This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I can completely understand why this movie is lauded but it is not for me.
Here's some thoughts I had while watching this film:
- Wow, donkeys are real furry when they are young.
- So is that the sick girl? Is she dead? Wouldn't they be more upset if she was dead?
- So everyone's grown up now and there's the whip. And there's the donkey.
- Oh, they're hitting the donkey. I wonder how they filmed that.
-…
The Untold series has never come close to the top tier 30 for 30 films, and this one is the weakest I've seen.
Sure, Untold is about the dark side of sports, so it's always walked the line between exploitation and entertainment. But this barely rises above a Tubi rushed to the presses doc on the latest entertainment scandal. Hell, they even got rid of their mood setting credit sequence. Lee Hazlewood's haunting singing would have at least classed up…
Yes, it plays like a Public Service Announcement for Middle America ca. 1967, but it is a beautifully acted Public Service Announcement.
No, it hasn't dated that well, but when Tracy gives the speech at the end, and there's Katherine Hepburn looking on, eyes overflowing with tears, knowing that this will be Tracy's last moment on screen ... well it's one of those moments where the weight of what was happening outside the movie was greater than what was going on in the movie.
And I'm not ashamed to it, it kind of wrecked me.
