Price of Glory (2000) on DVD

Description

In Price of Glory a promising young boxer is knocked out of contention thanks to a sleazy manager who cashed out on his potential by pushing him into a big-money fight before he was ready. Thirteen years later that very same boxer, Arturo Ortega (Jimmy Smits), has three sons whom he's training to be boxers too. His schoolteacher wife wants to make sure they get good grades, but Arturo is sure that boxing is their best chance to get out of the barrio. Flash-forward another 10 years, and the training is paying off. The three boys, Jimmy (Clifton Collins Jr.), Sonny (Jon Seda), and especially Johnny (Ernesto Hernández) have grown into smart and talented boxers. Obviously, Arturo is a good and a tough trainer, but the question of whether he's got his own or his sons' best interests at heart arises when a slick promoter (Ron Perlman) offers him big money first for his sons' contracts and then for a series of title fights. Price of Glory does an admirable job of riding that conundrum throughout, offering no easy answers. There is solid acting throughout and it's nice to see such a Latino-heavy cast, but at just over two hours the pace lags and the central themes are repeated one or two too many times. Aside from a late subplot about corruption and violence that comes across as a bit contrived, this is a good family film about boxing. Frustrated by the premature end to his own career, ex-boxer Arturo Ortega (Jimmy Smits) pushes his three young sons to succeed where he failed, and enters them into a punishing series of small-time boxing contests. Ten years later, with the three sons poised at the beginning of professional careers in the ring, they each begin to question their father's authority, taking their first steps towards independence. But will they find their own freedom only at the cost of losing their family solidarity?