I've never been a huge fan of John Huston, though I have great admiration for Treasure of the Sierra Madres, The Man Who Would Be King, Beat the Devil, and The Maltese Falcon. I find him a decent enough filmmaker, but there always seemed to be something pedestrian about his work, in overpraised pieces like The African Queen and Asphalt Jungle and especially in films like the bloated Moby Dick.
Fat City is somewhere in between his run-of-the mill work and his finest achievements. There's a lot that's wrong with this morose examination of how the other half lives--cliché-ridden dialogue and a tendency toward shoddy editing are the most flagrant faults--but the central performances and the non-boxing moments achieve such glorious heights that its impossible to ignore the movie.
Fat City follows two men, more or less, Ernie and Billy, scarcely a decade a part in age, but looking as though there's a much greater distance in years between them. Billy is down & out, a has-been one-time coulda-been boxer who spends his days on the sauce, even when he's out in California's growing fields, gathering walnuts or onions. Ernie is young, still has his baby fat, and meets Billy at the gym. Billy sees something in Ernie and sends him off to become a fighter, which he does, though not terribly well.
The film, at the start, has the trajectory of something like, say, Million Dollar Baby. It's going to be your traditional sports movie (older man takes on a protégé and shows him how to succeed in ways he could never quite achieve). Except, fortunately, Fat City takes a u-turn after Ernie's first loss. It's at that moment that you realize Fat City isn't about boxing at all--it's about the underclasses of America. It's about the people that work shifts in factory only to then spend hours chopping onions out of the dirt. It's about people who can't hold any jobs, so all they do is chop onions out of the dirt. It's about people who dream of becoming championship boxers only to settle into domestic life because simple economics tell you that you can no longer pursue your dream. And it's about people so beaten down by life that, more or less, they give up and hit the bottle.
When this movie is examining what it means to be poor in America, it cannot be beat. When it heads to the gym, it starts to stumble. The scenes of training, and any involving Ruben feel like they came out of screen writing 101. I read pithier dialogue during my intro creative writing class in college. It just falls dead when his character is around. I understand that he serves the role of eternal optimist, but, eek, his part is just dreadful.
The rest of the moving demonstrates some stellar writing and amazing performances, especially from Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, and Candy Clarke. But the bit players put on a sterling show, too. Curtis Cokes, in his, unfortunately, sole credited performance, has one speech, towards the end, that is better than anything else in the film. His performance in that scene is impeccable and puts even Keach and Bridges to shame. And then there's Sixto Rodriguez's role as Lucero. He says no words but perfectly captures the sadness at the heart of this film better than anything else. It's a remarkable performance, filled with such pathos, that it's hard not to get worked up thinking about it.
All in all, Fat City is a wonderful achievement, but it has its share of flaws.
Fat City is somewhere in between his run-of-the mill work and his finest achievements. There's a lot that's wrong with this morose examination of how the other half lives--cliché-ridden dialogue and a tendency toward shoddy editing are the most flagrant faults--but the central performances and the non-boxing moments achieve such glorious heights that its impossible to ignore the movie.
Fat City follows two men, more or less, Ernie and Billy, scarcely a decade a part in age, but looking as though there's a much greater distance in years between them. Billy is down & out, a has-been one-time coulda-been boxer who spends his days on the sauce, even when he's out in California's growing fields, gathering walnuts or onions. Ernie is young, still has his baby fat, and meets Billy at the gym. Billy sees something in Ernie and sends him off to become a fighter, which he does, though not terribly well.
The film, at the start, has the trajectory of something like, say, Million Dollar Baby. It's going to be your traditional sports movie (older man takes on a protégé and shows him how to succeed in ways he could never quite achieve). Except, fortunately, Fat City takes a u-turn after Ernie's first loss. It's at that moment that you realize Fat City isn't about boxing at all--it's about the underclasses of America. It's about the people that work shifts in factory only to then spend hours chopping onions out of the dirt. It's about people who can't hold any jobs, so all they do is chop onions out of the dirt. It's about people who dream of becoming championship boxers only to settle into domestic life because simple economics tell you that you can no longer pursue your dream. And it's about people so beaten down by life that, more or less, they give up and hit the bottle.
When this movie is examining what it means to be poor in America, it cannot be beat. When it heads to the gym, it starts to stumble. The scenes of training, and any involving Ruben feel like they came out of screen writing 101. I read pithier dialogue during my intro creative writing class in college. It just falls dead when his character is around. I understand that he serves the role of eternal optimist, but, eek, his part is just dreadful.
The rest of the moving demonstrates some stellar writing and amazing performances, especially from Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, and Candy Clarke. But the bit players put on a sterling show, too. Curtis Cokes, in his, unfortunately, sole credited performance, has one speech, towards the end, that is better than anything else in the film. His performance in that scene is impeccable and puts even Keach and Bridges to shame. And then there's Sixto Rodriguez's role as Lucero. He says no words but perfectly captures the sadness at the heart of this film better than anything else. It's a remarkable performance, filled with such pathos, that it's hard not to get worked up thinking about it.
All in all, Fat City is a wonderful achievement, but it has its share of flaws.