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BOXING
CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY IN UNDISPUTED
 Undisputed
is primarily for aficionados of boxing, with a lot of time
devoted to fights. Film footage even includes Braddock's knockout
in 1937 by Joe Louis, whom one character, Emmanuel "Mendy"
Ripstein (played by Peter Falk), regards as the finest boxer
of all time. The plot is totally unrealistic, however. Most
action takes place at Sweetwater Prison, a facility of some
700 hardened criminals in California's Mojave Desert (though
actually filmed at the High Desert State Prison in Nevada).
We are told that inmates at maximum-security Sweetwater are
so nasty that the facility exists to keep them away from inmates
in other correctional institutions; they are violent criminals
and members of organized crime, many serving life sentences.
Each character, including Ripstein, is introduced by titles
with their name and criminal offense. Miraculously, Sweetwater
has no racial problems; a white guy (played by Fisher Stevens),
for example, is the fight manager of Monroe Hutchen (played
by Wesley Snipes), an African American murderer who has not
lost a boxing match during his decade or so of incarceration.
One day a helicopter arrives, delivering World Heavyweight
Champ James "Iceman" Chambers (played by Ving Rhames),
who has just been convicted of a single act of rape, with
civil charges in the pipeline; the inference is that he has
been railroaded because he is Black. A self-composed Black
rape victim appears from time to time in televised interviews
to profess that she started to have sex with Iceman, then
withdrew her consent when she was treated rough, whereas Iceman
claims that there was no rape because her consent was never
withdrawn. (Rape carries the death penalty in some states,
provided the victim dies, so the he-said-she-said offense
appears not to warrant placement into Sweetwater.) In contrast,
Iceman is anything but self-composed. From the time he arrives
at Sweetwater he tries to bully everyone, arrogantly in words
and crudely with fists, claiming that he has to do so to survive.
The only person whom he accepts as a friend is his cellmate,
Mingo Sixkiller (played by Wes Studi). When Iceman learns
that Hutchen is the boxing champ of Sweetwater, he strides
up to him in the mess hall, takes a swing at him, but Hutchen
instead of Iceman ends up in solitary confinement, obviously
a mere device in the story to delay the inevitable fight between
them long enough to enable more character development. While
in solitary, Hutchen spends his time meticulously building
a pagoda with matchsticks between doing exercises to keep
fit, thus gaining the respect of filmviewers. Eventually,
Iceman ends up in solitary over an altercation, but Ripstein
puts pressure through channels to organize the inevitable--a
match between Hutchen and Iceman. Ripstein insists that the
London boxing rules (pre-Queensbury) must be followed, presumably
to even the odds, and bets arranged by Vegas bigshots are
in the millions. Hutchen's supporters propose to put sleeping
pills into Iceman's last meal before the fight, he vetoes
the idea, but who knows what really happens? The outcome of
the match is predictable. Some sort of deal is made to have
Iceman released from prison when the match is over despite
his dismally poor prison record. Then, in an epilog, Iceman
defeats a challenger to regain his "undisputed"
heavyweight championship, but the camera soon focuses on Hutchen,
and the word "Undisputed" appears. Directed by Walter
Hill, Undisputed may be perceived
by most cinema patrons as a glorification of the art of boxing.
But the perspicacious observer will notice that the sport
reeks of the smell of gangsters, punks, and gambling interests,
even in prison. MH
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LA
REINA LOCA REDEEMS THE REPUTATION OF A LIBERATED WOMAN
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
 Why
is Spain's Queen Juana known as Juana the Mad? La
Reina Loca (retitled in the United States as
Mad Love) seeks to answer the question.
The film begins with a short scene of Queen Juana (played
by Pilar López de Ayala), who in the year 1555 feels
sorry for herself, as she has been imprisoned in a Spanish
castle for nearly fifty years. The next scene is in 1496,
when Castile's reigning Queen Isabel (played by Susi Sánchez)
tries to calm her nervous seventeen-year-old daughter Juana
about her impending marriage with Archduke Philip of Flanders
(Daniele Liotti), an important geopolitical move to maintain
peace between the Hapsburg Empire and the growing power of
Castile. (Isabel was, of course, then queen of Castile and
Aragón; Fernando II was only king of Aragón.)
Upon meeting eighteen-year-old Philip in Flanders, she is
enthralled at first sight by his masculinity, and he quickly
has the marriage blessed and carries Juana into his bedroom.
From that point, Juana is obsessed with sexual desire for
him. She bears him children, but he is sexually active with
others, as before, and she so shocks the court with jealous
antics that she is called "loca" (the Spanish word
for "crazy") behind her back. Yet she persists in
wanting his body as if she were a twenty-first century liberated
woman. In 1500, Queen Isabel dies; Juana succeeds to the throne
of Castile, so Philip is her consort. (Actually, the succession
is far more complicated, but director Vicente Aranda takes
literary license.) They go to Castile to take up their positions,
but jealousy continues to haunt her, this time in the person
of Aixa (played by Manuela Arcuri), a daughter of a Moorish
king who has taken the Spanish name Beatrix. Juana's jealous
rages continue, eclipsing her duties as sovereign. Meanwhile,
Aixa gives syphilis to Philip, a fact that is covered up until
he lies on his deathbed with chancres. Accordingly, Philip's
principal aide De Vere (played by Giuliano Gemma) plots to
have Juana declared insane so that the throne can pass to
Philip before his death, thus enabling the Habsburgs to control
Castile without a shot. When the Castilian nobles realize
that their independence is at stake, they meet with Juana
to stop the plot. But she is not like England's Elizabeth,
who put politics above personal concerns; Juana refuses to
listen to their plea and instead is in the middle of trying
to prove who is the author of an adulterous letter. The Castilian
nobles then realize that Juana is indeed unfit to govern and
agree to her arrest. However, before she is incarcerated,
Philip collapses and continues to fail in health while Juana
hopes that he will recover. After he dies at the age of twenty-eight,
she is arrested. The final scene reverts to 1555, when she
is imprisoned in a castle, admiring a picture of her only
love. We are left with the distinct impression that Juana
was neurotically obsessed by love but not insane by current
standards, so the film serves to redeems her reputation. Titles
at the end are absent, as a Spanish film does not need to
educate its own public on the history of the country, namely,
that their son Charles became King of Castile when he reached
maturity in 1516, though court intrigue continued until then,
as Fernando II still was king of Aragón. In 1519, Charles
was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor, uniting much of Europe
under a single authority. MH
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