The Fighter (2010)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Marky Mark and the Funky Punch.

How is it they keep making boxing movies, and we keep falling for them again and again? And how come I gotta start all the threads around here?

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: How is it they keep making boxing movies... ?

Because unlike MLB, Hollywood doesn't do mandatory steroid tests, and giving your top actors a chance to show off their 'roidy torsos by getting topless and sweaty and bloody is money in the bank.

[Guest themetfairy]

I thought it was well acted, and I was impressed with the fight scenes (even using the original HBO commentary ).

[Willets Point]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: How is it they keep making boxing movies ...

It is interesting that the movies about boxing remain popular even as the sport has tumbled in popularity over the past generation or so.

[Elster88]

I think it's because boxing hits a larger international demographic then a baseball or American football movie would.

And because of people like me who are a sucker for them. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, even though the actress who played his mother turned out to be annoying as hell and crazy as a loon.

I wish I had abs like Marky's.

Vic, have you ever considered a thread on Wahlberg's career?

[Edgy MD]

We also get the fantasy --- amid all the gripping realism ---of white dudes tough enough to hang in there in a sport dominated by men of color.

[Frayed Knot]

"It's that damn stuck-up MTV girl!!"

[Vic Sage]

Vic, have you ever considered a thread on Wahlberg's career?

um, no.

How is it they keep making boxing movies, and we keep falling for them again and again?

- it is inherently dramatic... 1 guy (or gal!) standing toe-to-toe with another, duking it out;
- it is inherently metaphoric -- for race, gender, class, etc, or simply as "david v goliath" slugfests;
- it translates -- You don't need to understand the niceties of the "sport" (like you would in a football/baseball/basketball etc movie), to understand boxing. It is also cross-cultural and cross-generational;

now I've got to make a list of great boxing movies.
thanks a lot.
like i had nothing better to do...

[Vic Sage]

[u:2k2tf2ya]preliminary list:[/u:2k2tf2ya]
The Champ (1931)
Kid Galahad (1937)
City for Conquest (1940)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Body & Soul (1947)
The Set Up (1949)
Champion (1949)
The Quiet Man (1952)
On the Waterfront (1954)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Somebody Up there Likes Me (1956)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
The Great White Hope (1970)
Fat City (1972)
Hard Times (1975)
Rocky (1976)
Raging bull (1980)
Diggstown (1992)
The Boxer (1997)
When We Were Kings (1997) - doc
Play It To the Bone (1999)
Girlfight (2000)
Hurricane (2000)
Ali (2001)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Cinderella Man (2005)
Rocky Balboa (2006)
The Fighter (2011)

[Vic Sage]

[u:33efntze]top 10:[/u:33efntze]
The Set Up (1949)
Champion (1949)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Somebody Up there Likes Me (1956)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
Fat City (1972)
Rocky (1976)
Raging bull (1980)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Cinderella Man (2005)

[Edgy MD]

Also popping to mind is The Main Event (1979), Tough Enough (1983), and Homeboy (1988).

Requiem for a Heavyweight is a tough thing to watch, because I'm so used to Jackie Gleason having a great big heart underneath all his assholish bluster, you keep looking for it in this movie too, only to find out that he's barely got any humanity at all.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

The Joe Louis Story (195X)
The Champ (1979)
Rocky 2,3,4
Annapolis (2006)

Boxing as a secondary plot
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Snake Eyes (1998)
Snatch (2000)

When We Were Kings deserves a spot in the Top 10.