This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

So much talent, so little accomplishment. George Segal, Karen Black, Hector Elizondo, Paula Prentiss, Robert DeNiro and Burt Young - can you come up with a better lineup for the early Seventies? I'm definitely in the minority here after reading the many stellar reviews for "Born to Win", but this was just a complete bore for me. That generally happens when one of the defining scenes involves a spaced out junkie (Segal) attempting to steal a car on the street, and the owner (Black) comes off accepting it as kind of cute. I don't get it. Nor did I get the rest of the film. It didn't help that the print I viewed had muffled audio and much of the dialog was difficult to hear, but I don't know if a better quality transfer would have helped. Besides that, don't blink, or you'll miss the second half of the cast I mentioned earlier. 'Born to Lose' would have been a better title.

I have a great interest in American movies of the 1970s, many of my all time favourites being made during that decade, both within and without Hollywood. Several movies from that period are so well known, and so discussed, especially those of Scorsese and Coppola, that many fine movies are overlooked - 'Hi Mom!', 'Scarecrow', 'The Panic In Needle Park', 'Tracks', 'Fingers',etc.etc. Add 'Born To Win' to that list. Director and co-writer Ivan Passer was a recent Czech immigrant, but he manages to conjure up a very realistic and believable look at the seedy underbelly of NYC. Only 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'The Panic In Needle Park' come close. This isn't the New York of Woody Allen, it's the New York of Lou Reed. Passer displays a lot of talent in this movie, but I know little about his subsequent work apart from his 80s sleeper starring John Heard and Jeff Bridges 'Cutter's Way', which I also highly recommend. George Segal will surprise a lot of people with his performance in 'Born To Win', especially those who only have a one dimensional idea of him from his comedy work. Segal plays JJ, a hairdresser turned junkie hipster, who is, well one has to say it, a born loser. Segal is both funny and cool and sad, and he's just as good in this as Pacino, De Niro or Keitel were in more celebrated roles from this period. De Niro in fact pops up in a small supporting role as a cop, something which is exploited on the DVD cover. He's okay but has a very small role, so fans beware. Hector Elizondo has a much more important part as a drug pusher, and Karen Black, hot off 'Five Easy Pieces', plays JJ's girlfriend, who he meets in a funny scene where he steals her car. Both Elizondo and Black give excellent performances. Also in the supporting cast are Paula Prentiss ('The Parallax View') who plays JJ's junkie wife, and one of the first jobs for character actor Burt Young, who plays a hood. I also liked JJ's pal Billy Dynamite played by Jay Fletcher. If you like gritty and realistic 1970s movies you'll love 'Born To Win', a film which doesn't deserve to languish in such obscurity.

... not to direct - Ivan Passer's a master who ought to have steady employment and somehow doesn't. But can someone request Scorsese to get behind a restoration of this fine film? It may have been made on a low budget, but that's no reason why the only way to see it anymore is on disgracefully butchered videotapes that leave the story in fragments and turn the color photography into mush (I doubt it was quite this bad when originally released).I recall from Pauline Kael's review back when it came out that "Born to Win" was dumped on the market and hardly got an audience even then. Maybe with a decent restoration, and a nice DVD transfer, it can finally get some justice? And Ivan Passer can finally get some good projects to work on?On the critical note, and having seen both Born to Win and Midnight Cowboy again recently, I can say that Passer's film holds up a hell of a lot better than Schlesinger's rather more pretentious contraption. Less showboaty, but also far less sentimental and way more powerful. And a good job by the whole cast.

This is one I had never heard of, but it is very interesting. The filmmaking style is definitely that of the late 60s' and 70s'. It has an ending one should have known was to going to happen but it is no less jarring to the heart. While you are watching this film of a loser, you are on his side hoping that he will make it. As you laugh at the silly predictable situations our hero gets into, you are still assuming he will make it. Does he make it? See the film. The sound on the DVD I watched was hard to follow at some points but the film is worth the effort.The script is very creative although not entirely successful. There are moments where you can not really believe this could happen but it does. The acting by George Segal and Karen Black are excellent. By the way, drugs were even bad way back in the 70s'.