I've always found middle-aged students in motion pictures more than a little humorous in and of themselves (see THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE), but FIGHTING ELEGY, with its rousing opening score and its socialpaths in (goose-)step with the times, manages to rumble right past that little incongruity like a locomotive through a long, dark tunnel. There's plenty of ear-gnawing action, here, as our hot-blooded hero channels his sexual frustration(s) into brawl after brawl in an attempt to become "a man's man." (And I'm not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole...) After all, he is told, "One must be a man above all." Even if it means playing a piano without his hands... Some of the almost 3D-looking effects were ahead of their time; certainly I don't recall seeing shots like this in a movie that wasn't 3D. One can almost hear the announcer's voice, all aquiver with repressed passion, when the trailer for this one first ran: "See hot-blooded youth EXPLODE across the screen!" Whew. Think I need a shower.
Review of Fighting Elegy
