There is an appealingly human quality about this film that may well get to any adult audience, even to those who never had a glove laid on them or even saw a prize fight.

| Feb 14, 2023

This film is an honest, compassionate film in which fear, meanness, and sadism compete with generosity, loyalty, and plain shining goodness.

| Feb 14, 2023

[The performers] all lend an emotional quality to the action that quickens the pulse of the audience.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 14, 2023

It's terse and unvarnished and carries a terrific impact.

| Feb 14, 2023

... A moving and compassionate study of a man struggling to maintain his personal dignity and integrity in a world that no longer has a place for him.

| Feb 14, 2023

“Requiem for a Heavyweight” is assured a top rung among 1962’s movies. Man's subhumanity to man is the theme of the film.

| Feb 14, 2023

The taut, concise characterizations that the stars so perceptively delineate grip one's innermost self and force the question, "Is the victory's success worth the trampled lives of the others?"

| Feb 10, 2023

Requiem for a Heavyweight has been etched in acid, framed in uncompromising realism and comes to life with one of the year's finest dramatic performances.

| Feb 10, 2023

What distinguishes "Requiem" -- which pretends to be hard-boiled but it is really a softie at heart -- is the excellence of the portrayals by the four principal players.

| Feb 10, 2023

... a grim debunking of the glory of the gory business of leather-pushing which bedazzles with the excellence of its performances and production values.

| Feb 10, 2023

The plot is ruthless in its realism.

| Feb 10, 2023

Nelson has captured a shabby, sweaty realism.

| Feb 9, 2023

Ralph Nelson has directed Sterling's moving, compassionate script with a sensitivity beneath a bleakly realistic, understated style made all the more effective by some inventive touches and some splendid camera work...

| Feb 8, 2023

"Requiem" grabs you quick.

| Feb 8, 2023

Requiem for a Heavyweight searches the slums and back alleys of New York and probes deeply into the minds and hearts of its principals to tell a story as exciting as it is unseemly.

| Feb 8, 2023

The beauty of this film lies in its low-key performances and its fascinating location shots of the various haunts of the New York sporting world.

| Feb 8, 2023

Yet, despite certain familiar hearts-and-flowers flaws in Rod Sterling's screenplay, this is an extraordinarily appealing picture.

| Feb 8, 2023

With sardonic gallantry, the story bathes the battered face of Mountain Rivera with the glow of pride and dignity...

Full Review | Feb 8, 2023

If "Requiem" isn't the best fight picture ever made, it at least is one of the year's finest films.

| Feb 8, 2023

[Anthony] Quinn and June Harris play their scenes together so sincerely that they partially suspend disbelief.

| Feb 8, 2023