by Frank Calvillo
Anybody who proclaims that every type of boxing story has been told has clearly never seen this beautifully gritty tale from one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time. While most films of the genre highlight their stories with stylized fight sequences and over-the-top screaming matches between fighters and trainers, Fat City is one of the few boxing films in existence that rises above the standard fare through stark realism and fascinating characters.
Directed by the legendary John Huston, Fat City centers on two boxers: Tully (Stacy Keach), a 30 year old has-been whose glory days are behind him, and Ernie (Jeff Bridges); a teenaged up and comer with a promising future. After a broken marriage and a string of dead-end jobs, Tully struggles to make a comeback in the ring, while also juggling a tumultuous relationship with Oma (Susan Tyrrell), a highly emotional barfly. Meanwhile, Ernie fights to the end to live up to the promise and expectations put on him by a driven promoter (Nicholas Colasanto).
The heart of Fat City is a classic story of transition featuring two characters, one on the way down, and another on the way up, both facing the toughest questions of their lives. While Tully is asking himself: who is he now, Ernie is desperately pondering: who will he become? As they both continuously wrestle with these thoughts, the two form something of a bond, which rings true in spite of the pair sharing only a handful of scenes together. These are two men at different stages in their lives, with different hopes and different fears. Yet they are also united by the extremely harsh world they have dedicated themselves to and how they’ve come to let it define them.
Fat City is an excellent example of a character-driven piece, and therefore very much a Huston type of film. This is a film virtually devoid of twists and turns, but littered with characters so full of life and complexity the that the absence of plot doesn’t really matter. In short, Fat City is a true slice of life film.
In many ways, Fat City serves as an ode to Northern California. There’s a wonderful mix of professional actors and real people from the town of Stockton (where Fat City was shot), while Conrad Hall’s cinematography helps convey the rather hopeless look and feel of the city. I’ve always been a sucker for movies set in other parts of California besides L.A. and San Francisco, which manage to show that the golden state really is a state, with many other faces and sides to it.
Like all Huston films, there’s a real sense of place in Fat City. This isn’t surprising, since Huston was always able to so perfectly capture the world in which his stories were set better than most any other director. In fact, he managed this so well, it would have been easy to believe he actually came from the worlds he so flawlessly depicted. The film’s gritty realism may not be the most welcoming for a traditional movie audience, yet is the only way to approach the story of Fat City. There’s simply no way it could have been told through gloss.
In a rare leading role, Keach is a natural despite having very little screen experience. The actor perfectly brings Tully’s anguish and determination to the forefront in every scene he’s in. He’s well-matched with Bridges, who showed the same sort of unwavering commitment in the role of Ernie that would carry him throughout his still-thriving career.
Neither man can match Tyrell however, who gives one of the most harrowing portraits of an alcoholic ever put to film. The screen practically electrifies when the actress is in a scene, regardless of what she’s doing, to the point where nothing and no one else matters.
Despite an ongoing sadness to it, there is also a dark beauty to Fat City in it’s characters, and their spirit, that’s impossible to shake.
The Package
The limited edition Twilight Time release features a commentary between film historians Nick Redman and Lem Dobbs, which provides an interesting comparison on the film with one seeing the movie as a bleak drama and the other as a slight, dark comedy. The commentary on the state of boxing today carries on a bit longer than need be, but there’s a scandalous retelling of a story between Huston and Tyrrell as well as how the director had to battle studio heads to make the film he wanted.
The Lowdown
Largely unheralded, Fat City is not only a shining piece of 70s cinema, but also a textbook example of Huston’s directorial prowess.
