Perfect cast and a good story

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Born To Win is a black comedy that was released more than forty years ago about a life of a drug addict.It stars a talented cast in George Segal,Karen Black,Paula Prentiss, Hector Elizondo and Robert De Niro. The story revolves around Jay Jay,an ex-hairdresser who finds it difficult to support his drug addiction.He later reaches rock bottom as his lifestyle only leads him to more harm like self-hate and lack of self-confidence. The movie obviously is pretty much dated as it belonged to the 70's when people are discovering the "pleasure" that drugs can bring and thus forming the habit.While it may serve as a warning to the viewer as it makes fun of the disaster that Jay Jay is headed to,it fails to provide genuine warning and does not manage to entertain the viewer at all.

I like these old B-Movies from the 1970's they're the kind that used to show on cable TV at 3:00AM "Born To Win" is a cool movie to watch when you're bored and have nowhere to go on a Saturday night.The story revolves around a junkie named JJ who spends most of his time doing small jobs for drug dealers, and getting paid with dope.There's a real 70's feel to this movie, with lots of funky music, dealers and druggies, walkin' the walk and talking' the talk!Featuring a very young Robert Deniro as Danny!.

I'm a huge fan of Robert De Niro. I've made an effort to hunt down all of his older films (like Greetings and the awful "Sam's Song" a.k.a. "The Swap") and have done pretty well so far - I saw "Born to Win" at a grocery store for six bucks on DVD and since I'd seen it listed on IMDb as one of his early films (and after making sure it wasn't one of the countless "other titles" for "Sam's Song") I purchased it.Much to my surprise (well, not really, I kinda suspected as much) the cover was totally deceiving. It features Robert De Niro's face (from another film, mind you), his hand holding a gun. It says, "ROBERT DE NIRO" and "George Segal" in smaller print underneath his name. The tagline on the DVD is something like, "A junkie goes against a cop trying to bring down Mr. Big." Now, mind you, no one in this film is named Mr. Big, and the junkie (Segal) doesn't "go against" the cop. De Niro the Cop is only in TWO scenes (count 'em, two) and has maybe a page's worth of dialogue, if that.The film relies on Segal and he really delivers a fine performance. The entire cast is good - Hector Elizondo and Karen Black in supporting roles, as well as a younger Burt Young (pre-"Rocky").This isn't a great film and it isn't superbly directed. It's a bit hard to watch at times due to a grainy transfer and bad audio. But it's reminiscent of Al Pacino's "Panic in Needle Park" so far as it presents a realistic, gritty, depressing vision of junkies operating on the streets, and how miserable your life can become by resorting to drugs (mainly heroin).A good, rewarding picture - but don't be fooled by the title, nor Leonard Maltin's description of it as a "very funny" comedy.

"Midnight Cowboy"'s enormous commercial and critical success in 1969 created a ho-hum sub-genre of life on the mean streets of New York City in the early-1970s. In 1971, Al Pacino got a big break in "The Panic in Needle Park" and Robert DeNiro also was able to be recognized in a smaller role in "Born to Win". DeNiro is not the star here though, instead it is George Segal (who had actually received an Oscar nomination for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" back in 1966) who stars as a junkie who has lost it all literally and continues to roam the darkest places of New York just looking for that next high. Karen Black is also along for the long and twisted ride as a woman who is little more than a prostitute herself. DeNiro and fellow detective Ed Madsden go to Segal to try and bring down a heartless drug-dealer/pimp (an early part for Hector Elizondo) that has terrorized the streets for years. "Born to Win" is one of those films that could have been really thought-provoking, but ultimately fails due to the fact that it becomes more of an exploit product by the final act. DeNiro would of course hit super-stardom not long after this and he is arguably the greatest asset here in spite of the fact that his screen-time is not near as great as it should have been. 2.5 out of 5 stars.