Boxing

Boxing in Movies

By Tom Donelson

18.05 - Boxing along with baseball has produced some of Hollywood better sport movies. The drama of one -on-one competition has the potential of producing conflict and action sequences that can be both inspiring as well as exhilarating. Boxing is in many ways, our version of modern day gladiators- warriors who fight and bleed for the satisfaction of a bloodthirsty crowd. Boxing is also the one sport where the combatants are the most exploited and this too has been the staple of Hollywood movie.

When Chuck Wepner fought Muhammad Ali, in the audience was an aspiring actor Sylvester Stallone. Wepner, accurately named the Bayou Bleeder, extended the great Ali to fifteen rounds before being stopped. Ali even ended up on his butt during the fight and Wepner withstood every Ali onslaught and gave Ali more than what he bargained for. Stallone based his Rocky Balboa on Wepner.

Rocky is the story of the underdog fighter who fights the fight of his life and inspires even in defeat. Rocky Balboa is a down on his luck southpaw who works at the local meat factory, occasionally does some strong arm tactics for the local mob and is allowed to trained at a local club. Apollo Creed, the Ali look like, picks Balboa for his next big fight as part of a 4th of July special.

The opening scene, Balboa beats up on some club fighter for a small measly purse and after the fight, both men share a smoke in the locker room - showing the underside of boxing where $50 purses are the rule and glamour does not exist. Balboa is a fighter whose talent had long been wasted and when he is picked for the championship fight, it is his last chance for redemption. Boxing historically been filled with fighters looking for redemption for past sins. James Toney recent victory over Jirov is one example as Toney, once of the best pound for pound fighter, lost his glitter after losing to Roy Jones, Jr. For nearly a decade, Toney fought in boxing nether world and often far from the view of the fighting public till he defeated Jirov at the age of 34. Rocky could have been a good fighter but now he is fighting in small clubs for small fees- far away from the adoring public.

You throw in the love story with his plain looking girl friend Adrian played by Talia Shire, you have the potential for the ultimate David vs. Golitiah movie. We watch as Balboa decides that he wants to train and give this fight all he had left. There will be nothing left. Watching Rocky get up for his early morning run and watching his diet, we become wrapped up in Rocky's quest. When he runs up the Philadelphia Art Museum, we all applaud. Rocky believes that he can actually wins but on the night before the fight, he is brought to earth as the promoter tells Rocky, "You will put on a good show." Rocky realizes then that he has no chance but what he has is courage to face the inevitable. The fight is a brutal affair as both men whack each other before Creed wins the decision and Rocky's pride is restored. While Stallone would go on to create four more Rocky's movies, this was the best and should have been the last. Like Wepner in real life, Rocky put on a show and the movie ended the way it should.

Girlfight is the female version of Rocky. Karen Kusama directs this indie film and you feel the grittiness of training in a small local boxing club. Most of these fighters, including Diana boyfriend, looks for boxing to provide their way out. Adrian, Diana boyfriend, has his pro career mapped out and for Diana, boxing is the release of her everyday life of abusive father and school life marred by boredom. The actual training in the club and the actual fight scenes portray a realism that has you feeling each and every punch delivered. The best part of the film is the fight scenes.

Diana is a sullen person, a female version of Mike Tyson, but in the ring she finds the escape from everyday life. I must admit I find the last scene in which she beats her boyfriend for the amateur championship unbelievable but it does lead to one final scene. For Adrian, this is the one fight he does not want as he is forced to fight the woman he loves but to win means another step to his professional career. A loss could end it and in the end, Adrian looks at his boxing career that is in shambles after his loss to Diana in the championship fight. The boxing scenes in Girlfight is worth the admission

The Harder they Fall shows the 1950 America a glimpse of the truth about the sport that they fell in love with. In the 50's, boxing was a regular staple on TV and all of America tuned in to Friday night at the Fights. In the 1950's, the mob controlled boxing and in the movie The Harder they Fall, we see Nick Benko played by Rod Steiger exploiting his Argentinean heavyweight Toto Moreno. Humphrey Bogart in his last role before his death, plays Eddie Willis- an unemployed sportswriter. His job is to be the swill for Toto and promote Toto as the next great heavyweight when in reality, Toto is a mediocre fighter who can only win through manipulation of fight results. Translation- his fights are fixed.

This movie based on Bud Shulberg's novel is a fictional account of the Italian heavyweight champion Primo Carnera. Roger Kahn in his biography of Jack Dempsey, noted that many boxing promoters had sport writers on their payroll and Willis was based on some possible truth. At the end, Willis realized that Benko is going to basically steal all of Toto income, he regain his honor. As for Toto, before the big fight, he is told the truth that all of his big fights are fixed and the point is hammered home when Jersey Joe Walcott, playing his Toto trainer, nails Toto with a left hook while countering Toto wild right.

Toto realizes as he stepped into the ring that he has no chance but yet he fights with courage. His defeat is preordained and there are no last seconds miracles. As for Willis, he becomes a crusader to clean up boxing and he turns over all of his earnings to Toto to take as Toto leaves for Argentina. Toto is finished with boxing.

Requiem for a Heavyweight is a dark movie portraying the bitter end of a heavyweight career. A decade earlier, Mountain Rivera was a top-notch contender and Anthony Quinn's portrayal of a fighter at the end of his career was magnificent. You find yourself believing Quinn was an ex-fighter. He is a man of courage and principle, a man of loyalty but a gentle soul. His slurred voice and puffy face shows the scars of a lifetime of beatings. The contrast to Quinn is his manager of 17 years, Maish played by Jackie Gleason. Gleason was a brilliant actor whose talent was underestimated and under appreciated. Forever remembered as Ralph Kramden, Gleason was even a better actor as he was comedian and his portrayal of the corrupt manager is contrasted to the nobler Mountain Rivera. Maish is a man between the rock and hard place. Gambling debts is leading him to make decision that are not in the best interest of his fighter and even he feels bad for his final betrayal of his charge. He can't save himself from his choices. Rivera is a failure outside the ring and every attempt by his job councilor to find him a suitable job is doom to failure for his only desire is to fight- that is all he knows.

The last scene is the ultimate humiliation as Mountain Rivera, dressed as an Indian, marches into a wrestling match as he now becomes the latest attraction on the professional wrestling scene. He goes from a sport that was considered for real but on occasion could be as fixed as professional wrestling because of mob influence to a sport where we know the results are fixed. In boxing, we try to believe that all fights are real and that corruption cannot taint the most pure of sports but we know that it does not . In the 1950's, Hollywood treated boxing as a sport corrupted by the mob and yet, it could make its warriors the most noble of sportsmen, men who still try to play it straight in a world in which they are manipulated.

As Paul Simon wrote in his song, the Boxer, after all that he suffers, "the fighter still remains."

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