Born To Win

Czech-born director Ivan Passer’s first English language film was the debut release of a production company founded by its star George Segal with Jerry Tokofsky. Ironically titled, it is very much in the Midnight Cowboy (1969) style of New York portraiture.

In this instance Segal plays J.J., a hairdresser with a heroin habit that is increasingly taking over his life. The only good thing in his life is Parm (Karen Black in a typical role), an easy-going gal who loves him for better or worse and it's pretty much all worse as his habit drives him into increasingly risky behaviour that puts him at the mercy of both pushers and cops (one of the latter being played, in a small role, by Robert De Niro).

There’s a lot that is commendable about the spirit of the film but it does not have the grit its subject matter deserves. a short-coming compounded by the fact that Segal, who can’t help but give proceedings a comical bent, is ill-suited to the role.  He's much more effective running through New York streets in a fluffy pink nightgown than he is as a drug addict. The characters are engaging but the film doesn’t have enough dramatic focus to be more than minor addition to the New York street life film category that Scorsese and De Niro were soon to own with Mean Streets (1973).

An incongruous mix of realist drama and action comedy Born To Win has some Zeitgeist appeal but that is all.

 

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