--- title: "Body and Soul" year: 1981 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/body-and-soul" fi1m_id: "body-and-soul" imdb_id: "tt0082090" tmdb_id: 167951 wikidata_id: "Q4936875" fi1m_score: 49 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-10-07T11:56:48.947785+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T11:57:22.855468+00:00" region: "PT" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Body and Soul (1981) Directed by George Bowers · 1h 49m · Drama ## Identity Body and Soul - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/body-and-soul - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** body-and-soul - **IMDb ID:** tt0082090 - **TMDB ID:** 167951 - **Wikidata ID:** Q4936875 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082090/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/167951, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4936875 **Fi1m score: 49** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A remake that keeps the title and the ring and swaps the conscience for a disco horn section > Leon Isaac Kennedy wrote himself a star vehicle out of a 1947 classic, and George Bowers directed it. The result is likeable, lazy and loud, with a lead worth watching, a villain nobody could fear and fights that never land. ## Synopsis Leon Johnson (Leon Isaac Kennedy) is a boxer on the way up, and the film follows him from the ring to the parties that come with winning. His friend Charles Golphin (Perry Lang) is in his corner. Julie Winters (Jayne Kennedy) is the woman he wants to keep, and a man known only as Big Man (Peter Lawford) takes an interest in what Leon does next. Muhammad Ali turns up as himself to give the young man a word. Around the edges are reporters who ask the wrong questions and women with names like Pussy Willow (Azizi Johari) and Melody (Rosanne Katon) who are there for the good nights. Leon has to work out who in all this is on his side. ## Review In 1947 Robert Rossen made *Body and Soul* with John Garfield as a fighter who sells himself to the men who fix the game and has to work out, round by round, what he has left. Thirty-four years on, Leon Isaac Kennedy wrote himself a remake, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus produced it, and George Bowers directed. They kept the title, the ring and the outline of the story, and traded the original’s bitterness for montages and a disco horn section. It is not a good film. It is not quite a bad one either, and the difference is almost entirely the man in the middle of it. Kennedy the actor is easy to like. He moves well in the ring, he can play a quiet scene without pleading for our sympathy, and when he grins at a reporter who has just insulted him we grinned back. Kennedy the writer is his own worst corner man. He has given Leon Johnson every virtue going and then arranged the plot so that none of them costs him anything for the first hour. A hero who is never tempted for long is a hero we stop worrying about, and by the midpoint we had. Jayne Kennedy, as Julie Winters, is poised and photographed with care, and she has been handed a character made of two questions and a look. The scenes between the two Kennedys are easy enough, but the script gives them nothing to disagree about, so the romance has no weather in it. Perry Lang, as Charles Golphin, does the eager-kid routine with some charm and is asked to carry more comic relief than any one person should. The oddest thing in the film is its villain. Peter Lawford’s Big Man is meant to be the money that comes with strings, and Lawford plays him as a tired host at a party he would rather have cancelled. He murmurs his threats as if apologising for them. We laughed, twice, in scenes built to frighten us, and then felt a little mean about it, because the fault is in the writing and the direction, not in a man who turned up and did what he was told. Azizi Johari, Rosanne Katon and the rest of the women of the fast-life scenes exist to be looked at and then left. Muhammad Ali appears as himself, and for the few minutes he is on screen the film has a real person in it. He talks to Leon the way a champion talks to a boy who has not yet been hurt, half joke and half warning, and everyone else on screen goes quiet around him. It moved us more than we expected, because nobody else in the picture is allowed to be that plain. Then he leaves and the film goes back to being a film. James Forrest shoots the fights from ringside under flat, hard light that shows every drop of sweat and none of the danger. Skip Schoolnik and Sam Pollard cut round the punches rather than through them, so a blow is a wind-up, a cut to the crowd, and a man already on the canvas. Webster Lewis supplies a score of strings, brass and a title song that would do nicely on a dance floor and does less under a man being beaten. The training montages are shot and cut exactly as [*Rocky*](https://film.one/film/rocky) (1976) taught everyone, and five years on they already look borrowed. The 1947 film ends with a man who has lost things, and the loss is the point. This version is afraid of loss. Every hard choice is softened, every bad night has a good morning after it, and the picture runs 109 minutes without letting its hero be wrong for longer than a scene. The reviews so far put it in the mid-sixties, and we think that is generous: a boxing film in which the fights do not hurt and the villain does not frighten has given away the two things the genre runs on. If you want a warm, slightly daft boxing picture with a good cameo and a soundtrack you can clear the table to, this will pass an evening. Keep the original for another night, and watch it second. *Fi1m score 49, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Body and Soul worth watching?** *Body and Soul* (1981) is a likeable but lazy boxing remake that we scored 49, worth an evening only if you want something warm and slightly daft rather than good. Leon Isaac Kennedy is easy company in the lead and Muhammad Ali's few minutes as himself are the best thing in it. The fights never hurt and the villain never frightens, which is a problem for a boxing film. **How long is Body and Soul, and what is it rated?** *Body and Soul* runs 1h 49m. It is a drama film. **Where can I watch Body and Soul in Portugal?** *Body and Soul* is not on any streaming or rental service in Portugal at the moment. It is available in 7 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **What should I watch after Body and Soul?** After *Body and Soul*, try [*Fat City*](https://film.one/film/fat-city) (1972, Fi1m 73): John Huston on boxers who never make it; the saddest bar in American cinema. Then [*The Boxer*](https://film.one/film/the-boxer) (1997, Fi1m 68): Daniel Day-Lewis comes home to Belfast and a ring; politics in every punch. ### Reviews we read (1) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The review text is unavailable, so its verdict cannot be established. No specific praise or complaint is visible in the supplied page. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/22/movies/body-and-soul-remake-of-ring-saga.html) ## Details - **Director:** George Bowers - **Director:** George Bowers - **Writer:** Leon Isaac Kennedy - **Cinematography:** James Forrest - **Editor:** Sam Pollard, Skip Schoolnik - **Music:** Webster Lewis - **Producer:** Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan - **Cast:** Leon Isaac Kennedy as Leon Johnson; Jayne Kennedy as Julie Winters; Peter Lawford as Big Man; Perry Lang as Charles Golphin; Muhammad Ali as Himself; Azizi Johari as Pussy Willow; Rosanne Katon as Melody; Ola Ray as Hooker #1 - **Runtime:** 1h 49m - **First release (the US):** 9 October 1981 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in Portugal Not streaming, renting or buying in Portugal at the last check. Also available in: AT, CA, CH, IE, NZ, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Body and Soul* (1947): The original, with John Garfield, and a fixer who is actually frightening. - *Penitentiary* (1979): Leon Isaac Kennedy fighting for his life in prison; rougher, and far better for it. - *Fat City* (1972), Fi1m 73: John Huston on boxers who never make it; the saddest bar in American cinema. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fat-city.md) - *The Boxer* (1997), Fi1m 68: Daniel Day-Lewis comes home to Belfast and a ring; politics in every punch. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-boxer.md) - *Girlfight* (2000): Michelle Rodriguez fights her way out of Brooklyn; the training scenes mean something. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/body-and-soul