Great film based on a struggling family who makes it.

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2012)

The Fighter is a very well directed, exciting film starring Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward; an underrated boxer from the small town of Lowell. Micky's older half brother Dicky Eklund played by Christian Bale, is more of the star in the town of Lowell than Micky during the beginning of the movie. Dicky or "The Pride of Lowell" is known for his one boxing match against Sugar Ray Leonard in which he knocked the champ down, but still lost the fight. As Dicky struggles with drug addiction Micky begins to train harder and harder for upcoming fights, but his family and mother particularly are holding him back because they don't believe in him. In fact Micky's family is still holding on to hope for Dicky, hoping he will get off the drugs and get back into boxing. It felt as if Micky was useless and Dicky was the star, we discover that this is false and in fact Micky is the star. As Micky continues training his girlfriend Charlene convinces him that his family is in fact holding him back. The story continues and Micky starts winning fights left and right, while his brother Dicky continues to struggle with addiction. Micky's family begins coming together and supporting him at this point and his brother Dicky even starts coming to his senses and helping Micky with tips to help his succeed. Micky eventually wins the title and his family is put back together.
The theme of this film is clearly that a family can overcome overwhelming obstacles when they come together as a unit. This theme is shown when the Ward family is separated, Alice and all of Micky's sisters were in a sense "babying" Dicky with the hope that he will get off drugs and go back to boxing. During this time nobody is in Micky's corner except for Charlene who pushes him away from his distraught family. Once Dicky gets his head on straight I believe he realizes that he can help his underdog brother become the champion. Despite all of the struggles, obstacles, and bad luck; this family comes together to help, and support each other which ends in Micky becoming the Champion.
We have seen this theme before in the film The Family Stone, though it is a much different film than The Fighter the theme is the same. In The Family Stone a family is brought together to be mean to one of their siblings future fiancé. This in return results in the family recognizing their faults similar to The Fighter and eventually come together for one common goal, a good Christmas.
During The Fighter we are shown several unique techniques for instance the sound effects that are heard but not seen. Also known as invisible sound, we hear church bells, police or ambulance sirens, and cars driving outside which add to the small town feeling we get from the town of Lowell. The small town feeling is essential in this film because Dicky is the "small town hero". If this was based on a story in a big city many people in the city would not know about Dicky, but in Lowell everyone knows Dicky. I feel this small town fame got to Dicky's head which leads to his drug use and road down a failing boxing career. Another technique used is the lighting; this film is intended to be in the late 80's and early to mid 90's and the lighting of the film really shows that. By using a lot of natural lighting the film seems a little dingy, not real bright and flashy unlike modern action films we see today. This defines this time period perfectly old fashioned, close knit town, hard working community; all of those things are basic and are best paired with natural lighting.