich\u00e9s and tropes, but show me a boxing movie (aside from Raging Bull) that isn\u2019t. They all follow the same plot trajectory more or less. I can\u2019t say how closely the remake follows the original movie as I haven\u2019t seen it, but I\u2019m willing to bet that both versions tell basically the same story.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In any event, Body and Soul<\/strong> works for me for a few reasons. For one, I like the cast. Perry Lang (Spring Break) plays Leon\u2019s friend Charles, a sensitive sort forced out of his gig as manager by drug addiction (it\u2019s Big Man\u2019s doing, of course). Here\u2019s where we run into an odd complication. Lang is a good actor. I\u2019ve liked him in several movies; Body and Soul<\/strong> is no exception. However, he does some serious overacting here, especially in the scene where he has a drug-induced mental breakdown. At least Lang limits it to just one part of the movie. Denavo chews up the scenery in every scene he\u2019s in. His antagonist is almost a cartoon with the silly trash-talk dialogue he\u2019s forced to say. In one scene, he throws a baby to the ground after she accidentally wets on him. Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather Part II) shows up as Leon\u2019s crusty trainer who tells him he\u2019s going to work him so hard, he\u2019ll hate his guts. Lawford oozes equal parts charisma and malevolence as the slimy promoter. TV addicts will recognize Danny Welles (Charlie the bartender from The Jeffersons) and Johnny Brown (building superintendent Bookman- aka \u201cBuffalo Butt\u201d- from Good Times) as the ringside commentators.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now that I\u2019ve talked up the supporting cast, let\u2019s talk about the main players. I like Leon Isaac and Jayne very much. To me, he was always a welcome presence in movies. I like the Penitentiary flicks. I also like him in Lone Wolf McQuade and Hollywood Vice Squad. Jayne, a former Miss USA semi-finalist, is beautiful, sexy and talented. She and her husband have nice chemistry together. Their characters\u2019 love story is half of the heart of Body and Soul<\/strong>. The other part is Leon\u2019s love for his little sister. They have some sweet scenes together. It balances nicely with the brutality in the ring. The fight scenes are bloody and well done. Leon\u2019s fight with Iceman is really something else even if Iceman\u2019s makeup job isn\u2019t entirely convincing. Another thing I like about Body and Soul<\/strong> is the use of the Billy Preston-Syreeta duet \u201cWith You I\u2019m Born Again\u201d originally heard in the 1979 basketball comedy Fast Break. It\u2019s a beautiful song that works to great effect here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like a lot of Cannon flicks, Body and Soul<\/strong> feels tailor-made to be the bottom half of a double bill at an urban grindhouse theater in the early 80s. It\u2019s good, but plays better when seen as a co-feature with a bigger picture like Rocky III. It veers into camp sometimes, but I kind of like that. I love that it\u2019s not afraid to inject sappy disease-of-the-week melodrama. I just like this movie. There, I admitted it. I\u2019m not worried about my credibility as a critic being destroyed either. If that was going to happen, it would have happened a long time with some of the movies I\u2019ve copped to liking (Night Patrol anybody?).\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Body and Soul (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sports violence, nudity, sexual content, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Bowers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Leon Isaac Kennedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Webster Lewis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Forrest\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 9, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leon Isaac Kennedy, Jayne Kennedy, Perry Lang, Nikki Swassy, Mike Gazzo, Kim Hamilton, Peter Lawford, Gilbert Lewis, Muhammad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Body-and-Soul-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3756"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4589,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756\/revisions\/4589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}