This is the tale of petty criminal Marty Mauser, who dreams of being world ping-pong champion in the 1950s, but his sleaziness keeps getting in the way. Yes, it’s the fourth movie we’ve looked at about a man who thinks, incorrectly, that by being a “great man” he’ll be able to get away with mistreating women. That’s the theme of the year!
Rulebook Casefile: Winning by Losing, Losing by Winning, and Everything In Between
When discussing F1, I talked about how, in great sports movies, the hero either wins by losing or loses by winning. And in this movie they actually say something like that out loud in the dialogue! But is that actually true of this movie?
Marty thinks that by intentionally losing in an exhibition match, he will win the chance to compete in the main tournament, but then he finds out he will never be allowed to compete in the tournament, so he decides to win the exhibition match, and does so. Then he seems to have grown as a person, and goes home to take responsibility for his child and girlfriend.
So he’s supposed to win big by losing small, then loses the chance to win big, then wins small instead. But even then, he’s pissing off his benefactor by winning the exhibition round, and losing his plane flight home …only to win the support of the American military, getting him another way home.
So yes, the emotions are complex enough to qualify as literature, not just entertainment. But I kind of wish he had lost the match, admitted that he’s not the best, and that realization had led him home to take care of his girlfriend and kid.
It’s interesting that all four of the “problematic great men neglecting their kids” movies (Hamnet, Sentimental Value, Jay Kelly and this) end with the great man being professionally celebrated. It would be interesting if at least one of them admitted that great men, for all their other faults, are sometimes just not that great.
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