The Fighter – 2010
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie, and overall it wasn’t bad. I’d say its biggest problem was something that it seems to share with many sports movies. It was entirely predictable. I didn’t know the details, but I knew the end before it even began, which is why I usually try to avoid sports movies. See, sports movies are generally supposed to be inspirational, displaying the triumph of the human spirit, a story that has been told countless times.
He or she is an underdog. Life has gotten them down, and winning at the sport becomes a metaphor for the athlete triumphing over their personal demons. They start out in the gutter, try to turn their career around. They meet someone who they fall in love with. They have a little success, but also a few set-backs. Their confidence is shaken, but the love interest inspires them to do something unexpected, giving the athlete what is needed to with the last battle.
The Fighter followed suit, for the most part. There was very little surprise. The sport was, of course, boxing, and the film was based on the true story of Micky Ward, Light Welterweight World Champion in 1997. He was played by Mark Wahlberg who really bulked up for the role. Micky grew up in Lowell Massachusetts. His mother, Alice, played by Melissa Leo, is his manager. She is little better than a piece of chain-smoking white trash. His older brother, Dicky, is his trainer. Dicky, played by Christian Bale, also used to be a boxer who’d once had a fight with the famous Sugar Ray Loenard. His claim to fame isn’t that he won the fight, but that he knocked Sugar Ray down. Once. Now, Alice and Dicky are Micky’s greatest liabilities. As a manager, Alice gets him into fights that he cannot win. As a trainer, Dicky, who is a jittery crack addict, is careless and unreliable.
Then there is the aforementioned love interest, Charlene, played by Amy Adams. She was portrayed as white trash, but with a mind and a desire to better herself. She seemed to genuinely love Micky and had his best interest at heart. When Micky is ready to throw in the towel, she gets him to keep trying. And I liked the way their relationship was developed.
So if the boxing aspect of the film was predictable, why was it nominated for Best Picture? It was three things: the perfectly choreographed boxing sequences, the subplot about Dicky’s drug addiction, and the wonderful acting. Together, they gave the film realism, something serious to focus on other than the predictable boxing, and credibility. Director, David O. Russell, was inspired by other boxing films like Martin Scorsese’s 1980 Best Picture nominee, Raging Bull, and the 1976 Best Picture winner, Rocky. Russell, who is a fan of the sport, said that he wanted the boxing matches to be even more realistic than the ones seen in those films, and critics seem to agree that he was successful.
Second, Dicky’s drug addiction was a major sub-plot, and Bale, an actor known for completely immersing himself in his roles, really turned in a perfect performance. He apparently studied the real Dicky Eklund’s boxing videos and the HBO documentary, High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, which featured the real Dicky, and which was written into the plot of The Fighter, and copied his mannerisms flawlessly. This leads me into the third laudable aspect of the film, the acting. Bale’s performance was so good that he took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And he wasn’t the only one. Melissa Leo also took home the award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Alice. In addition, Amy Adams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Other actors who deserve to be recognized were Jack McGee as George Ward, Micky’s father, and Mickey O’Keefe, a Lowell City Police Sergeant who served as Mickey’s trainer after Mickey turned away from Dicky and Alice. An interesting note about O’Keefe is that the actor was playing himself. He had never acted before, but Wahlberg convinced him to take the part, telling him that he could do it because as a police officer, he has to act and think fast on his feet.
And lest I forget, lest anyone forgets, I have to mention something strange. As I was looking up the cast list on Wikipedia, someone seemed to be left out. The actor who played Micky’s rival in the ring for the fight that earned him the championship title, is not mentioned. Even the character’s name was absent from the plot synopsis. So I looked on IMDB, and almost at the bottom of the expanded cast list, shown only as Neary, is the name of the actor who played the Liverpool-born boxer, Shea Neary. Sure, Anthony Molinari didn’t have a lot of screen time, but he was an integral part of the film’s climax. You’d think he would deserve a little credit. Well, here it is. Well done, Anthony.