Joseph Haschka 2004-08-14
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I don't know. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I remember learning in high school English Lit several decades ago that there are three basic elements to a story: protagonist, antagonist, conflict. To me, "protagonist" implies someone that the reader (listener or watcher) can root for. Hold that thought.
In SHINER, Michael Caine plays Billy "Shiner" Simpson, a British boxing promoter so brutal and unsavory that he's been excluded from the "legitimate" fight world and limited to fringe bouts. Now, he's maneuvered his own son, "Golden Boy" Eddie, into an un-licensed match-up with an American lightweight title holder managed by Frank Spedding (Martin Landau). The big event in a dumpy arena is the high point of Billy's professional and personal life. And, by the way, he's bet everything he and his family own on the outcome. In any case, Eddie throws the fight in the second round. Later, as Billy angrily confronts his son in a blighted lot down by the railroad yards, the latter is shot dead by a hidden assailant. Totally bereft, Simpson sets out to find Eddie's killer and exact revenge. By this time, knowledge of Billy's character leads the viewer to expect that the vengeance won't be pretty.
Even another riveting performance by the great Michael Caine can't obscure the ugliness of this film. Aside from perhaps Eddie, who isn't around long enough, there's absolutely no major character in the plot worthy or capable of engaging the viewer's sympathy. They're all vicious, violent people: Billy, his two thuggish bodyguards, and Frank. A scene wherein Billy holds a gun to a pregnant woman's swollen belly is particularly noxious. Even Billy's two adult daughters are revealed to be chips off the old block when they get into a hair-pulling, slap fight.
The ending to SHINER is notably anti-climactic and grubby. And, before I forget, there's a subplot involving the police investigation of the fatal beating of a fighter in one of Billy's previously arranged exhibitions - a subplot so completely tangential as to be hardly worth this mention.
Eeeuwww!
