Word: victors
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Cosmo convinces Victor (Lee Canalito), the brother long on muscle and short on brains, to make them some money by fighting at a wrestling joint, Paradise Alley. He is the familiar good-natured idiot, in the vein of Lenny in Steinbeck's Of Mice...
...third brother, Lenny (Armand Assante), is a war hero embittered by a bad leg. He hates his job as an embalmer (why doesn't he take advantage of the numerous benefit programs for WW II vets?). Initially opposed to the idea of Victor's wrestling, Lenny succumbs to his desire for money and encourages Victor to fight. He pushes him mercilessly. It is the saintly Cosmo who, realizing the error of his own ways, tries to stop Victor from driving himself too hard...
Stallone did not give Assante any room to develop the potential conflicts within Lenny--between his desire to make money and his unwillingness to take advantage of Victor, between his need for love and his inability to accept it. Instead we see an awkward transformation of a sensitive and tortured character into an unfeeling money-grubber...
...cannot care about these characters because they are mere types, devoid of life. We are supposed to be moved when we see Victor's devoted Chinese girlfriend (guess what she does for a living?) help him expand his vocabulary. We are supposed to be elated when Victor wins the final wrestling match against Freddy the Thumper, gangster Stitch Malone's obnoxious henchman, and the three brothers embrace--past disputes forgotten for the moment. What we are, however, is bored...
...voters' swerve to the right was especially dramatic in Oregon's gubernatorial contest. After more than two decades as a citadel of liberalism, the state unexpectedly ousted Bob Straub, 58, a Democrat, and voted in Republican Victor Atiyeh, 55, a conservative state senator. But Oregon's voters were as inconsistent as those elsewhere. They re-elected Mark Hatfield, a perennially popular G.O.P. liberal, to a third term in the Senate...