Fat City

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Keith B. @Okbullard May 6 Considering the very positive reviews I was pretty disappointed in how slow and bland this film was. I get it was a character study of an old boxer spiraling down in contrast to a young upcoming star but it was too muted and bland. I think of Raging Bull or Rocky as good boxing films. Don't be fooled like I was with the excellent reviews. 100% Hmmmm See more erroll F @Repok May 3 This character study is essentially about losers & loneliness. Stacy Keach is suburb as Bill Tully a past his prime boxer who Wife has left him and is working in the fields bagging crops around Stockton California. After moving in with a bar floosy he decides to start fighting again. This John Huston directed film is dreary with wrong side of the tracks feel. Susan Tyrell is excellent as the impossibly disgusting alcoholic barfly. Young Jeff Bridges in a early role is OK as a kid who dreams big but gets KOed early on. This movie was made in the early 70s but still relevant today. See more thiago s @Thiagostone Sep 1 Filme mais ou menos, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são mais ou menos, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom, filme de boxe antes do lançamento do famoso filme de boxe do rocky de 1976. See more Wayne K @WayneKelso 04/02/2024 Stacy Keach is a consistently slept on actor, a man who demonstrates incredible charisma and brings real gravitas to the roles he plays. I watched the film Roadgames from 1981, and he did a fantastic job in the leading role. Almost a decade earlier, he did the same in John Huston's Fat City. The story of an over-the-hill boxer who, unsurprisingly, tries to get back into the game, only to find it's much more arduous than it once was. It's a steadily placed, contemplative film that doesn't grandstand or speechify. Our lead faces challenge both personal and professional, and he deals with them in his own way, which isn't always the best way, and there's a palpable sense that he's really suffered because of his choices. A baby-faced Jeff Bridges plays the man that Keach once was, and seeing that reflection of himself is what ultimately sets him on a doomed path. There's a lot going on, and you're given time to process it, rather than just being heralded from one scene to the next. It's a movie I never hear getting mentioned, but at the time of release it was a hit. I just hope more people get round to discovering it, and it gets the recognition it deserves. See more Todd C @ilwacohawk 11/13/2023 Some don't consider this a sports movie, but I do. A really well-done character study of two different armature/professional boxers. It was also fun seeing "Coach (from Cheers) as the manager. It really is a sad and depressing look at the boxing life for those on the fringes. A great movie by one of the greats: John Huston. The movie felt realistic, not that I know what it is like to be a boxer. While it is depressing, it is also kind of sweet. A story about folks just trying to get through life as best they can. It is also about our need to have someone in life and being alone is hard. Fight scenes were pretty good. There was a lot of silence in the movie and in that silence a lot was said. The music by Kris Kristofferson was great and it really was beautiful to watch. I can say that I genuinely cared about all the characters. There really isn't a "bad-guy" in the fil. It is a slice of life. The ending was great....and abrupt. See more Stu B @RT12689018 12/03/2022 There are no winners here, only losers. Billy Tully is a 30--year-old, alcoholic, out-of- shape boxer on his way down; Ernie Munger is a 20-something novice in the fight game on his way up. Their paths intersect one day at the local Y, where Tully, seeing something in the kid, suggests that he go to a nearby gym and introduce himself to his former manager, Ruben. Soon, the old vet has added Munger to his stable of amateurs and the kid is lining up fights. The story is bleak--the film is set in a low-rent part of Stockton, California some 50 years ago--the settings, largely seedy gyms, dive bars, dumpy diners and cheap apartments, are even bleaker, the in-ring action is believably brutal, and the performances by Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges (in an early role), Susan Tyrell, and Candy Clark are terrific. Keep an eye on Tyrell in particular; as a hangdog barfly who would rather drink than eat (or anything else), she seizes every scene she's in by the throat and never lets go. The movie's drab look and often improvisational vibe don't hurt, either. Directed by John Huston and written by Leonard Gardner, who adapted his own novel. If "Fat City" lacks the poetry and lyricism of Garnder's prose, blame it on the shortcomings of the medium. But then again, maybe Huston's cinematic retelling of Gardner's skid row classic boats a power and poetry all its own. See more Read all reviews

Fat City

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