HeadKickLegend Movie Review: The Fighter

by Matthew Roth on Jan 10, 2011 1:22 PM EST

I am a Micky Ward fan. He was my favorite boxer when I was growing up. I tend to follow the "blood and guts" type as they lay it all on the line and always put on a performance of a lifetime every time they step into the ring. When I found out they were making a biopic about his life, I was extremely excited. He has an incredible life story and his fights always ended up being complete wars, so logically, one would surmise that the movie would be just as riveting. Unfortunately, the movie was disappointing. There were highlights but overall, as a boxing fan and a Micky Ward fan, I wasn't impressed.

First, the positives for the movie. It was refreshing for the film to explore a bit of the life of Micky's brother, who was his trainer and inspiration to become a boxer. Christian Bale was phenomenal as Dicky Eklund, known as the "Pride of Lowell". Dicky Eklund is best known for his fight with "Sugar" Ray Leonard, where he lost a 10 round decision and had a questionable knockdown of the boxing great. The movie opens up with HBO filming him for what he says is his comeback fight. It turns out HBO is actually filming a documentary that aired in 1995 called "High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell". Bale does an incredible job as Eklund, physically changing to embrace the role as a crack addicted former boxer. Amy Adams and Melissa Leo are also great in their portrayals of Charlene Fleming and Alice Eklund, who are Micky's wife and mother.

Unfortunately, there are some legitimate complaints about this movie. The biggest one is that Mark Wahlberg is completely forgettable as Micky Ward. There was no difference in his portrayal of Micky Ward than his role in the Departed. It was essentially the same character with the same accent and mannerisms. There were also a ton of liberties taken when it came to the career of Micky Ward. The first bout featured in the movie is Micky's fight against Mike Mungin. The movie leads the viewer to believe that Micky's career was already on the rocks when it couldn't be further from the truth. At that point Ward was 18-1. The fight montage for Micky's return to form was completely made up. None of the fighters mentioned appear on Ward's fight record. The movie closes with his bout against Shea Neary. The dramatization of the fight has Neary work Wahlberg over for the entire fight only for the "Rocky Balboa comeback moment" where Wahlberg rallies back to win the fight at the last possible moment. I'll let Boxing Rec break down what actually happened...

In a competitive European televised WBU Lightweight title bout held in London, Irish Mickey Ward dominated 22-0 Shea Neary by moving forward with combinations the entire bout as the aggressor, with Neary backing up on the defensive and trying to counterpunch mostly ineffectively, holding alot and taking a beating. Nonetheless, Ward got decked from a clean right hook in the eighth round. However, Ward did a somersault on the canvas, got right up, and rallied to stop Neary in the same round. The bout had noteworthy contrasting colors. Ward wore green gloves, black trunks and black shoes. Neary wore yellow gloves, white trunks with black trim and white shoes.

The other major issue is that the movie doesn't touch upon the Gatti trilogy. Micky Ward's career was built upon his classic fights with Arturo Gatti. To finish the movie with some type face on explaining he had classic fights robs the viewer of an essential part of Ward's career.

Overall, I'd say its an enjoyable movie if you can put the liberties taken with Ward's career aside. It's definitely worth viewing for Bale's portrayal of Eklund, who puts on a classic performance. I suggest seeing this movie with an open mind.

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Please see this movie

I’m not sure why I am going to argue with you so much, but here I go anyway. This is a really bad movie review. First off, you spoiled the entire plot for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie. Obviously being a biopic, the plot is already somewhat laid out, but even just saying what it doesn’t cover is a pretty big spoiler.

Second, Mark Walhberg’s character was nothing like the Departed, except for the fact that they were both from the Boston area. Have you never seen Mark Wahlberg in anything else? Maybe instead of pointing out that his acting was poor in a movie he was nominated for a Golden Globe for, you could point out how different it was from Mickey Ward’s actual personality. Except that brings me to my next point.

Third, it is a movie! All you did was point out how it was different from real life. Have you never seen a movie? The whole point is making it exciting and interesting. If it was supposed to be a documentary, they would have instead filmed a documentary.

Writing hyper critical negative reviews about movies that contain subject matter that interests you is not smart. You basically just shit on this movie because it wasn’t real enough, despite the fact that it was one of the most realistic boxing or fighting movies ever made. Would you rather they make schlocky piece of shit films like Never Back Down?

People should go see this movie because it is a good Boxing movie about a cool guy with a pretty interesting story. Please support it, and if you aren’t going to support it, at least have a coherent, intelligent reason why.

by Rutlabaga on Jan 10, 2011 3:47 PM EST reply actions