The Split

The Split (1968)


Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Gordon Flemyng

Starring: Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland

From: MGM

Here’s a rather obscure movie. I mean, I say that as not only isn’t it on DVD, it apparently was never on home video at all! That’s right, no VHS or hell, even Betamax. Not that I’ve really looked to find out why, but it’s rather odd to me, considering the cast it has and the fact that according to what I’ve read, once the MPAA was created, this was the first movie ever to get an R rating. Current times, it’s PG-13 level material, but that’s how it was back then.

The way I was able to see this was that last week it was on one morning on TCM. Yep, Turner Classic Movies is a pretty sweet place, although I don’t watch as much of it as I should. I taped it onto a blank VCR tape (snicker if you wish for me not having a DVR or Tivo or anything else) and watched it just last night. During the period of time between the airing and me watching it, some people on a messageboard praised it.

My opinion… not too praise-worthy. It’s a crime drama about a group of thieves who steal the money from the box office of a pro football game in Los Angeles, back when pro football was played in LA and only a few years after Brown retired from being one of the best NFL players of all time. After that, the group feuds with the money… and well, I won’t give it away, but overall I thought this was a lackluster movie. I mean, the story didn’t always captivate me, there were obvious jump-cuts and as others online have noted, it seemed like entire scenes were missing thus making the narrative hard to follow at times. It was nice seeing a famous cast work together, and it’s pretty odd seeing a fight in an office between Brown and Borgnine, but otherwise I wouldn’t say this is worth going out of your way to see, even though it DOES have the typically groovy soundtrack from Quincy Jones. Still, I’m not sure why it got praised on that one board, although as you can guess already, I don’t always agree with the popular or even the “niche” opinion, no matter how small it is.