The Fighter -- Wicked Fawking Awesome

Rating: 8.0/10 --> Great film of 2010

Source: http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/the_fighter-535x383.jpg

Directed by: David O. Russell

Written by: Scott Silver (Based on a True Story)

It’s understandable why The Fighter was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars this past year.  It was a very well done boxing movie that made me think of Raging Bull.  However, there is one significant difference between The Fighter and Raging Bull.  In Raging BullThe Fighter, the supporting roles played by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo carried the film.  David O. Russell did a great job with the directing and shot selection in The Fighter, but there wasn’t anything that stood out about it.  Essentially, I wanted to see Christian Bale and Melissa Leo on the screen as much as possible, rather than Marky Mark and Amy Adams.  Their exceptional acting makes it very clear that they were both very deserving of their Oscar wins. Robert De Niro, who played the lead, carried the film along with Scorsese’s fantastic Directing, whereas in

The Fighter is a story about Lowell, Massachusetts legends: former esteemed boxer, Micky Ward (Wahlberg), and his brother Dicky Eklund (Bale), who was the “Pride of Lowell” when he knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard.  Dicky is Micky’s trainer, but finds himself consumed by drugs, causing him to be late for training sessions and go missing for days on end.  In attempts to become the successful boxer he knows he can be, Micky ditches Dicky as his trainer, and his mother/manager Alice (Leo).  Things start to go well for Micky. He gets a girlfriend, Charlene (Adams), and starts winning more matches.  Since, I don’t want to ruin the whole movie for you, I’m not gonna summarize the ending…

Don’t get me wrong, The Fighter is a really enjoyable, entertaining movie.  Christian Bale and Melissa Leo just so happen to give such powerful performances, that their time on the screen outweighs every other aspect of this movie in my mind. 

The actual boxing scenes are great.  There’s good energy and pace to the sequences that make you feel like you’re sitting just outside the ring.  Russell chose an interesting way to stylize these scenes too.  At times the color and quality are adjusted so that the sequences actually look like they are an HBO broadcast.  I’m not sure if I liked this or if it was distracting, but I certainly noticed it. 

Usually, I would like an orchestrated score for dramas such as this, but the Classic Rock soundtrack certainly works in this situation.  “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin, and “Strip My Mind” by Red Hot Chili Peppers were just a few of the great songs chosen to pump you up in the movie.  They certainly worked, because when you think of boxing and training, Rock music definitely provides the right tone for the movie.  

All in all, The Fighter is a great film carried by the Oscar winning performances of Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.  It deserved the Oscar nomination for Best Picture, even with a 10-film playing field.  It’s worth it to rent this on DVD and watch it on a big TV.  It’s worth taking 2 hours out of your day to see a crazy Christian Bale reminiscent of his character in American Psycho (because quite frankly being crazy and being on crack are pretty much the same thing).  If you’re a chick… there’s plenty of Marky Mark with his shirt off, don’t worry.  Oh, and there’s plenty of wicked retawded Bawston accents for everyone.

Rayner… Out…