theriverjordan’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Body and Soul” are worth only their weight in betting odds in Robert Rossen’s sports noir classic.
If Rossen’s “The Hustler” was a fable that taught America the necessity of losing, then “Soul” is a fairy tale that depicts the dehumanization of victory.
The fairy godmother, here - works not in magic, but in money.
When Cinderella Man John Garfield, as a poor Jewish son of a candy store owner, begins to box his way to the big time, in swoops a parasitic promoter. But the glass slippers he grants turn just as quickly into cutting shards; drawing blood money in every bout.
The messaging in Rossen’s “Body and Soul” is so outright anti-capitalist, it comes as little surprise that almost its entire roster of main cast and creators was hauled before HUAC to face allegations of communist associations. The movie moralizes about predatory capitalism with an ardency of messaging perhaps only equaled by anti-addiction pictures of the same era. Instead of spinning into an alcoholic haze, John Garfield’s boxer spirals into a bacchanal of corrupted wealth.
Cinematography legend James Wong Howe captures Garfield’s dizzying descent into financial lust with an ever-escalating chaos. When this clamor finally comes to physical manifestation in the movie’s climactic fight, there was a third party in the ring. Wong Howe sent a handheld cameraman on skates into the fray. Accompanied by a barrage of blinding flashbulbs, the struggle of Garfield culminates in a frenzied symphony of movement and light.
“Body and Soul” perhaps lacks the moral complexity of Rossen’s later sports entry, “The Hustler.” But this is of little detriment, since it instead possesses a clear-eyed morality, as it warns of a wolf wearing a capitalist’s clothing.
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