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1.5 KiB
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1 line
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
Rod Serling had an affinity for boxing in his stories--in particular, the life of an old and haggard journeyman boxer. In addition to "The Big Tall Wish", he penned the gritty and sad script for "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (which was both a made for TV movie and feature film). It's obvious that Serling must have hated what this 'sport' did to men and he had a deft touch with such stories.<br /><br />This particular tale is about Bolie Jackson (actor/director Ivan Dixon)--a sad man whose face show the scars indicating a man who has stayed too long in the fight business. He has a special friendship with a young neighbor boy who looks up to him and adores him. Though Bolie is all washed up, to Henry he is somebody to admire.<br /><br />Oddly, Henry seems to believe that if he wishes hard enough, that ANYTHING can come true--even Bolie winning a match he has no chance of winning. Like the movie PINOCCHIO, if you wish hard enough anything can happen. Through a twist like you might expect in "The Twilight Zone", this wish seems to come true...as long as you believe.<br /><br />Overall, this episode lacks much of the weirdness and strange twists that I loved from the show. However, at the same time, it also had wonderful acting and a superb script about people--something you often did not see in other episodes. While not a great installment, it had heart and was sad but well-written and worth seeing. It also was nice that for once in this era a Black man and cast be featured in a mainstream TV show. |