Every once in a (long) while, a film comes along that makes you sit back in your seat, eyes wide, and say “Okay, this is legit.” The Fighter is one of those films. With a tour de force cast who truly transform into the characters they’re meant to play, The Fighter is a gritty powerhouse of a movie that incites inspiration, contemplation and awe. It’s based on the true story of boxing brothers Micky “the Irish” Ward and Dicky Eklund, Dicky who is known as “the pride of Lowell” Massachusetts, who was once a prize-winning athlete who notoriously knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in the 1978, now in full-blown drug addiction. His younger brother Micky is poised for a successful career, one that eventually outshines that of his brother, as he wins a World Championship. As Dicky’s addiction escalates, bad business decisions, complaints from venues, and complete unpredictability make Micky rethink his choice to have Dicky and his mother as coach and manager. The Fighter ultimately becomes a story about the ties of family, what it truly means to make a proactive change in one’s life, and the blessing of recovery.
Dicky is in the full throes of crack addiction at the beginning of the film, spending his days using in an abandoned house in his neighborhood, showing up late for training sessions with Micky, all the while being filmed by HBO for what he (falsely) believes to be a documentary about his boxing comeback. The very first scene is interview footage, showing Dicky as gaunt, fidgety, and erratic; the apt portrait of an addict brilliantly and viscerally portrayed by Christian Bale. Micky is fit, built, and healthy, clearly a fighter with major potential, but stuck in the dysfunctional grip of his mother and brother.
One of the most affecting relationships portrayed in this film is that between Dickey and his enabling, trash talking mother, Alice Ward, played almost unrecognizably by Melissa Leo. Alice is the perfect portrait of a mother in denial, as her love for her son overrides her ability to recognize that he’s inevitably headed for disaster. Anyone who has ever enabled someone they love to continually hurt themselves can relate to her struggle.
Leo also does an incredible job of capturing the time and place of the film, using spot-on affectations and overall attitude to transport you directly to that town, with those people. You get a real sense of what it’d be like to live in this place, and how hard it must be to break out of it. Anyone who has tried to break away from the traditions of their family and the place where they were raised will find this gut wrenchingly real. Mickey’s girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams) is also fantastic, as the significant other who keeps Micky’s eye on the prize, helping him to realize the full extent of his potential.
The fight scenes are also brilliantly edited, both in content and sound, such that they remind the viewer of the fight scenes in Raging Bull or Rocky, so visceral one might be tempted to look away. Director David O. Russell, also responsible for the Persian Gulf War film Three Kings (1999), is no stranger to this kind of unabashed realism.
This story explores what it means to change direction in one’s life, and how to adapt to that change while simultaneously maintaining the ties to the people you love. It’s about the legacy of these two fighters as well as the Lowell community; it’s one that stays with you long after you’ve left the theater.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Director’s commentary reveals little gems about the film production as well as the true story, such as how the real Micky and Dicky are received in Lowell, as “mayors wherever they go,” that the police officer Mickey O’Keefe who helps train Micky is playing himself, that he trained both brothers in real life.
Mark Wahlberg held this as a personal story for years, he is from this area and brought the project to David O. Russell. Walhberg trained for four years before the film was made. A section entitled "Keeping the Faith" is a documentary type snippet that focuses on the real brothers, interviews with both of them, their family members and sisters, locals, coaches, with footage of the real gym. It shows Micky and Dicky sparring with one another, as well as footage of Mark Wahlberg training with both of them. The film was shot on location in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the drug use scenes were shot in the actual house where it took place. The real Micky Ward said of Bale’s performance: “He plays a better Dicky than Dicky.”
"The Fighter " is on sale March 15, 2011 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by David O Russell. Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson . Starring Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo.
