Stratro...
Rocky Balboa
This is a bit of a cheat, because, quite frankly, the boxing in all the Rocky films is horrible and completely counterfeit. With all that in mind, it still does not take away from the baddassness of watching a 60-year-old Sylvester Stallone beat down (and get beat up) by an in-his-prime Antonio Tarver. Their final showdown is fun, brutal, and nostalgic in all the best ways. Sure, some serious boxing Hollywood liberties are being taken here (Lesson 1: If your glove touches the mat, then it’s considered a knockdown), but damn if it ain’t great to see The Rock give it one final go.
На другата страна, и не ми се верува дека не ги спомна 2-та култни филма кога е во прашање old school fighting, но:
Raging Bull
We’re nearing the end and you may have noticed something: all of the films I’m highlighting are relatively new. There’s no The Harder They Fall, no Somebody Up There Likes Me, no Champion – and that’s for good reason. When you talk about the authenticity of boxing in film, there is before Raging Bull, and after Raging Bull. Before Martin Scorsese made his masterpiece, every boxing scene in every movie was utter crap. The actors never hit each other, the sound effects were seriously overblown… it just didn’t work. Then Scorsese came along and did two things that changed the game: he did whatever the hell he wanted, and he never left the ring.
The fighting scenes in Raging Bull are 100 percent style, which should in no way work. Scorsese implored slow motion, sped-up motion, far too much blood, and, hell, he even changed the damn size of the ring to fit whatever vision he had. But he did it without leaving the ring. I cannot think of a single film other than Raging Bull in which, during the boxing scenes, the camera never steps outside of the ring. Yes, once Jake La Motta and his brother Joey have their disastrous falling out, Scorsese cross-cuts Jake’s most brutal fight with Joey’s reaction watching it from home, but the point is that Raging Bull broke the rules and changed the game. It’s a film that will be remembered as long as there are films.
Ali
Funny that I find the narrative depiction of a fight to be more enthralling than the actual depiction of the same fight, but hey, sometimes art imitates life better than life itself. Look, I know Michael Mann’s biopic has its fair share of detractors, but I simply love everything about this film, and if we’re only focusing on the fighting, then it is a goddamn masterpiece.
Putting expert cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to the test in ways he hadn’t been before, the boxing in Ali is shot using a multitude of methods. Gorgeous widescreen, gritty handheld, sparsely (but effectively) implored slow motion – everything about the style of the boxing scenes here works. But that’s just the look, there’s certainly a lot more going on here, most notably Will Smith’s epic incarnation of one (if not the) most famous athletes of all time. Smith put on the pounds, he packed the attitude, and he nailed Ali’s unique style of fighting. Everything about his performance works.
While I love the many fight scenes in Ali, specific respect must be paid to Mann’s retelling of The Rumble in the Jungle, in which he practically shows the Ali/Foreman bout in real time. I’ve studied that real life fight. It’s something I’ve watched over and over and over (it can easily be found on YouTube, like here for instance), and watching the real fight back-to-back with Mann’s version of it is clear evidence of a guy doing his homework. Every punch, every sidestep, every grimaced face – Mann carried it through with accuracy, effect, and respect. For a boxing fan, there’s simply nothing better.
Благодарам, и пријатно.
