The Fighter: Starring Mark Wahlberg as Mickey Ward, Christian Bale as Dicky Ecklund

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So it's ok to make a movie about a fictional bum, but not a real life one? :dunno:


I'm just happy somebody is making a film featuring boxing with a decent cast and a very good but crazy ass director running the show.

The drama is what matters.

I think it's stupid to automatically hate the movie because Mickey Ward is featured in it instead of Sonny Liston (former Ving Rhames project) or Johnny Tapia. One has nothing to do with the other.

It will be good or it won't. The boxer featured in it shouldn't factor at all. Be happy this is being made..................and in the mean time root for this to be successful so other boxing related movies can be greenlighted.

 

The PROBLEM REED has is that this Film will Paint Ward & his Brother in a More ACCOMPLISHED Light than their Careers Warrant..."Winning the WORLD Lightweight Title"???...."Dropping Ray Leonard"???...

FICTIONALIZING a Real Life Boxer is BOGUS in REED's Opinion...If YOU'RE Willing to Gloss Over the TRUTH for the Sake of Having Another Boxing Movie, So B it...REED would Rather it B FACTUAL or All the Way FICTION....



REED:hammert:

 

Shit if they're gonna make a movie bout a white fighter, cant it at least be a GOOD white fighter. Ray Mancini's story was far more interesting than Ward's, and Mancini was a far better fighter.

 

Lowell Sun:

 

They might be annoyances. We'll see how they are presented.

Did Ecklund drop Sugar Ray? I'm not familiar.

I loved Denzel's performance in "The Hurricane" but hated the movie for many of the same reasons you mentioned so we'll see.

From what I understand this movie will be more about what a fuck-up Dickie Ecklund was, and less about Mickey Ward.

Maybe something about Mickey saving Dickie from the cesspool his life had become.

From talking to some people I was told Mickey's entire family was pretty fucked up and he was the only one who turned out to be a halfway decent person.

It could be fodder for some good drama and possibly even comedy.

David O' Russell is the director (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), so I'm guessing it won't be your typical rah, rah underdog makes good boxing film. It will probably be a bit oddball.

 

REED has Known for Years that Ecklund FOUGHT Ray Leonard, but Until REEDing the Press Release in this Thread, REED NEVER Heard about Ecklund DROPPING Ray Leonard...Granted, REED HASN'T Seen that Bout, but REED VIVIDLY Recalls Kevin Howard (the Guy Leonard Fought AFTER the 1st Hearns Bout) Being Credited as "The First Man to Drop Ray Leonard"....



REED:hammert:

 

THR.com

 

Hey REED. Should the title of this flick be "Rudy II"???

 

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Hugh Jackman in "Real Steel"...in a movie where he's an ex-boxer promoting robots.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1118009393&categoryid=13

 

I loathe the trash movie known as Million Dollar Baby.

 

From Mexico With Love...

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Never saw it.

 

"Million Dollar Baby" Wasn't a Boxing Movie Per Se, it was Movie that just So Happened to Have Boxing IN it...It was about the Relationship btwn Hillary Swank & Clint Eastwood, which was Started & Grew THRU Boxing...

AND it was FICTIONAL...

REED:hammert:

 

I agree with those who think Ward is undeserving. We are talking about a guy who was outclassed by Arturo Gatti thrice(the first decsion was a corrupt New Englander variety, the Texas of the Northeast) Ward was not a world class fighter at all. Anyone with an ounce of talent thrashed him. Boxing needs guys like Ward on PPV undercards, but doesn't need to glorify them. I think ESPN actually compared Ward's left hook to Chavez's.I get the angle, but Ward is vastly overrated already.

 

http://www.playbill.com/news/articl...Is_Sold_Out_in_NYMF Performances_Begin_Oct 7#

 

No.

Jake was robbed of the decision in one of those fights with Ray, and all were very close and hard fought.

The only fight in which Ray beat him up was the final one when he took Jake's middleweight title.

No one ever "raped" Jake LaMotta, and up until about 20 years ago, he could probably still beat the hell out of most any average guy, regardless of age.

Tony Danza admitted on "David Letterman" that Jake beat the hell out of him in sparring in the early 80's.

He said "Jake has this real big head that I could not miss early on..then he started getting dirty with me, and taught me a lesson."

 

You missed the point....


Anyway Good post Nobleart, I agree with you.

 

Getting pretty good reviews on the tomatometer...

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-fighter/

 

Look, there have been lots of films about {sports}-people who didn't dominate or even near-dominate their respective fields.

They made a film about Teddy Kennedy long before they made one about his two infinitely more talented brothers. The one useful fucking film ever made about Jack featured him getting shot dead in it.

Then there was the Ron Le Fleur story. Is he even the 100th best baseball player of all time?

There was also a film made, starring Willem Defoe, called, oddly enough, Triumph of the Spirit {Lenny Riefenstahl made a similarly entitled flick of related but grossly diverging content} and was based on the story of a fairly non-descript pug called Salamo Arouch. Much of the material for the film was provided by one Herschel "Harry" Haft who had survived Auschwitz before going on to fight and be stopped by Marciano. Haft had, he claimed, fought Salamo Arouch, in so-called "Death Matches" at Auschwitz.

 

I agree.

Mickey Ward has no story at all. Zero. Just a likable club fighter who had an exciting trilogy with Arturo Gatti.

 

Also, Mark Wahlberg looks about as much like Mickey Ward as Betty White does.

 

The movie's not just about Mickey Ward, though...it's also about Ecklund...and Bale is the one getting the Oscar talk, not Wahlberg.

But regardless, some of the best sports movies aren't about the best in those particular sports.

If you want to stretch the genre out a bit to include sports entertainment, you can include The Wrestler...not a "biopic", but still, a movie about a down and out wrestler way past his prime, not about someone at the top of their profession (at least not during the part of the movie they were showing).

Gatti's not even in the movie, from what I've read.

 

Ron Le Fleur?

"At twelve, he began to have sex with local prostitutes"

Yeah I can see a movie in that alright.

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I think alot of you are focusing on Ward's boxing carreer. There will be some boxing in the movie obviously but will focus mostly on his relationship with his brother.

So much that most say that Cristian Bale steals the movie.

I personally have always wanted a movie about Tapia. That guy had one of the most horrific childhoods that would scar anybody for life.

considering Wahlberg's love for boxing and his acting skills I dont' see how he fucks this up. Ad Bale and I think it will be a decent movie.

 

Successful sports movies are almost always about underdogs or perceived underdogs with very few exceptions.

That's just the way it is.

When non-fictional dominant athletes are used, they are usually portrayed in movies as one of the obstacles the underdog needs to overcome.

ie.

Sugar Ray Robinson in "Raging Bull"
War Admiral in "Sea Biscuit"
Max Baer in "Cinderella Man"
Bobby Jones in any movie about Golf set in the 1920's
The New York Yankees in the fictional "Major League"
The Russian Hockey Team in "Miracle"


Even, Muhammad Ali, a dominant athlete himself. When portrayed in the various movies based on his life, the main focus is either his fights with Sonny Liston or his fight with George Foreman..........when he was the betting underdog.

This is probably why we will never see a seminal sports movie based on Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Sugar Ray Robinson, Albert Pujols, Tiger Woods, etc..

Even a guy like Mickey Mantle, takes a backseat to Roger Maris where storytelling is concerned.

Closest we've ever come, maybe Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb in "Cobb". Only reason the movie worked is because Cobb was a complete prick in real life. Movie wasn't exactly inspirational, which is what audiences pay to see in a sports movie, and was a box-office bust.

 

hno:

 

Matt Damon would've been a better choice.

 

But the point IS that it's a biopic. Why bring up "the Wrestler" when you could have simply mentioned "Rocky"?

The point is that for a biopic, you'd expect a film about a more important character in the sport. What about a Tyson movie or a Sugar Ray Leonard? But Mickey Ward?