Robert Deniro Movie:

Born to Win Reviews:
gritty early 70's flick
2008-02-24 - This movie is a classic. OK, it has that semi-low budget feel in the beginning, and you may be wondering after the first 15 minutes if the movie is gonna be worth your time. Keep going! It fully redeems itself! Besides, the shots of New York from that time period are part of what make the film interesting for us 35 years later. That and the whole tone of the film. Anyone who could even slightly appreciate films like Shaft, Foxy Brown or anything from the Soul Cinema collection, should have no trouble getting through the slightly cheesy opening of this film, and into the heart of what makes this movie great. The five stars I give it are for the movie itself and not for DVD production. False advertising aside (don't get it for the sake of DeNiro's cameo), this movie rocks!

p.s. I saw this movie on a European dvd (which was fine) before I ordered it from Lincoln Sound and Disc (soundndisc?) on Amazon - beware of this movie seller! First, the box you see on Amazon (Classic Collection - 1998) and the one you get are different. It's not in a standard dvd case (it's a cardboard box!), does not contain chapter stops, and there are spelling mistakes (even De Niro's name is spelt wrong). Finally, the sound quality sounds like it's coming over a bad radio.. can't understand a word. No response when I contacted them about this. I've read other reviews on this sight that complain of similar things with this movie (which is fully worth getting), but make sure you go with a seller you trust!

early indie film, with many surprises in the stars to come later
2008-01-28 - I was very surprised at the quality of this film. The acting is solid and good, the story quite believable and unpredictable (i.e. not hollywood endingswith love winning, baddies falling, and whatever redemption needed is forthcoming), and there are many future stars in it as young actors.

JJ, just out of prison and a junkie with no life but some friends, meets Karen Black, who accepts him as he is with a wonderful chemistry of laughter and attraction. He has lost his family and there is plenty of regret through all the chemical highs. JJ is always trying to score, and is basically a loser, about to lose again. Black changes this to a degree, but the momentum of JJ's life is too strong for her and eventually brings her down. Segal is entirely convincing, really better than I have ever seen him.

Recommended for the story and for film buffs.


Interesting, entertaining 'oddballs'
2007-11-29 - [Keepers Home Video, Inc.]. A shot (apparently taken from a movie frame) of Mr. DeNiro adorns the VHS jacket and so we fans follow that lead. Yes, before Mean Streets, The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, and the rest, he had small roles in independent films. I'm no expert on that pahse of his career, but "Born To Win", starring George Segal and Karen Black is a *4* star entry: I've never seen Segal play such a textured and complex character so convincingly, you're made to feel like that proverbial fly-on-the-wall, or better put, that guy shadowing him, with a hidden camera, around the unofficial Times Square drug fair of 1971. He is cursed and blessed at the same time. He has a very serious drug problem *and* a strong mind - too bad he uses the later to negotiate the next fix. The cinematography for this presumptive low-budget drama is compelling; here is another minor classic in the documentary-style drama. Ivan Passer maintains the low-key mode throughout. An incredible scene involves Segal's "working" a worker at a Times Square establishment, so as to convince her he is there to remove the safe. A brilliantly executed scene. Robert DeNiro has about 10 minutes on screen as a Detective.
Karen Black, in her own *understated* way, conveys that sense of doom even while she revels in an unexpected, comforting, happy relationship.
"The Swap" is less of a movie, even with the strong cast. (*2* stars). A struggling independent soft-core porn filmmaker is found dead and his Brother sets out to get the facts, while he adjusts to life as an "ex-con". DeNiro appears in some early scenes.

BORN TO WIN is, indeed, born to win!
2002-08-21 - Today, it seems like every major studio in 1971 was distributing a film having to do with the drug "culture" (THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK for Twentieth Century Fox, CISCO PIKE for Columbia, BELIEVE IN ME for MGM, etc.) United Artists, however, jumped maybe too much on the band wagon in releasing JENNIFER ON MY MIND (also with De Niro in a bit part as a gypsy cab driver), but their other film drama involving drug abuse was BORN TO WIN. This film is a small hidden gem that has not yet received its well-deserved audience. It features what is, in my opinion, the best performance of George Segal throughout his whole career, as well as involving supporting performances from Karen Black, Jay Fletcher, Robert De Niro and others. It also featured the prime signal that this was an authoratative film on drug abuse: Marcie Jean Kurtz (who appeared in THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK, BELIEVE IN ME and other films of this type).

The scenes that have remained striking and unforgettable include the one in which Segal, after having been dropped off in a neighborhood of junkies by his girlfriend, retires into a dark, musty alley of strung-out derelicts as he attempts to find his friend (Jay Fletcher); the scene on the beach with Karen Black conforting George Segal; Karen Black having to resort to lines like "Come back home to me"; the closing scene.

In analyzing this film, some film authorities may declare BORN TO WIN as an archetypal piece about drugs and how they allow characters to make the decline from temporary decadence into personal debauchery, alienating them from anyone who does not see them as an addict. Ivan Passer, who also in CUTTER'S WAY illustrated technique and theory in labeling cinema as the cultural vengeance for the socially impotent, demonstrates this element at an early juncture in his career. BORN TO WIN simply uses the component of drugs to use as an allegory for that crowd of socially impotent people, as well as various techniques at how they make pitiful attempts as silent revenge while they drive themselves to personal apocalypse in an urban jungle. This allows more privileged people to create "caste systems" for these types. This may sound terribly pretentious, but this is the only way to explain my viewpoint on this film to whoever reads this review. Also adding onto the film's sense of milieu is the graininess utilized in editing and camerawork. Without these two factors, BORN TO WIN would not have retained its gritty disctinction and probably would have drifted into "another typical picture about drug abuse".

In response to the minimal amount of negative reviews I have read about BORN TO WIN, you cannot expect a genuine message to come after a half hour of viewing time and you cannot regard it as just another drug picture before you think and ponder the film's ultimate meaning in the film's culminating moments. I admit to its sometimes deficient endeavors at portraying the comical value of the drug culture (the scene in which Segal dresses in pink robe and prances around in Time Square to avoid his pursuers and stopping in at a shop for mens' suits), but the dramatic moments of the film are pinnacle for trying to understand this "class" of people. BORN TO WIN is a remarkable film and nothing allows me to make hesitations about giving it a five star rating.

Gave it 45 minutes and turned it off!
2001-11-13 - This movie was so boring and stupid, I turned it off after about 45 minutes. Maybe I had a poor copy, but I could barely understand what Paula Prentiss was saying -- and it wasn't because she was "under the influence!" I ran it back a few times but still couldn't make it out. From the other reviewers, it sounds like it got better but, if something doesn't grab my attention after 30 minutes, I say forget it!