Is Diggstown a good movie? Without a doubt, it is my favorite of all time. Is it a "great" movie? No. Most "great" movies are central character driven epics that explore trials and inner struggles of a clear protagonist. Rocky, which I despise, is such a movie. Rocky is focused entirely on his struggle, on his personal devlopment. While I think it is wholly eroneous to fault Diggstown for intertwining serious and comedic elements, one this is clear, there is no one protagonist to this movie. This movie is as much about Gabriel Caine as it is about Roy Palmer, and even less so about them than it is about the con they are pulling off. Caine lacks the underlying dichotomy of would-be epic heros, and while Roy certainly overcomes some demons from his past (the night in Moline and the losses to Hammerhead Hagan) these are never the vexing issues that they would be were Roy an epic hero.
So, no, Diggstown cannot be the better boxing movie than Rocky, for the plain and simple fact that Diggstown is an intelligent comedy about boxing, but Rocky is a boxing epic and Rocky Balboa is an epic hero in that regard.
But I think it is also wrong to, as someone else did, pan the movie for incorporating elements of the serious along with elements of comedy. One need only look at works such as Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" to see that theatrical minds have long accepted the blend of comedy and more serious forms of expression, such as tragedy, as perfectly legitimate. And it's hardly a cop-out that Gillon is not arrested at the immediate moment he loses the bet. You have to recall, the movie establishes him as a near tyrannical ruler of Diggstown, and the town police clearly took his marching orders. Also, Slim's hanging was still under investigation at that point. Furthermore, we don't really know what happens after Hambone punches him, just that Roy and Caine hang around the club till after everyone leaves. So, not only is it perhaps a bit premature to criticise the movie for not showing Gillon in handcuffs, for all you know he is led out in handcuffs after getting knocked on his behind by Hambone Busby.
I, for one, don't find the hanging of Slim Busby to be a detraction of any great degree from the overall goal of the movie. In fact, I think it reinforces the roles of protagonist and antagonist in the film in a way that would have been much less convincing had it not occurred. Prior to this (and the beating of Buster) this movie is little more than a better organized group of con-men taking a two-bit hustler to the cleaners. . . and you get to laugh at Sam Lester farting. After this, though, it takes on a greater purpose. This isn't simply some fast-talking con-man weaseling money out of another loathsome type, Caine and Roy are actually seeking justice against an unscrupulous man in the only way they know how. It's like Roy says when Caine proposes taking Gillon for everything he has "this isn't about money anymore." Without the hanging of Slim, that's really all it would have been about. Your heart just couldn't be into cheering for one criminal to get some money from another criminal. That, I think, is what makes the movie an appealing one. In the end it's not just simply a couple of gamblers getting rich, but justice has been done.
As to the complaint that more could have been done to enhance the serious aspects of the movie, I say to what purpose? Between the hanging of Slim, doping Diggs and leaving him a vegetable, beating Buster senseless, and murdering Wolf Forrester, I think the audience gets the point. Gillon is a bad man, and he needs to have his toys taken away, which Caine and Roy do. I don't think finding out that he tortures bunnies and takes annual outings to Bangkok to shag underage prostitutes really does anything to enhance our understanding of that fundamental point. Not every film that slips a little bit of bran in with the bread needs to be a hard-hitting expose on the depths of human depravity. Some of us just like to have a little bit of fun with a movie, and Diggstown gives you that in spades.
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beradhimself
19 years ago
wow you really thought about this movie
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omari322
18 years ago
I agree...I just thought it was a fun movie to kill an hour and a half watching...good, thought-out criticism though and informative reading
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mjprogue
17 years ago
Original poster is dead on. Even accepting the relevance of other posters' comments about this not being a traditional sports movie, so not compareable to movies like Rocky. The important thing is boxing as a central ingredient and Diggstown is the best movie (I've ever seen) where boxing is even mentioned.
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stevedox
17 years ago
Most people who finally end up seeing this underrated classic immediately start comparing it to the most famous boxing films ever made.
That really does say two things:
1: That this film is of great quality.
2: When released the promotion team did a crap job and should be sued.
Rocky is iconic, but if i had a choice of watching Rocky or this, it would be this everytime, and i must say, give that option to those who've seen this already and they'll agree, they'll probably admit Rocky is the better film, but they'd rather be watching this.
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