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her consent when she was treated rough, whereas Iceman claims that there was no rape because her consent was never withdrawn.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