The Fighter (2011)

Director: David O Russell

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale,
Melissa Leo, Amy Adams, Mickey O Keefe,
Jack McGee

Date: February 2011

Plot: Based on the early carrer of 'Irish' Micky Ward, The Fighter is the Rocky style story three-time New England Golden Gloves champion boxer and his rise to glory as the World Light-Welterweight Champion with the help of his drug addicted, former boxer-turned-trainer brother Dicky.

The Fighter - Trailer


Review: Running through the Boxing movies of the past 40 years, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, Rocky I - VI, Ali, When We Were Kings, and so on, there are alot of good ones but not alot of great ones. The Rockys peaked early and went down hill fast (V and VI being so so bad!) and Ali was only ok at best, so with The Fighter I was expecting a typical troublesome amateur overcomes adversity to become champion style story... and that's what I got! But somehow this stands apart as a very entertaining story of Micky Ward and his Brother Dicky and how Micky becomes champ for the first time.

The story begins for us as Micky is on a winning streak, waiting for his big opportunity that never seems to come. After a decimating loss to a much bigger fighter he decides to call it a day.
Throughout the film we get to see Micky overcome his problems and get back on track to challenge for the Light-Welterweight belt against Shea Neary.

Like most great boxing movies, the boxing itself is only a very small part. In The Fighter, Micky is tormented by his brother Dicky, a former boxer and (in his own mind) a local hero in Lowell, MA. Dicky, who is addicted to heroin, believes he is the one to bring Micky to the big time, but a run-in with the law sees him being sent to jail.

There are some great performances in this movie, particularly from Christian Bale. Like The Machinist and American Psycho, he throws himself into the role and really pulls off a near perfect performance.

Mark Wahlberg leads the cast well, he puts in another good performance but to me, he seems to always play the same type of role, the poor tough guy from the bad part of town. He is too small to be an all out action hero but is very relatable in his underdog roles.

As an overall film it was very enjoyable, the direction was good, acting was good, story was good.
It is very hard to fault it on anything specific. I can see this picking up some awards at the Oscars this year so be sure to catch it at your local cinema.