The Fighter

The Fighter

Not being a fan of boxing I wasn't really looking forward to this  picture. I didn't even knew who Micky Ward was! When I saw the previews I  thought to myself; Raging Bull 2. Well, I couldn't be more  wrong, except some slow-motions "à la Scorsese" during the fight we have  a movie of his own. I assume that David O. Russell (Three Kings) was very meticulious to not redo something that has been done before.

I categorize this kind of picture has an actor movie. Clearly the  performances of Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and the greatest  actor of his generation Christian Bale are top notch. One can say that  Wahlberg didn't gives the best performance of the year. I wouldn't  disagree completely but the character he portraits is a low profile man  while his brother Dicky (Christian Bale) is more explosive and  exhuberant. Bale gives one of his best performance, he is  unrecognizable: the way he walks, his huge crack smocker eyes, his  omnipresent intensity even when his character is sitting in a chair. He  is Eklund.

The film stands as a metaphor on how drugs, dreams, family... Even if  sometimes you think you're at the end of the barrell you can always turn  right with the perfect combination of good and evil and succeed in  life. It's the American Dream set in the 1990's. How you should never  stop believing in yourself and get people around you that will bring you  higher than you can even expect. It may seem like I've seen a Disney  picture or something like it, but still. Even if the Ward family is a  little "white trash" and that many characters are unpleasant to watch  the film quickly wraps up to a simpler ending than what the social  tensions presented in its central chapter. There's also a clear off-beat  point in the middle of the film where the time and discomfort is  palpable and I think that it slows and weakened the rhythm of the story.  Anyway, it reprensents probably many families where the mother wants to  control everything and where everyone tries to put his or her nose in  the things of the other...

I believe that Dicky's problems with drugs were important and crack is  one of the worst out there, but somehow I think that the film was a  little too moralistic about it. I like that instead of praising it, it  condemns it and it's a great achievment that he got out of this shit.  It's just that at moments Bale is so great on the screen that the focus  should be about Micky. Isn't it his film after all?

Far from being a great film The Fighter is a good movie that  gives you more than the regular Sports movie or Drama. It's a Social  drama about a family that lived for boxing. I am curious to see how the  movie will do at the Oscars because I thnik that this is the kind of  film the Academy likes to praise. Small town people that can get into  the big world of corporate boxing and earn their success through  adversity...

Recommendations: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Duel

The Fighter

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it”- Margaret Thatcher

The Fighter is as much about boxing as it is about fighting the battles that life throws you into. It is about rising in the face of adversity, and finding the one voice in the crowd that you should be listening to.

In this surely-to-be-Oscar-nominated film, Director David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings), brings to the screen the real lives of “Irish” Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg, and his brother Dickie Eklund (Christian Bale).

Hailing from the working-class town of Lowell, Mass., Micky is an underdog boxer trying to work his way to the top. He is a man trying to fight his way out of his brother’s shadow, while trying to rebuild the dashed hopes and dreams of his slightly dysfunctional family.

Dickie is a boxer turned trainer who has the confidence and the know-how to make it in the boxing world. Though he had the talent, he falls short of reaching his full potential when defeat and poor choices lead him down the wrong road.

As Lowell’s hometown hero, Dickie cannot move forward with his life, and is forever reliving his failed moment in the spotlight. Though he is supposed to be training his brother, Dickie always seems to have his own interests in mind.

While many may assume The Fighter is your typical boxing movie, it certainly has more to offer than a few swift punches and a couple of knockouts.     The Fighter is story about inner turmoil, it is about the pain of defeat, and about how important it is to be able to pick your battles wisely.
  Though the loyalty of a family is often the biggest support a person can have, Micky eventually learns it can also be your biggest obstacle. With help from local bartender Charlene Flemming (Amy Adams), Micky decides his life is his own to live. He decides that if he is the one in the ring each round, he should fight on his own terms.
  With superb performances from Wahlberg, Bale and Adams, The Fighter will tug at your emotional side, and leave you constantly wondering if Micky’s dreams will ever be realized.
With extremely realistic fighting scenes, and art direction that set the 1980s New England scene perfectly, this film will transport you to another time and place for the duration you are watching it.
   I would give this movie 4.5/5 for its ability to draw the parallel between sport and life.
  Though our daily battles may be with substance abuse and addiction, family issues, self worth and confidence, or the battle we all fight against the clock, we still need to have a plan of attack and the confidence and support to put it into action.

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Recommendations: Wizard of Oz

THE FIGHTER

Micky Ward is not well-known to those outside of boxing circles.  Even those who do follow the sport of boxing may not be familiar with his whole story.  Thanks to the new movie The Fighter, more people can learn of his struggle to become a world champion.  The interesting thing here is that the struggle was with his own family.  Micky could have probably been an even better or more well-known boxer if he was guided properly early in his career.  But his domineering mother (who also served as his business manager) and crack-addicted brother didn’t exactly pave the right path for him.
Mark Wahlberg plays Micky and Christian Bale plays his half-brother Dicky Eklund.  You can tell immediately that they have a tight bond together, regardless of whatever problems Dicky’s drug abuse has caused them.  You see, Dicky was the one who was expected to be world champion.  He was a boxer first and even got to fight against the great Sugar Ray Leonard early in his career.  But he lost that fight and never went on to have any real significant wins.  He would often brag about knocking Sugar Ray down; that knockdown was actually ruled a slip though.  It just shows how Dicky tried to make himself out to be better than he really was.  But everyone in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts loved him and made him feel as big as he thought he was.  He was “the pride of Lowell”.  The lack of any real success in boxing may be what led him down the road of drugs though, as his professional boxing career ended after just 19 fights.  Micky, on the other end, stayed clean.  Though he idolized his brother, he made sure not to ruin his career the way Dicky did.
Dicky Eklund taught his brother everything he knew and therefore was his trainer from day 1.  Unfortunately, that led to Micky waiting hours for him to get to the gym sometimes while he was off getting high.  Their mother Alice (Melissa Leo) loved Dicky so much that she pretty much ignored the fact that he was addicted to drugs and backed him up in everything he did.  So did his seven disgusting sisters.  These are the type of girls that think they’re so tough that you want someone to knock them out just to prove them otherwise.  Luckily, Micky meets a girl named Charlene (Amy Adams) who’s just tough enough to let him know that his family is ruining his career.  And she’s not afraid to put his mother, his sisters, or Dicky himself in his place.  She shows him the love that he wasn’t really getting from his money-loving mother or any of his sisters.  But deep in his heart, he knows he still needs Dicky by his side.  When Dicky gets arrested and goes off to prison, Micky’s career starts to take off in the right direction.  But he still uses the tools that his brother taught him in all of his fights.
Naturally, when Dicky gets out of jail there is a conflict of interest over whether Micky should let him back in his corner or not.  This is where Dicky needs to show some maturity and see if he can put his past behind him.  The Fighter is a great tale of overcoming adversity even within your own household just to make it in the sports world.  It’s hard to achieve success when your own family is holding you back.  All of the actors are great in this film.  Amy Adams finally plays a strong character instead of the prudes that she usually plays, and Melissa Leo is pretty much disturbing as the mother who constantly sides with one son over the other.  But it’s Christian Bale who steals the show as the drugged-out but caring brother of Micky Ward.  He’s one of those method actors, like Daniel Day-Lewis, who submerses himself in every role he plays and really becomes that person.  He deserves an Oscar for his heartfelt portrayal of Dicky Eklund.  The film also continues the tradition of really good movies based in the Boston area (Lowell is outside of Boston) such as Good Will Hunting, Mystic River, The Departed, Gone Baby Gone, and most recently The Town.  Boxing movies tend to make the best sports films, maybe because it’s not a team sport and you really get to delve into the background of the individual.  But this is really a great story of perseverance with boxing as an exciting backdrop for it all.

Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

The Fighter

"The Fighter" was directed by David O. Russell.  It stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams.

Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a boxer.  His half brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) used to be one of the best boxers in Lowell, Massachusetts, but that got ruined when he became a crack addict and served some prison time.  When Dicky is not in prison and semi-sober he helps Micky become phenomenal.  Amy Adams plays Charlene, a barmaid and the object of Micky's affections.

The three leads are phenomenally talented and work beautifully with each other.  Mark Wahlberg plays a darn good boxer and has great scenes with Christian Bale and Amy Adams.  Christian Bale, as a crack addict steals every scene he is in, and may actually win an Oscar for the role.  Quite a long ways away from Batman.  He lost tons of weight and completely became his character.  And finally, Amy Adams, three years ago played a Disney princess in "Enchanted" and after "The Fighter" it is guaranteed she will never ever in the history of her life be typecast.  She's tough, curses, and is very strong willed and has quite an attitude on her.  It is quite a joy to watch.

"The Fighter" looks beautiful.  There are great on location shots in Lowell, Massachusetts as well as impressive camera work and editing in the boxing scenes in the film.  Also, the framing of the actors also is well done, with a lot of panning back and forth during conversations between Dicky and Micky, and other characters.  Character interactions were extremely important in this film, so this kind of camera work benefitted the film. 

The actresses who played Dicky and Micky's seven sisters were extremely annoying.  I'm just calling it like it is.  It's like white trash and incessant chattering, and I was not a fan.  Also, for some reason I didn't like the music most of the time.  Sometimes it worked alright and other times it was really awkward sounding.  However, I did love how sometimes music would be coming from a car radio or something and it sounding like it was just background music. 

If you are expecting tons of boxing scenes, be warned, there are only about four or five.  The main focus of the film is the interactions between the three main characters, mainly the two brothers and their family.  "The Fighter" is much more that a sports movie, just a heads up.  This may turn people off, such as the unbelievably annoying people next to me who got bored and chatty and walked out after a half hour.  Maybe they should just wait a month and see "Drive Angry 3D"...I'm sure Nicolas Cage would love that.

Another random thing I feel like mentioning: "The Fighter" definitely wasn't a long movie, but at times, especially in the middle it became hard for me to follow. Other times it felt like scenes could have been slightly trimmed.  That could just be my ADD kicking in...you never know.

I love Oscar season.  It is the most wonderful time of the year.  So many great films to be seen.  Yes, that  includes "The Fighter."  It's a great true story, brought to screen in a well made film, with great acting by the leads.  Once again I sense a lot of Oscar nominations and possibly a couple wins.  If you enjoy any of the actors, sports movies, or quality movies in general, then by all means go to your nearest theater and pay rip-off prices for a night full of wonder and cinema. 3 out of 4 stars...somewhere around there....these star things are hard to figure sometimes.


-Joseph Sbrilli 

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The Fighter

Plot: Based on the true story of boxer Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his rise through the Welter Weight boxing division.  Set in Lowell, Massachusetts, Mickey deals with his overbearing family and crack addict brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) who tries to manage Mickey’s career but becomes a liability due to his disastrous behavior.

The title of the film, the Fighter, relates to Mickey Ward only in name.  This is Christian Bale’s movie as he plays Dicky Eklund, a once famous boxer whose claim to fame was knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard.  He’s now broken down, addicted to crack, and played with perfection by Bale whose Oscar seems inevitable.  Everything about the Fighter is decent, including David O. Russell’s direction and the script, but its Bale’s performance that elevates it from an okay movie to a very good movie.

Playing Dicky Eklund required both intensity and vulnerability.  There are scenes in which Eklund is watching an HBO documentary on crack addiction in which he features a prominent role.  As he watches from prison, he takes it with a grain of salt, but when they show his kid in the film, he breaks down.  The transformation of emotion Bale conveys is damn impressive to watch.  There are also moments when he’s jumping out of crack houses into the garbage to avoid his mother which are both funny and sad at the same time.

Speaking of the mother, Melissa Leo plays Alice Ward, mother of both the main characters.  Her best scenes come when she is on the phone with Dicky in prison as she watches Mickey fight on TV and Alice breaks down what’s happening in the fight.  Her range of expressions is perfect just as if you were watching a fight.  Her character is interesting because she comes off as detestable at times.  Mickey has a chance to reach new heights with his career, but Alice can’t stop mentioning how Dicky fought Sugar Ray that one time, which was many years ago.  Her performance is still that of a nurturing mother, so it’s hard to completely dislike her.  Leo plays the two personalities very well. 

Amy Adams is also great as Charlene, Mickey’s girlfriend.  She’s very fiery as her motivation is completely driven by breaking Mickey away from his crazy family, believing this will give him more focus and success as a fighter.  You generally side with Charlene, but the film does a good job of pulling you back and forth between Charlene and Dicky/Alice as which side is right for Mickey.

And that leaves us with Wahlberg’s performance as Mickey Ward.  It’s not that Wahlberg is bad, but he completely melts away compared to everyone else on screen.  He especially cannot keep up with Bale.  This hurt the movie significantly as a stronger force was needed for the main character.  Although Mickey’s character in itself is not a strong individual as he is constantly being told what to do, but I’m always thinking about the other characters when he’s on screen.  It slows down a lot when he’s not with Bale, Adams, or Leo.

Aside from a few good performances, the film is okay.  The fighting sequences are forgettable, but not terrible.  If you’re looking for a film strictly about boxing, this may not be for you.  Bale elevates the movie to the point where you should definitely see it.  Especially towards the end where he gives a speech to Mickey that is just riveting.  All of the true emotional moments involve Bale’s character.  Whenever the story focuses on Mickey Ward, it’s just not that interesting.  And that is the movie’s true downfall and what keeps it from being great.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 (very good)

The Fighter

Yo!  Charlene!

I suppose it is inevitable that The Fighter will be compared to Rocky. Only Rocky Balboa was a fictional character, and Irish Micky Ward was real. But from my perspective, this was no Rocky wanna-be. In truth, this wasn’t a Raging Bull wanna-be either. Those films were 180 degrees apart, more on that later.

The Fighter has elements of both, but Director David O. Russell has taken steps that will place this film in neither of those camps. Mark Wahlberg portrays Micky Ward, and going in, I expected him to carry the film. But this is not the case.

In fact, despite Walhberg’s lead billing, he underplays his role, and clearly gives his co-stars an opportunity to shine, and for sure, they do, as the best performances are theirs. While the film will not win a Best Picture Oscar, we just might see a Big O awarded to one or two of the cast.



First, Christian Bale is stunning, giving a virtuoso performance as Dicky Eklund, who is Micky’s half brother. Eklund himself was a boxer, and he reached the heights, if not the glory, by going the distance,toe to toe with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978. But that fight was Dicky’s pinnacle, and years later, he has become a criminal and a crack-head.



He has difficulty separating the present from the past, the reality of the Leonard fight from the legend, as well as knowing that a comeback is not in the cards for him. This film, gives Bale a role that is a searing look at man who has slid from the top of the world (almost) to near oblivion. Bale is riveting and you can’t take your eyes off him. He is a joker, a goofball, and a superb trainer for his brother Micky; only he can’t get past crack.



Melissa Leo, who I remember from tv’s  Homicide: Life on the Streets, here plays Alice who is Mother to both Dicky and Micky, as well as seven now adult daughters, who have been called harpies and furies, as well as a discordant Sisterly Greek Chorus. Alice manages Micky’s fight career. Her strength is her her loyalty to her sons, but this is also the reason why the family is so dysfunctional.

Her oldest son is Dicky, and together they guide Micky’s career, but not always in his best interest. Leo doesn’t give us a multi-leveled performance as Alice. As the role is written she is clearly the villain of the film. We watch her, and we become unsettled, then we hate her.



Once Dicky is sent off to prison (again), and Micky takes up with the bar- tender Charlene, we see Alice bare her fangs, and rouse up the seven sisters in a unified front against Charlene. But they’re not fighting to protect Micky. Instead they’re fighting to keep their piece of him. Alice, having lost her oldest son to crime and drugs, cannot lose her youngest son to another woman. You won’t like Alice the least bit, but you will simply love Melissa Leo as Alice.



Amy Adams stars as Charlene. She is something of a female Dicky herself. Only she didn’t slide into crime and drugs. She went to the University of Rhode Island, on a full ride athletic scholarship. Only she partied too much, and never graduated. Now she tends bar in Lowell, and has to put  up with a nightly assortment of drunks and other losers who talk about her sugar ass right in front of her.



She becomes Micky’s love interest, but the road to love for them is painfully bumpy. Adams turns in a stellar performance as the feisty, tough as nails, won’t take shit from anyone Charlene. It is hate at first sight between Charlene and Alice and the seven sisters. But Charlene stands up to them, giving as good as she gets despite being outnumbered. She also gets Micky going when he wants to pack it in, and when she needs to, she makes her peace with Dicky.

Russell takes the ‘generic boxing underdog’ story and gives it some freshness by weaving the boxing aspect and the family drama into a cohesive whole. That Micky would reach the heights is no surprise, but Russell doesn’t give us a heroic musical anthem to hum over and over as we exit the theater.



Nor does he go into much details about the drug abuse by Dicky, or the supposed criminal connections about the fight promoters. The fights themselves are tiered building in length as well as intensity as the film progresses.



In another interesting turn, Russell changes his style to a degree at least twice within the film which thereby nreaks into thirds. In the first third, the film is very dense. Characters talk at the same time, overlaying one another, making it harder on the viewers.  The camera work progressively slows down as do the speeches by the actors in the middle segment. By the third segment, we have many more single shots with one actor taking up most of the frame.



The script makes us care about Micky, but it is not so much about rooting for him. Rather it seems like we are rooting against his family who despite their protestations, have often placed their own ‘success’ ahead of Micky’s.



While Rocky was a populist fable that millions cheered for,  Raging Bull was a film that dealt an endless series of body blows to both Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta as well as we the audience. That film was a battering for us, yet a showcase for the sheer technical virtuosity and artistry of Martin Scorcese, the director. The Fighter will not have you leave the theater cheering nor will you feel beaten up emotionally by what you just watched, but certainly, it is film you will appreciate and enjoy.

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Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-12-18 15:14:57 by JustMeMike

The Fighter

Prior to last week, the only film of David O. Russell’s that I had seen was Three Kings, an energetically shot heist film set during the closing days of the gulf war. That movie – one of my all time favourites – is a unique blend of black comedy, drama and political satire, as well as an action movie that consistently subverts the stereotypes that pervade so many of its Hollywood compatriots. Based on my love for that film, the idea of Russell directing a boxing drama in The Fighter was extremely enticing – after all, what genre is more primed for a sly deconstruction than the one that houses six Rocky movies? Unfortunately, Russell’s latest effort more or less toes its generic line, with hardly any of the rebellious spark that made Three Kings so exciting. That’s not to say The Fighter isn’t good; it is. At times, it is truly triumphant, combining rousing fight scenes with effective family drama, and containing one of the most flabbergasting performances of the season. Yet in spite of all this, as I exited the theatre, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

Perhaps my dissatisfaction lies in the films very premise, one that feels strikingly familiar to the many boxing films that came before it, and one that is made no less trite by the fact that it is based on a true story. A muscle-bound Mark Wahlberg plays Mickey “Irish” Ward, a welterweight boxer from the blue collar neighbourhood of Lowell, Massachusetts. Despite his talent, Mickey seems destined to remain a stepping stone; a man for other fighters to defeat on their way to bigger and better things. His lack of success is due in no small part to the machinations of his horrid family, which includes a parasitic mother who is also his agent, a drug addicted half-brother who is also his trainer, and an enormous number of freeloading sisters who all rely on the money Mickey’s fights bring in. On the verge of quitting, Mickey is offered one last shot at stardom, but only on the condition that his family remains uninvolved.

As I said, The Fighter is good, and all of the above makes for some often compelling cinematic drama. Ultimately however, the blending of dysfunctional families and underdog fighters is nothing that hasn’t been handled better in films like Raging Bull or The Wrestler, both of which also feature lead characters far more interesting than Mickey Ward. Neither does David O. Russell offer enough directorial flair – barring one or two individual moments – to make the moviemaking distinct. Too often, the director falls back on the old standard of the training montage, in this case inexplicably set to popular nineties rock music. None of this is enough to cripple the film, but I have a hard time imagining wanting to revisit The Fighter when it offers very little that I haven’t seen done better before. One thing I will give it credit for are the boxing scenes; magnificently staged, Russell and Wahlberg really highlight the brutality and primal excitement of the sport.

If the movie is at all transcendent, it is in the realm of its performances. Mark Wahlberg is a notoriously hit and miss actor, but his work in The Fighter is definitely amongst his best. Melissa Leo is expectedly terrific as Mickey’s intensely dislikable mother, and it’s great to see the so often typecast Amy Adams playing outside her usual element as Mickey’s love interest, a working-class woman with a few battle scars of her own. But not one of these performers can hold a candle to Christian Bale as the squirrelly, drug-addled Dick Eklund. The Fighter marks the third time (after The Machinist and Rescue Dawn) that Bale has shed massive amounts of weight for a part, a feat that reflects his absolute dedication to this role. Sporting a Boston accent that renders him almost unintelligible, Bale’s work is the reason to see this film, and one can’t help but suspect that the reason O. Russell inserted footage of the real life Dick Eklund into the films end credits was so audience members could see how spot-on Bale really is.

The Fighter is a good movie, and one that is definitely worth seeing. My disappointment comes mostly from unreal expectations, born both of my love for Three Kings and of the enormous hype that has surrounded this film; a hype that, despite me liking the movie, feels largely overblown. It is also perhaps a disappointment born of having seen one too many boxing movies, many of which I ultimately prefer over this one. But I’ll be the first to acknowledge that just because a movie isn’t original doesn’t mean it can’t be good. And at the end of the day, be it the drama, the boxing or the mind-blowing performance from Bale, there is very little about The Fighter that doesn’t work.

Recommendations: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire