Fat City (1972)

Fat City has deservedly taken its place among the fine films about boxing that Hollywood has done. It most closely resembles Requiem For A Heavyweight and you get double the entertainment because it's about two boxers in that division whose prospects for success are limited.

Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges meet at a YMCA gym. Keach a heavyweight who has seen better days was a good prospect to go all the way, but he married the wrong woman who drained him dry and left him. But Keach is a glutton for punishment and he's taken up with Susan Tyrell who is mesmerizing when she's on the screen. Not that the prospects are good for him to hold out for something better, he's no prize either.

But Keach sends Bridges to his former manager Nicholas Colosanto and he also joins them. Bridges has never had a professional fight, but he's clean cut, all American and white. He might be a good draw if he can learn to fight. His debut isn't promising. And he and wife Candy Clark face the problems of all newlyweds.

The air of sadness that hangs around Fat City is that the audience knows full well these guys aren't going anywhere. Keach gets matched with a similar over the hill heavyweight played nicely by Sergio Rodriguez. He barely outlasts him and while the little entourage is celebrating this beginning of a comeback, we see Sergio leave the arena alone as the lights turn out after him. Very effectively staged by John Huston.

The highlight of Fat City is Susan Tyrell who as TCM was showing this film as its prime time feature was reported to have passed away. What an incredible performance as a down and out alcoholic. She received the only Oscar recognition for Fat City as she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Boxing fans will appreciate the realistic approach Fat City takes in regard to the sport. Others of us will just like the great performances and realistic filming that typifies Fat City.

Fmovies: 'Fat City' has an solid and hard-won reputation. It was released to the cinema in 1972 with little fanfare. It got good notices but was one of those films that could not expect immediate success with a fickle public prone to more showy attractions; today it has a loyal following amongst those not oblivious to its virtues. As embarrassing as it is to admit, on discovering 'Fat City' I clasped it to my heart in gratitude: I had found something worthy of my attention that was not Hollywood vulgarity nor mindless escapism for the great unwashed. It was a film with backbone, a film with brain. 'Fat City' is an unforgettable portrayal of lost and lonely people quietly losing what is left of their lives. They struggle to survive but the struggle is pointless and they are left at the mercy of an unyielding fate that can only be guessed at, because of the film's refusal to pander to audience expectations of mindless resolutions and resolutely happy endings. Winning isn't the issue, but how much it's going to cost merely to survive. But most of all 'Fat City' is a film with its heart in the right place. The characters are not remarkable, they may not even be bright, but they are real and breathing people being photographed as their lives are disintegrating in front of us. Such an approach was relief from the stifling boundaries of Hollywood notions of entertainment when I first saw the film on ex-rental VHS and remains so today.

The characters in this story are played by Jeff Bridges as Ernie, and Stacy Keach as Billy. Ernie and Billy are both going in opposite directions in their lives one up (supposedly) and the other down. They make a connection with each other for the purposes of mutual support and camaraderie, both scarcities in the world of small time boxing in Stockton California where the movie is set. Billy has already begun his downward trajectory towards oblivion for personal and professional reasons. He meets Ernie, an inarticulate young man with some talent and sets him on his way to what they both hope will be a successful boxing career. Things however, don't go entirely to plan. Candy Clark plays Jeff's girlfriend, a lost soul, who seems incapable of making her own decisions. A relatively unknown actress Susan Tyrell received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her part as Oma, Stacy Keach's mentally unstable girlfriend. Both give standout performances, but Tyrell's is more showy, and it's understandable why the Academy took notice. The film was shot on location in Stockton, and the rest of the cast appear to be locals who effortlessly give the film an authenticity which is so rare for a mainstream American film. Finally, the Kris Kristofferson ballad 'Help Me Make it Through the Night' is prominently featured to excellent effect, in order to illustrate the desolation and loneliness of the main characters.

The lack of a driving narrative is actually one of the virtues of 'Fat City', It makes up for this with lots of atmosphere and interesting and believable people. It takes it's time to tell what story there is, and is almost Thomas Hardy-like in its sense of fatalism. I could be facetious by describing 'Fat City' as a hybrid of Thomas Hardy, with a bit of 'Barfly' thrown in. The two films are strikingly similar in their portrayal of the working class streets of an anonymous, American city, and its characters, largely inarticulate and living on the fringe, which is a polite way of saying tha

American audiences don't generally go in for realistic stories of human despair and suffering that offer very little in the way of hope or relief. This may explain why John Huston's Fat City has been condemned to obscurity, a real shame considering what a great flick it is. It's the sort of movie you see and remember but can't quite pick it out of a line-up... a shuffling, mumbling story of down-and-out pugs in an off-the-map burgh. You're taunted with the possibilities of the story picking up to... well if not epic at least noteworthy proportions... but, all of the characters' minor victories are mitigated by their simultaneous defeats. Keach's Tully is the main thrust of the story, though it tends to veer off on the occasional tangent. A has-been who possibly never really was, crushed by the departure of his wife and overwhelmed by the constant little defeats in his life. Huston really drives this point home, that all of these little defeats add up. Without giving too much away, suffice to say Fat City is a film where mood overshadows plot. The mood is indelibly rendered by Conrad Hall's dark, dirty images, which nearly swallow the characters in the depth of their shadows. Watching it back to back with fellow pugilist opus Raging Bull (1980), it's easy to see that Huston was a keen observer of human behaviour, while Scorsese was a keen observer of Hollywood films of the thirties. And don't even talk about Rocky. I would compare it favourably with Barbet Schroeder's Barfly (1987), another film about fringe life in California, and even Vincent Gallo's excellent Buffalo '66 (1998), though of the three it is the bleakest and the least accessible.

Fat City fmovies. How in the world did I miss Fat City's greatness all these years? Ignore the rhetorical question. I read the Leonard Gardner novel when it was published and vastly enjoyed its subdued magic. If I saw the movie, it went past me as an Grad Intern pulling all nighters, and then zoning out during movies in first-run theaters. My friends knew "Great Movies" didn't they? I wasn't gonna stay in and miss out.

Last night, I saw Fat City with "new eyes" - or for the first time! The cast was like a Repertory Theatre cast: All spoke like people speak. Even the local LA boxing legends of my youth. It's far too understated to be compared to "Raging Bull" and proves there was never a recognizable entity like a "John Huston-style" movie.

Astonishing.

Probably one of the most realistic films about boxing. Not the big prime time fights but the small time boxing matches that spring up in town after town. Great performances all around with extra notice to Nick Colasanto as Ruben who could be related to his Coach in "Cheers" and Stacy Keach as the brain-addled old fighter that will never be able to quit. His fight scene at the end with the Mexican boxer who is only there for a paycheck win or lose, really says a lot about how boxing can be a pathetic sport. Keach's Tully is probably how a lot of boxers end up. Typical late John Huston film that focuses on the underbelly of American society. And a good one too.

John Huston's 1972 production of FAT CITY is a masterpiece of film-making and acting. It's more than just a movie of boxing, it's symbolic of the American Dream gone depressingly wrong. Stacy Keach in the finest role of his outstanding career is symbolic of "every-man". His dreams are based on professional successes, which by gaining money and fame, he will be happy in his life. As we know in so many cases, that obtaining fame and money leads many people down an even deeper road of depression and self-destruction. For without emotional success, without love, a person is empty inside. A powerful film. Not a boxing film at all. Boxing is merely the symbolism here; fighting to succeed. "I win the fight and I get my wife back", says Keach's character, Billy Tully.

A great movie, but one that leaves you feeling sad; pondering your own hopes, dreams, and desires. A remarkable supporting cast, high-lighted by a young Jeff Bridges, make FAT CITY one of John Huston's most memorable films. A Champion of movie-making.