'The Fighter' Starring Mark Wahlberg
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 06:05
Movies - Blu-ray and DVD Releases
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The Fighter review
In an otherwise anodyne academy awards, it was left to The Fighter’s stars to jolt us out of lethargy, via Melissa Leo’s F-bomb and Christian bale forgetting his wife’s name.
High on Oscar glory – or still punch-drunk from the 32-day shoot in Lowell, Massachusetts?
On paper, The Fighter looked as quaint as The King’s Speech; another tired boxing flick about an underdog overcoming adversity. Instead, David O. Russell’s film fizzes with the same independent energy as Inception, Black Swan or The Social Network.
While not exactly original, Russell deploys clichés as feints and dodges, training his no-hoper into a nimble challenger.
The difference from other boxing movies? Lowell, the boisterous community that’s home to welterweight scrapper ‘Irish’ Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his half-brother Dicky Edlund (Bale), the one-time contender turned crack addict who is being filmed for a documentary exposé.
Most directors would have seen only an inner-city downer, but Russell hit the streets, involved the real-life protagonists, and found his authenticity in Lowell’s coarse humour.
Forget Rocky Balboa. Ward’s problem is that everybody is in his corner: mother, brother, sisters, girlfriend. No stranger to family dysfunction from his indie days, Russell choreographs their squabbling as slapstick.
A deleted scene confirms the value of Russell’s loose aesthetic. Originally, Micky’s seven sisters were introduced via freeze-frames and captions, but the funnier final cut presents them as life finds them: with bad hair and bad manners.
With the film bookended by Dicky’s documentary and Micky’s title fight, both available online (if sadly absent in the extras), Russell doesn’t try to compete but to emulate. After all, he and Bale are no strangers to their foibles becoming scandals.
But it’s rare to find Bale’s immersion invested in someone less than serious. He turns Dicky into Hollywood’s liveliest fuck-up in years.
Add in Leo’s formidable Ma Alice, and a cast-against-type Amy Adams as ward’s squeeze Charlene, and Wahlberg is practically a passenger in his own movie. Yet his selfless performance equals Bale’s in commitment – he trained for four years in anticipation of the shoot.
And it was Wahlberg, as producer, who masterminded using an actual HBO crew to shoot the boxing scenes. It’s a fighter’s strategy, showcasing Wahlberg’s prowess with clarity, matching the speed and economy of Russell’s direction.
It took HBO three days that a conventional crew insisted needed 20. “What do you need 20 days for, to jerk each other off?” Wahlberg laughs on the accompanying doc.
Sure, he was overlooked by Oscar, but there’s little doubt where Bale and Leo’s irreverent approach came from.
The Fighter (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
 16 New from $13.00 59 Used from $5.51 as of 05/22/2013 14:52 MST details Technical Details Add To Baby Registry Add To Wedding Registry Add To Wishlist Tell A Friend All Customer Reviews All Offers | Actor: Christian Bale Actor: Mark Wahlberg AspectRatio: 1.85:1 AudienceRating: R (Restricted) Binding: Blu-ray Brand: Paramount Director: David O. Russell EAN: 0097361166643 EANList: Format: Multiple Formats IsEligibleForTradeIn: 1 ItemDimensions: Label: Paramount Pictures Languages: ListPrice: Manufacturer: Paramount Pictures MPN: PARBR116664 NumberOfDiscs: 2 PackageDimensions: PackageQuantity: 1 PartNumber: PARBR116664 ProductGroup: DVD ProductTypeName: ABIS_DVD Publisher: Paramount Pictures RegionCode: 1 ReleaseDate: 2011-03-15 RunningTime: 116 SKU: 5M-RFI2-ILWD Studio: Paramount Pictures Title: The Fighter (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) TradeInValue: UPC: 097361166643 UPCList: |
Product Description Academy Award® Nominees Mark Wahlberg (The Departed), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) and Amy Adams (Doubt) star in this “remarkable” film*. Based on a true story, two brothers, against all the odds, come together to train for a historic title bout that has the power to reunite their fractured family and give their hard-luck town what it's been waiting for: pride. Micky Ward (Wahlberg) is a struggling boxer long overshadowed by his older brother and trainer, Dicky (Bale), a local legend battling his own demons. Their explosive relationship threatens to take them both down - but the bond of blood may be their only chance for redemption. *Joe Morgenstern, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Amazon.com It would be a mistake to confuse The Fighter with the story of Mark Wahlberg, though the similarities are striking. Completely convincing as a boxer, Wahlberg plays welterweight Micky Ward, who grew up in working-class Massachusetts. Like the actor-producer, he had eight siblings, one more famous than the rest. Ward's half-brother, Dicky Eklund (a gaunt, crazy-eyed Christian Bale), turned to boxing first, just as Mark's brother, Donnie, preceded him as a performer (first by singing, then by acting). The similarities end there: Dicky, once known as "The Pride of Lowell," traded his promising pugilistic career for a crack pipe (Sugar Ray Leonard cameos as his best-known opponent). As David O. Russell's film begins, the smothering Alice (Frozen River's Melissa Leo) manages Micky's career, while the unpredictable Dicky attempts to train him. Despite his talent in the ring, though, Micky can't catch a break until he meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a spitfire of a bartender who encourages him to stand up for himself. When Dicky ends up in prison, and Micky takes on a more experienced manager, his fortunes start to improve, but it isn't in his nature to abandon the people who raised him, so he attempts to unite the various factions in his life before his shot at the world championship slips away. Though Russell paints Micky's mother, brother, and sisters with a broad brush, Wahlberg anchors the scenario with his patient, level-headed performance. Rescue Me's Jack McGee also deserves notice as his diplomatic dad, George. --Kathleen C. Fennessy | |
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In an otherwise anodyne academy awards, it was left to The Fighter’s stars to jolt us out of lethargy, via Melissa Leo’s F-bomb and Christian bale forgetting his wife’s name. High on Oscar...
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