Engaging ¨Boxing drama¨ including nice acting and acceptable direction by Mario Camus . It is the intense portrait of the life of an amateur boxer who falls into the hands of a cruel manager while turning into professional . Along the way he will be leaving his honesty and his friends , as well as suffering at a hard world where several motley characters live : aging , naive boxers and ambitious promoters . At it deals with a fateful journey that takes the starring to fall into the hands of a malicious role . Born into a humble worker family who resides in the area of Hospitalet Barcelona , "young Paco Sanchez" (a fine starring well personified by Julian Mateos) works as a mechanic in a factory but he desperately fights his way to the success at boxing sport . As in his spare time , veteran paternalistic coacher "Paulino" (Luis Romero) tries to lead his pupil in the right direction along with his friend , a middle-age man "Conca" (Carlos Otero) , an ex-boxer who still dreams with past greatness , both of whom train him as a boxer . However , his situation goes wrong when it comes time to make the leap from amateur to professional . Young Sanchez to be obsessed with boxing and in escaping his poverty ; he , then , is tempted by a nasty promoter called Don Rafael (as unscrupulous manager rightly acted by Sergio Dore) who is able to corrupt the sport and athletes if that makes profits . Later on , "Paco Sanchez" attempts to abandon to "Paulino" and "Conca" .
This is a provoking but slow-moving drama concerning on a few roles who suffer the consequences of their decisions . "Young Sanchez" is Camus's early film , along with ¨Los Farsantes¨ and ¨Con Viento Solano¨ where we find acute descriptions about lower classes , some atmospheric settings as well as attractive and troublesome roles . Being the adaptation by the same Mario Camus from a story by the prestigious writer Ignacio Aldecoa . It is a noir and thought-provoking drama about boxing world with ambitious promoters , rookie boxers and good trainers . As boxing genre film , "Young Sanchez" follows classic titles of the American genre such as ¨Set-up¨ by Robert Wise with Robert Ryan , ¨The champion¨ by Mark Robson with Kirk Douglas and ¨The harder they fall¨ by Robson with Humphrey Bogart , all of them we already find the dark corruption , ambition and the poor social environments in which protagonists move to thrive in the world of boxing . It's a grueling boxing tale with tough realism full of face-blistering , punches , knocks until ¨Raging Bull¨ surpassed it many years later . The main strength of the film resides on the adequate interpretations . Here stands out Julian Mateos , a famed Spanish actor , early deceased , he acted in all kinds of genres , as Gialli : ¨Cold eyes of fear¨ , Drama : ¨La Celestina¨, ¨Novios De La Muerte¨ and player in US Western as well as Spaghetti as ¨Hellbenders¨ , ¨Four rode out¨ , ¨Catlow¨ , ¨Shalako¨, ¨Return of seven magnificent¨ and even produced ¨Camus's Los Santos Inocentes¨. Support cast is pretty well , these roles are habitual archetypes rather common in this thrilling genre , such as Carlos Otero , Dore , Luis Romero and the ordinary secondary Luis Ciges , Luis Garcia Berlanga's regular . The film won several prizes : Cinema Writers Circle Awards to Best Actor : Julian Mateos ; Fotogramas De Plata , Best Spanish Movie Performer ; Mar del Plata Film Festival 1964 , Best Castillian Language Film , best actor , Best Director , Best Screenplay Ignacio Aldecoa ; and Sant Jordi Awards 1964 Won Sant Jordi Best Performance in a Spanish Film .
Atmospheric though worn-out cinematography by Victor Monreal ; however , being necessary an alright remastering . Downbeat , jazzy and sad musical score , though brief and little heard , by Enrique Escobar . Both , Victor Monreal and Enrique Escobar are ordinaries in Ignacio F. Iquino factory , ¨I.F.I¨ , Catalan production enterprise located in Barcelona . The motion picture was well directed by Mario Camus following his particular style . Camus was born in Santander , Cantabria , location in which often shoots his films . He worked with Carlos Saura in several screenplays during the early 60s as ¨Los Golfos¨ (1960), ¨ Llanto Por Un Bandido¨ (1964), and also directed some shorts . Camus shows a penchant for literary and perhaps he's the best Spanish film adapter, a fact that will be a constant in his films . His first feature films were ¨Los Farsantes¨ (1963) and ¨Young Sánchez¨ (1964), this is one of the greatest movies about boxing which won the Best Film Award at the Buenos Aires Festival . Mario has an important career with film and television adaptations quite remarkable , as he efficiently directed yarns based on notorious writers such as Perez Galdos , García Lorca , Cela Camilo José Cela and Miguel Delibes . During various decades he touched styles varying from romantic comedies and musicals with ¨Rafael¨ to splendid adaptations from famous novels , as is the case of the prestigious TV series "Fortunata y Jacinta" (1979) . In 1983 he was given the 'Medalla Oro De las Bellas Artes' (Arts Gold Medal), and one year later he prepared his most successful work both with public and critic : ¨Los Santos Inocentes¨ (1984), an adaptation from the novel by Miguel Delibes . Mario is an expert on interesting dramas as proved in ¨ The house of Bernarda Alba¨ , ¨La Colmena¨ which won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival , ¨The days of the past ¨ and many others . Rating : Better than average ; it's a decent film though sometimes slow-moving .
