Requiem for a Heavyweight:"Mountain Rivera was no punk. Mountain Rivera was almost the Heavyweight Champion of the World! "

Ralph Nelson's Requiem for a Heavyweight, returns us to the more traditional boxing movie. It focuses on the arc of a boxer after leaving the ring, but contains many of the same thematic elements of a boxing film. Economic stagnation and exploitation, the difference between real and fake, entertainment and sport, etc.

One of the most important parts of this film is the interactions Mountain has with other people. His developing relationship with the unemployment worker, and his established relationship with his manager, have amazing influence on his decisions. Having the betrayal of the boxer come from a person who he believes to have his best interests at heart is an interesting change-up from the typical boxing tropes. This is especially unique when Mountain decides for himself to wrestle, in order to save his manager from the mob, another typical boxing trope. This shift sheds some light on why boxers are so easily exploited, often, because of their limited education, young introduction to the sport, intense relationships with their coaches, or other reasons, they cannot see the harm that these important figures in their lives are causing.

Grace Miller's efforts to lift Mountain out of his unemployment, though unfortunately fruitless, end the film on a bittersweet note. The film chastises those who keep people down for their own self-interest, and one gets the idea that Grace would be successful if not for Maish. Grace has hope where others see only a source of money to be extracted until it runs out, without consideration for his dis-figuration, lack of education, or employment, Grace fought to seek employment for Mountain, and although it was undone my Maish, the existence of Grace is enough to be hopeful.

Fight Club:"SIR! THE FIRST RULE OF PROJECT MAYHEM IS....."

David Fincher's Fight Club is a quintessential generation X movie. Teen angst on a global scale, the characters lament for days gone by when men were men and blowing up skyscrapers was a cool solution to societies problems(stick it to the man)! Addressing a sort of societal rebellion against the dehumanizing, emasculating effect modern civilization has on humans, who adapt much more slowly than we'd like to think(thanks biology).

Fight club's premise confronts many issues simultaneously it's a little hard to keep track of them. I'd almost need a second personality to manage all these themes(*wink*). Right of the bat you have economic distress of the lower-middle class, a theme this film shares with the classic boxing films of yore. The hotly debated relationship between gender and society, in this case, examining a population of men forced to define their own masculinity in a society tries to suppress it. It addresses the shift in family structures that resulted from the combination of women's liberation, continuing societal pressure to marry, peer pressure to be promiscuous, etc, and it's effect on a generation raised without a "traditional" family. It explores the phenomenon of settling for mediocrity, criticizes the cultural institutions that prevent us from achieving our full potential, as well as addressing the intrinsic ones.

Fight club rejects the idea that longevity should be a priority in life. Rejects the industrial influence on our society that created a generation of unambitious, middle-achieving, long-lived obedient drones, and challenges us as a society to rethink our priorities. If we are not happy or in the process of achieving happiness then what are we even doing? It flips the status quo on it's head and asks not if "fight club" is good for society, but if society, but if society is good for humans. It is easy to get caught up in our modern world, with no room for any outside experience's it is easy to forget, or never now of anything different, creating a sort of bliss-through-ignorance that has been explored since Plato's Allegory of the Cave all the way to Fight Club and The Matrix.

 

The Wrestler: "The only place I get hurt is out there. The world don't give a shit about me"

 Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler may not be a literal "boxing" film, but "wrestling" shares many similarities with boxing and other combat sports. These similarities between the sports, and the arc of the character this film follows allows us to further abstract the true nature of a boxing film, or maybe it would be more accurate to define a more general genre. Arena films maybe?

To extract  what this film has to say about the boxing film genre, we must first observe the film through the lens of a boxing film, and unsurprisingly, many of the main elements of a typical boxing film are present. Our protagonist begins the film just steps away from poverty. The films intro hints at a past successful wrestling career, which we later find out was not able to secure Randy a comfortable retirement. Already the film is touching upon the exploitative nature of the entertainment industry, especially in such a physically demanding sport.

The film is not specifically criticizing wrestling however, Randy's other job at a warehouse, appears to be just as painful to his aging, broken body, and the film seems to be associating both lines of work with each other, letting the audience's empathy for Randy lead them to question the ethics of work where people trade their bodies for money. Randy's love interest Cassidy, also quite literally does this as her profession, in a bit of heavy-handed character-building.

The goal of this film, as with any film, is to transport the audience into the mind of the subject. Film, being the visual medium that it is, allows us to see what we otherwise would not. Some of the most successful genre's in film are able to trace their success to their depiction of the uncommon, the strange, the unknown. Documentaries, horror films, superhero films, etc explore the uncommon, or the common from an uncommon, sometimes disconcerting angle. The boxing film genre, and it's relatives, explore an increasingly rare , yet increasingly relate-able subject. Randy the Ram, is, like many of his predecessors, a hard-worker, physically talented, and has a bit of an ego. But he and other subjects of these films often lack an ability to adapt, depending on the film this ability may be a lack of will, or a character flaw, or even a lack of opportunity. In Randy's case, he may just have gotten too old. Like the institutionalized Brooks from The Shawshank Redemption, the world moved on to quickly for Randy to keep up with while wrapped up in his career. The film includes an important scene that highlights this concept when Randy plays video games with a local kid, who seems disinterested in the old games and talks about the new Call of Duty. Randy does the best he can do with what he has, but as his life reaches it's end, his body is worn out, but it's still the only thing he can make money on.The idea of a person or class of persons "forgotten" by society is not new. But as the pace of technological and social change increase, many people are beginning to feel left out.

The film, as well as exploring the concept of physical exploitation in the modern world, implores us to sympathize with Randy, and those like him. Randy built the foundation of his career on the entertainment value of destructive behavior, and while it may be tempting to condemn him to his fate for poor planning, it would take a real heartless bastard to watch the final scene of the film, and not wish Cassidy or someone would run out and stop Randy from destroying himself. People like Randy lived and thrived on the capabilities of their young bodies, but as they age, the combination of decreasing ability and limited opportunities outside of physical labor leaves people feeling useless, helpless, and hopeless. The film presents an alternative life for Randy, with family and love and hope, but it is not to be. The pride of Randy, and men like him who built their lives with their hands and bodies is large and easy to wound, and would never accept a life of working behind a deli-counter. The nostalgia, the damaged pride, and the embered hope inside of Randy is particularly relevant recently in the wake of a political movement with the motto: "Make America Great Again". The film places a lot of emphasis on Randy's "finishing move", I find it quite fitting that the film uses the action that implicitly gave Randy his past success, and likely resulted in his current physical state, would also deliver his untimely end.

The Harder They Fall: "How much would you take?"

Mark Robson's The Harder They Fall, shifts the perception of the traditional boxing film from the boxer to the shady promotional organization standing behind him. Treading off the beaten path, it is at the same time very similar to it's contemporaries, yet also uniquely different. By having our protagonist be a sports writer, we can see the inner workings of the organizations our boxers have been contending with in other films, from an insider's point of view. In addition to this deviation, the film has the fixing of boxing matches work in the boxers favor, creating an interesting illusion of success and merit built on a foundation of corruption and trickery.

The relationship between Eddie and Toro builds as the film develops, with the characters growing on each other. Originally, as mentioned many times throughout the film, Eddie is only "in it for the money".  But as he has to trample his own morals and ethics in order to build up Toro into a champion, as well as witnessing first-hand the exploitative nature of the fight game on it's boxers, he takes Toro's side, and helps send him back home to Argentina. A fresh take on the traditional narrative, all the elements are still there. The typical corruption surrounding the sport is able to be isolated from Toro himself, thanks to his back story as an Argentinian immigrant who is still learning English. This alternate take on the corruption surrounding the industry leads to the film having even stronger socialist undertones than even the more heavy-handed boxing films. The story of a hard-working, if a little naive immigrant from humble origins, having his physical labor exploited by corrupt bourgeois capitalists while he receives a minuscule fraction of the fruits of his labor practically reeks of socialism even if I hadn't steered the discussion in that direction.

This clip, one of the most intense scenes from the whole movie, captures the behind the scenes technically-not-illegal exploitation that the movie is criticizing. Just as in On the Waterfront, the "gang" of people supposedly working in the best interest of Toro are actually splitting up his earnings so much, he ends up earning almost nothing.Eddie's response to th group of scammers: "he didn't have five guys in the ring with him", perfectly captures the conflicts outside the ring, that this film seems to be exploring. The argument for socialism often includes a criticism of the capitalist economic system, and it's seemingly parasitic, useless workforce of non-producers. The ideal is to unshackle the workers of the world from this wasteful system, and more equitably distribute that which they produced. Real life examples may have not turned out as perfectly as the theorists proposed, but that is a level of foresight to great to expect out of anyone, let alone filmmakers.

In the end, our noble boxer makes it home a success, and our fallen protagonist redeems himself by giving Toro his earnings rather than letting him return empty handed. Toro's success is tainted however, by the fact that the odds were stacked in his favor, a subtle but important lesson from the film. What may appear to be success, often comes at the expense of other's. What appears to you as the fruits of your labor and natural talent, may be the results of strings pulled by others on your behalf, but that does not make the crooked playing field you are on correct. Eddie also has a "happy" ending, in the optimistic fashion of these early films, he gives up his earnings from his shady enterprise to Toro, and after receiving threats from his previously friendly coworkers, is emboldened to write an expose. Having shaken off his sinful work, Eddie takes on an endeavor to return ethics to the fight game, likely making himself rich in the process as well.

Feature Post: "What is a boxing film anyway?"

 Boxing films goes as far back as some of the first films. They are inherently dramatic, have a built-in central conflict, follow an intensely popular, yet controversial subject matter that is easy to pick up for newcomers, the sport of boxing was made for film, as some film critics have noted. From this substantial source material, filmmakers have shaped their own visions, and told surprisingly similar, yet very different stories. The underlying narrative has also changed over time, as societal attitudes shifted, and new topics entered into the cultural spotlight.

The early era of the boxing film, when camera's filmed in black in white, kicked off the trend of boxing films that focused on the struggles of the lower class. America, which had experienced a surge of socialism prior to World War II, had the Great Depression fresh in it's mind. Hollywood was under scrutiny by the federal government to prevent socialist, "anti-American" films from being produced. It goes without saying that directors did not take too kindly to this federal oversight, but it did leave an impact on the films, while still present, the socialist undertones of the film had to be subdued to make it past the HUAC.

The basic formula for one of these early boxing films is to have some good-old-boy with a lot of talent from a lower-class neighborhood bump into some people, make some connections and BOOM! boxing career. Heavily based on the classical hero's journey, there is still a lot of room for creativity, particularly in this new medium of film. These films explored and critiqued the virtues and vices of the boxing world, and by extension, the world as a whole through the use of a few central conflicts that Leger Grindon outlines in his synthetical essay Body and Soul. The economic aspect of these early films is arguably a uniquely American perspective(or at least it was at the time). The concept of the American dream having shaped life for so many for so long, the films end up conveying to audiences that success is a juggling act of industrious, cold-blooded Capitalism™with a traditionalist respect for your origins, a socialist care for the working class, and a strong moral compass. A diverse blend of starkly different cultural attitudes, molded by the American experience to eventually become the American Dream. These early films also took advantage of the new medium they had, to shift a little bit of the focus away from the fight, and onto the "audience" itself. Like a mirror, the camera reflects back onto the audience, asking you to reconsider your approach to boxing, the depiction of which seemingly getter more and more brutal and primitive as the years go by. This focus of the genre becomes more important as the years go by, as socialism loses favor in America, and domestic issues start becoming more and more important.

As the years went on, the genre focused itself less on the general economic issues of society, like poverty and greed, and more on the domestic issues. On the Waterfront, technically a film about a boxer, has a central conflict revolving around a fraudulent union. This films portrayal of an oppressed group of people reclaiming control of their livelihood from a powerful corrupted elite still carries with it the original formula of the boxing movie. On the other end, Raging Bull, considered a quintessential boxing film, focuses more on the effects boxing and hyper-masculine, hyper-competitive attitudes have on boxers. Granted, you can still connect Raging Bull to a criticism of capitalism and western society in general by drawing the connection through boxing as a metaphor for capitalism, but the lines are getting less obvious, more subtle. What is being brought into the spotlight is LaMota's treatment of his wife and family. While scoundrels and womanizers are nothing new to the genre, in Raging Bull, these issues take a central role in the film. Women are now fully fleshed out characters, rather than pitiable damsels. On the Waterfront in particular uses it's female lead as a source on conscience and as a moral standard for it's protagonist to meet.

As the genre further, a split became apparent in the genre. Film became an ever more ubiquitous form of entertainment, and filmmakers had to make judgment calls, deciding between money-making mass appeal, or possibly unpopular films with the content they want to discuss. This is perfectly clear in two boxing films only 4 years apart, Rocky and Fat City. They still share a common boxing genre heritage, and both address the economic struggles of the "boxing class", but in Rocky, it's only the setting. With or without the poverty, Rocky is still the awkward, aimless, but dedicated goof-ball we know. Rocky considers poverty a temporary state, something that can be worked, or fought out of. This contrasts heavily with Fat City, where poverty hangs on the city like a plague. The people are dirty, depressed, all but hopeless. They stumble around and do the bare minimum, sometimes putting in some effort, but in the end slumping back right where they started. Definitely not an inspirational zero-to-hero story.

Refined over the decades, boxing films take many forms, but from the things they all have in common we can piece together the over-arching narrative thread tying them all together.

Fat City: "stay and talk awhile"

John Huston's Fat City explores the lives of a few down on their luck characters, in a dying and decrepit town. Taking a major deviation from the typical boxing narrative, the film stands in stark contrast to Rocky, which came out not long after. Fat City is the brutally honest depiction of the boxing world from the perspective of two struggling boxers, one reaching the end of his career, and another spiraling down the same drain.Understanding the meaning of the title makes understanding the film a bit easier, Fat City is the sarcastic name of a hypothetical city where those who have "made it" go. A bit of black(literally) humor to help people go through depressing time, Fat City is a metaphor for the hopes and aspirations that they have all but given up on.

 There is no glory in Fat City, no inspirational training montage, no world champion fight, nothing but a depressing scuffle between two no-name nobodies. The world is full of characters who's lives just make you want to turn away and forget about them. Oma in particular, is quite pitiable at first, but ends up growing to annoy the audience just as much as she does Tully. From the annoyingly irrational Oma, to the trapped Ernie, the film is essentially a example book of the various land-mines
we try to avoid throughout our lives. A graveyard for destroyed ambitions.

To be quite honest, the audience probably ends up looking at the film much like Tully looks during his final fight, numb, confused, slightly depressed. The film is bleak and batters  it's audience with a message of hopelessness, decay, and stagnation. The setting alternates between grimy bars, gyms, apartments, and rings. Everyone's clothes are almost always dirty, hygiene out the window. The characters are depressing and half depressed themselves, plagued with criminal records, alcoholism, broken relationships, and probably mental disorders. The audience is, in essence, left to dig through a pile of garbage, to find the treasure in the trash. Not that the film is bad, mind you, but the subject matter might turn most off of watching the film.

I mean for Christ's sakes look at this guy, not exactly a high-roller. That's our protagonist, someone who likely would have deserved to be yelled at by the old lady in Rocky and called a bum, if that film weren't made after this one. Rocky and Tully do begin their films very similarly, aging nobody boxers who haven't gotten very far in life, but their characters take very different paths. Where Rocky is active and persistent, Tully is passive and lazy. Where Rocky is ambitious, Tully is OK with just getting by. The films portrayal of boxing is pretty negative, but here the critique is not really on boxing itself, it is split between an alternate depiction of the American society that's been praised for it's social mobility, while concealing a "forgotten" segment of the population that has been left in poverty, while also turning the mirror back on America and almost chastising it for it's lack of motivation to change itself.

The interactions between Tully and Ernie highlight one of the films central ideas. Almost a reflection of each other, Tully see his past, as well as his missed opportunities in Ernie, whereas Ernie sees a foreboding image of the future in Tully. Both of these characters show promise, and likely have what it takes to succeed, but they let their relationships hamper them. They don't face challenges, they avoid them, make excuses for themselves. Whenever they meet they always discuss their boxing careers or "what went wrong", whats coming up, and there is always something coming up. Because in the end, a crucial part of the Fat City meme, is that it is always slightly out of reach.

Creed: "Building a legacy"

Ryan Coogler's Creed takes on the task of shifting an iconic American franchise into the 21st century. The film touches on the typical subject matter of a boxing film, issues of class, poverty and wealth, struggle and success. But the films own legacy lends it the unique opportunity to present a story about aging, a passing of the torch, as well as a tonal shift from competition and conquest, to shared success.

Centering on the training of Adonis Creed by Rocky Balboa, the film carries a  message about identity. A key part of the movie revolves around whether or not Adonis should use his father's name during his fights, and whether or not the name, and the legacy that comes with it, belongs to him.Throughout the film, it is Adonis himself, and his fixation with his father's legacy, that holds him back the most. This is addressed briefly in the film, when Rocky has him "shadowbox" with his own reflection. The film reflects on the impact of identity on success, with perception, both self and public, having central role in the film. Ultimately, Adonis reaffirms his identity as a Creed, while forging his own legacy, as Rocky passes on to him his own.

As far as boxing films go, Adonis' character was refreshingly different. Unlike his famous predecessors, Adonis does not box out of necessity, but for more personal reasons. Adonis, before his boxing careers begins, had the strange circumstance of having a troubled early childhood, only to grow into a life of luxury and success. Adonis' early struggles, and later lifestyle are also attributable to his father's boxing career as well. His unique upbringing creates an incentive in Adonis to come to terms with, and learn more about, the man responsible for his challenges, and his later success. Adonis does this by taking up his fathers legacy of boxing, whilst simultaneously creating his own. 

The theme of struggle and hard work runs deep through the boxing genre, particularly in the Rocky franchise and it's famous training montages. While boxing is often portrayed as foolish within the genre, a savage, primitive sport that somehow flew under the radar and made it into our modern world. Out of place and anachronistic. Yet, within sports in general and boxing in particular there is a particular appeal, that's almost subconscious. An appeal to an inner desire to prove one's worth, to emphatically announce to the world, as Creed puts it that: "I'm not a mistake". In Adonis' case, there was a sense of unfulfillment looming over his life. There is something about success unearned that feels wrong, incomplete. Adonis takes up boxing in this context not only to come to terms with the legacy of his father, but to prove himself worthy of it.

 The final shot of the film takes inspiration from the famous stair scene from the original Rocky, but shifts the tone of the scene. Rather than the victorious, competitive vibe coming from it in the Rocky films, Creed blends nostalgia with pride to create a moment, that closes an open wound left in the Rocky franchise. A product of the racial tension in the mid-late 20th century, Creed shifts the narrative into the 21st century by ending the film with a peaceful, optimistic, almost reconciliatory tone. The film comes to terms with it's past much like Adonis does, seizes the present, and looks forward to a brighter future.