IMDb RATING
5.8/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
A smart-mouthed junkie and loser known as J.J. spends his days looking for just "one more fix".A smart-mouthed junkie and loser known as J.J. spends his days looking for just "one more fix".A smart-mouthed junkie and loser known as J.J. spends his days looking for just "one more fix".
José Pérez
- Junior Conception
- (as Jose Perez)
Sylvia Syms
- Cashier
- (as Sylvia Simms)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSome of the characters in the film were played by actual New York City junkies at the time, people who Writer and Director Ivan Passer encountered while researching the film.
- Quotes
[first lines]
J: They same I'm a charmer... that I charm the people I hustle. Well, that comes after dealing with women, after hairdressing. I love to dress hair! But being that I know what to do, being that I'm hip enough to know, I do it! That's love and peace. Love and peace. You just gotta keep sending it out. Love. That love and peace.
[smiles]
J: I'm not J for nothing, you know?
- Alternate versionsThe budget video releases of this film feature an edited-for-TV print that cuts out the following scenes: Segal and Prentiss putting tourniquets on in a back room of the nightclub in preparation for taking heroin, an exchange involving Karen Black's character's breast size (and a retort involving Segal's breast size), an extension of the scene featuring Segal in the pink robe giving the "up-yours" sign to the girl on the balcony, dialogue when Black and Segal are making love, and assorted others. The 2005 German MGM DVD features the uncut version of the film.
- ConnectionsFeatures Applause (1973)
Featured review
I've seen Karen Black in several roles where I didn't care for the character she portrayed. The thoroughly dependent and constantly whining waitress she played in Five Easy Pieces was a good example. You could understand why Jack Nicholson had trouble committing to a serious relationship with her. In Born to Win, however, she is easily the most likable personality in the film. How many women would start an affair with a man who was attempting to steal her car? Her beauty, her sense of humor, and her spirit shine through immediately and continue throughout. George Segal's unrepentant junkie character, who lost his wife to a sleazy, backstabbing, pimping drug dealer, somehow manages to charm us more than most of the other actors, including the police, who think nothing of planting evidence on anyone they feel like at the moment. There is something hip about this movie, not because it glorifies heroin addiction, which it certainly does not, but because it seems to show a slice of New York life in a fairly realistic manner. The death of JJ's best friend, Billy, from "a hot shot" that was meant for JJ, the armed "take offs" that the dopers pull on one another simply because they really need a fix or are having a bad day (with no offense otherwise intended), the way the corrupt cops are portrayed, the shots of the city, too often grimy yet somehow alluring -- this is interesting cinema. I think I bought this DVD for a buck and have watched it a number of times. It's a good movie.
- writerasfilmcritic
- Dec 18, 2013
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