Craig Sheffer seeks symbolic revenge and Gene Hackman picks up a paycheck in Split Decisions!
Ray McGuinn (Jeff Fahey) is a contender. Ever since he let his father’s gym and signed with a sleazy boxing promoter, Ray has been waiting for his title shot. His father, an ex-boxer turned trainer named Dan (Gene Hackman), has never forgiven Ray for leaving him. Meanwhile, his younger brother — an amateur boxer and Olympic aspirant named Eddie (Craig Sheffer) — worships Ray and is overjoyed when Ray returns to the old neighborhood to fight “The Snake” Pedroza (Eddie Velez). But then Ray is told that if he doesn’t throw the fight, he’ll never get a shot at a title bout. When Ray refuses, The Snake and a group of thugs are sent to change his mind and Ray gets tossed out of a window.
Eddie is determined to avenge his brother’s death. Does he do it by turning vigilante and tracking down the men who murdered his brother? No, he turns pro and takes his brother’s place in the boxing ring! Dan reluctantly trains him and Eddie enters the ring, looking for symbolic justice. Symbolic justice just doesn’t have the same impact as Charles Bronson-style justice.
The idea of a barely known amateur turning professional and getting a chance to fight a contender feels just as implausible here as it did in Creed. The difference is that Creed was a great movie so it did not matter if it was implausible. To put it gently, Split Decisions is no Creed. The boxing scenes are uninspired and even the training montage feels tired. Look at Craig Sheffer run down the street while generic 80s music plays in the background. Watch him spar in the ring. Listen to Gene Hackman shout, “You’re dragging your ass out there!” In the late 80s, Gene Hackman could have played a role like Dan in his sleep and he proves it by doing so here. Underweight pretty boy Craig Sheffer is actually less convincing as a boxer than Damon Wayans was in The Great White Hype.
Split Decisions is another boxing movie that should have taken Duke’s advice.
Following the events of The Incredible Hulk and with the world convinced that he is dead, Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) is hitchhiking his way across California, hoping to reach a hospital where research is being done on the effects of gamma radiation. When he stops off in an orange grove, he spots a young, crippled woman named Julie (Laurie Prange). When Julie faints, David carries her back to her mansion. It turns out that, after the mysterious death of her father, Julie stands to inherit millions. David suspects that her doctor (played by William Daniels) may be poisoning her and he gets a job working on the grounds of her mansion. At first, David thinks that his biggest problem is going to be the head groundskeeper (Gerald McRaney), who is jealous of David’s relationship with Julie. But, actually, it’s Julie’s stepmother (Dorothy Tristan) that David has to watch out for. When David tries to protect Julie and a bitter hermit (John McLiam) from the stepmother’s evil plans, he soon finds himself being pursued through the swampland by both men with guns and tabloid journalist Jack McGee (Jack Colvin). They are all making David Banner angry and they’re about to discover that they wouldn’t like David Banner when he’s angry.
This was the second pilot for The Incredible Hulk. It aired a week after the first pilot and, like that one, it was also given a theatrical release in Europe. While the first movie established David Banner’s backstory and explained why he transformed into the Hulk whenever he bumped his head on a door frame or twisted his ankle, A Death in The Family is more typical of the series that would follow. Like every subsequent episode, A Death In The Family opens with David Banner finding an odd job and ended with him walking down the road with his thumb stuck out. In between, Banner helps a special guest star.
Watching the second pilot, it’s easy to see why CBS took a chance on The Incredible Hulk even though, at the time, comic book adaptations were considered to be a risk. Both Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno really throw themselves into playing Banner and his alter ego and the show takes the idea seriously.
There’s nothing special about the pilot’s story. The stepmother and the doctor are obviously guilty from the start. But the plot (and the 90 minute running time) does allow for four appearances by the Hulk. David Banner even gets attacked by a grizzly bear, which brings the Hulk right out. David Banner always had the worst luck with wild animals and barbed wire. The Hulk, though, just throws the grizzly bear over into the next pond. The bear is not harmed. The Hulk may have been angry but he was never really dangerous.
Finally, for the record, Death In the Family featured the first of many aliases that David Banner would assume over the next four years. This time, he’s David Benton.
The time and the place is the old west. Growing up, Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson) and Billy Massey (Dean Martin) were best friends. When the lovely Kate (Susan Clark) chose Chuck over Billy, the two of them go their separate ways. Billy becomes a notorious train robber. Chuck becomes the sheriff of their hometown. After Billy returns home, it is up to Chuck to not only capture him but to also protect him from not only his former partners but a gang of vigilantes as well.
There’s nothing surprising about Showdown, a strictly by the numbers western that, if not for a few bloody gunshot wounds and some dialogue about cattle “humping,” could have just as easily been released in 1953 as 1973. The only thing that makes Showdown special is that it was the last western made by both Rock Hudson and Dean Martin. Dino is his usual fun-loving, half-soused self but Rock Hudson looks absolutely miserable here. If Rock’s role had been played by Frank Sinatra (or even Peter Lawford), Showdown would probably be remembered as a minor classic. As it is, it’s for Dean Martin completists only.
Governors, ranchers, former congressmen — nearly every prominent Democrat in Montana announced that he didn’t want the nomination. It looked like all hope was lost but then a petition appeared online, asking the Democrats to nominate Jeff Bridges for the U.S. Senate! This petition made national headlines and, in just a few hours, it had received thousands of signatures. For a few brief days, everyone was truly excited about the prospect of U.S. Sen. Jeff Bridges. I even signed the petition myself, despite the fact that 1) I don’t live in Montana and 2) I’m not even a Democrat!
(I’m a member of the Personal Choice Party. PCP in 2016!)
Ultimately, he announced that he had no interesting running and wasn’t even sure if he was registered to vote but, until that happened, why were so many of us excited about Jeff Bridges running for the Senate?
Because, in this time of division and conflict, everybody loves Jeff Bridges!
He’s just an incredibly likable actor. Even when he’s playing a villain, like in Iron Man, he still comes across like someone you would want to live next door to. He’s everyone’s perfect hippie uncle, the guy that even people who don’t smoke weed want to get stoned with. If you ever watch any of his early films — and Bridges has been making movies for nearly 50 years now — you’ll discover that this unique and likable charm is something that Jeff Bridges has always possessed.
It’s certainly present in 1970’s Halls of Anger. This was Jeff Bridges’s film debut, made at a time when he could still pass for a high school student. He was 20 when he made this film and I have to say that for those of us who best know him as the Dude, Rooster Cogburn, and whoever he was playing in Crazy Heart, it’s always interesting to see just how handsome Jeff Bridges was when he was young.
Jeff Bridges, hiding his face in Halls of Anger
In Halls of Anger, he plays Doug, one of 60 white kids who have been transferred to a majority black inner city high school in an attempt to integrate it. Of all the new white students, Doug is probably the most confident and the most open-minded. He’s also the most friendly. His attempt to join the high school basketball team upsets the other students but — even after getting beaten up — Doug sticks with it. You knew that he would because, after all, he’s played by Jeff Bridges.
Of course, Doug’s story is just one of the many stories told in Halls of Anger. Another one of the transfers — a weak-willed and balding racist named Leaky (played by future director Rob Reiner!) — tries to provoke a fight with a black student, hoping that he’ll be sent back to his old school for his own protection. White Sherry (Patricia Stich) dates a black classmate and is savagely assaulted as a result. Newly assigned vice principal Quincy Davis (Calvin Lockhart) tries to both keep the peace and teach a group of functionally illiterate students how to read. Militant J.T. Walsh (James Edwards) wanders the hallways and speaks of revolution…
Rob Reiner in Halls of Anger
Actually, I’m probably making Halls of Anger sound a lot more interesting than it actually is. For the most part, it’s pretty much your standard 1970 social problem film, in that it’s full of good intentions but those good intentions don’t always add up to compelling drama. Paul Bogart’s direction is often flat (the scene where Davis teaches his students how to read seems to drag on for hours) and the characters don’t so much talk to each other as they make narratively convenient speeches.
That said, Halls of Anger is worth watching just to see Calvin Lockhart’s authoritative performance, Rob Reiner’s hilariously bad performance, and Jeff Bridges’s charismatic debut performance. He may never be a member of the U.S. Senate but everybody will always love Jeff Bridges.
Following the events of 
Through the Shattered Lens 