Day of the Fight (1951)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.6/10   

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Guionista:

Robert Rein (narration script)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

26 abril 1951 (USA)

Género:

Documental | Corto | Deporte

Plot:

Based on Kubrick's pictorial for Look Magazine (January 18, 1949) entitled "Prizefighter," "Day Of The...

Plot Keywords:

Look Magazine | Boxing | Narration

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Interesting little short that works thanks to its pacing and shot variety.

Reparto

Douglas Edwards

...

Narrator (voice)

Duración:

16 min | 13 min (TCM print)

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Negro y Blanco

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Locaciones de Filmación:

West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Trivialidades:

The film premiered as part of RKO-Pathé's "This Is America" series and opened at the Paramount Theater in New York on 26 April 26 1951 as a short subject in a program featuring My Forbidden Past (1951). Headlining in a live stage show was Frank Sinatra, which also featured an appearance by blond bombshell Dagmar.

Citas:

Narrator: This is a fight fan. Fan -- short for fanatic. There's a legion just like him in the United States. Each year he shoves his share of ninety million dollars under the wicket for the privilege of attending places where matched pairs of men will get up on a canvas-covered platform and commit legal assault and lawful battery.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in Raging Bull (1980)

Interesting little short that works thanks to its pacing and shot variety.

It's always interesting to go back to the beginning of a director's career, in this case Stanley Kubrick's, and take a look at his earlier work. Day of the Fight just happens to be the first film by now legendary director Kubrick who is widely regarded as one of the best contemporary directors ever. This film is around about 15-20 minutes long and revolves around the build up to a boxing match the study of the build up will revolve around.

Interestingly enough and perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it was inspired by a photograph Kubrick himself took for a 1949 edition of a magazine. This could be seen as an early example of suspense, with constant reference to the boxing match and its importance made through narrator Douglas Edwards, a good casting for the serious and deep voice the film required. As a short, it works and the suspense and build up maintains some sort of interest as the montage plays out. Kubrick includes all sorts of shots and angles creating the nice range for the eye, my favourite being the low angle on the statue of Mary in the church about half way through.

But the focus could well be the fight itself. There is some good camera work to be had out of the actual match and a low angle between a boxer's legs would later be used by Kubrick in Killer's Kiss, another early Kubrick film. I actually would have liked the boxing match's result to have been the other way around as I feel it would've added a new dimension to the short, a sort of anti-climatic spin that might've worked well. But that said, it's worth seeing if for the match itself and the chance to see where it all started off for the great man.