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After a short study of boxing's history, narrated by newscaster Douglas Edwards, we follow a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier.After a short study of boxing's history, narrated by newscaster Douglas Edwards, we follow a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier.After a short study of boxing's history, narrated by newscaster Douglas Edwards, we follow a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier.
Judy Singer
- Self - Female Fan in Crowd
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIt cost Stanley Kubrick $3,900 to make and he sold it (to RKO) for $4,000.
- Alternate versionsWhen RKO obtained the film for their "This Is America" series, they added about four minutes of new material to the beginning of the film, making the short 16 minutes long instead of the original 12 minutes. The opening four minutes with boxing historian Nat Fleischer is markedly different from the rest of the film as if features footage from different boxing matches. The opening was also modified with the credits appearing in different order and the music for the opening was also changed. The majority of the picture is the same until the end. In the last sequence when the knock out happens, the narration is once again changes. Kubrick's original cut features Douglas Edwards talking about personal sacrifice and success. The extended RKO cut removes this portion of the narration and adds new one with Nat Fleischer to better match the opening segment - this narration is about how this fight will go down into the record books. The music at the end was also changed - Gerald Fried's finale cue was moved earlier to match the beginning of the new narration, but because it starts sooner, it doesn't line up with the ending. Thus the new end title card (which adds This is America to the bottom of the card) plays in silence.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)
Featured review
Early portents of Kubrick's later trademarks
Stanley Kubrick was never one for realistic films about ordinary people; the nearest he came to a straightforward drama was probably the heist movie, The Killing. This shying away from realism seems to show itself in his very first film, this short documentary about the boxer, Walter Cartier, preparing for and engaging in a fight. Any boxer is a special person, but some directors might have portrayed Cartier as a regular guy with a particular skill; but from the start Kubrick stresses Cartier's unusualness by showing waking up beside, and going around town with, his identical twin brother, giving a surreal aspect to the film.
The way Cartier psychs himself up for the fight in his dressing room, turning himself into a fighting machine, also seems to fit in with Kubrick's later interest in making films about people under stress (eg Full Metal Jacket) or in an abnormal state (eg The Shining and Clockwork Orange). It is also intriguing to wonder whether the director's fondness for voiceover narrative in his feature films stems from this and his other early documentaries. Oh, by the way, it's quite a good documentary about a fighter who, in fact, never became champ, and went into TV and films.
The way Cartier psychs himself up for the fight in his dressing room, turning himself into a fighting machine, also seems to fit in with Kubrick's later interest in making films about people under stress (eg Full Metal Jacket) or in an abnormal state (eg The Shining and Clockwork Orange). It is also intriguing to wonder whether the director's fondness for voiceover narrative in his feature films stems from this and his other early documentaries. Oh, by the way, it's quite a good documentary about a fighter who, in fact, never became champ, and went into TV and films.
helpful•220
- Geofbob
- Sep 5, 2001
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Day of the fight (Día de combate)
- Filming locations
- Church of St. Francis Xavier, 46 W. 16th St., New York City, New York, USA(Church where Walter Cartier and his brother, Vincent, attend morning mass)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,900 (estimated)
- Runtime16 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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