The Fighter

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2014)

The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale is a film about two brothers in Lowell, Massachusetts. The film is based on the true lives of Dicky Eklund (Bale) and Micky Ward (Wahlberg), both professional boxers. Dicky was once one of the best boxers in the industry, and became well known for knocking down heavy weight Sugar Ray Leonard in a 1978 boxing match. After his glory faded Dicky became addicted to crack and somewhat of a joke around Lowell. His younger brother, Micky, is still actively trying to make a name for himself in the boxing world and Dicky is his trainer. Alice Ward is their overbearing mother, and also Micky's manager. She is very controlling of Micky's career early on and makes some questionable decisions about Micky's fights and his future in boxing. As a result of his brother missing workouts, and his mother booking inappropriate fights for him, Micky finds new management and starts training with the local police officer, O' Keefe. Micky has his new manager, trainer, and girlfriend Charlene, played by Amy Adams, in his corner winning several fights, but he truly wants his family to be a part of his journey.
The theme is this film is to have heart in everything you do. Micky goes through so many hard times leading up to his win at WBU Heavyweight Championship. He has to deal with not being able to care for his daughter Kasie like he wants, his mother and seven sisters being so irrational, his brother's addiction and stint in prison; he had to make the difficult decision to cut his family out of his life for a period of time so that he could focus on boxing and getting his confidence built. In every challenging situation he faced, he made decisions with heart, he thought about his own well-being, but also his family's and Charlene's. The theme in this film can speak to anyone who has had to work incredibly hard at something to achieve their goal.
The camera angle throughout this film is an important aspect. Several scenes have many people in them and most of the characters are talking all at once, but where the camera is looking gives you the indication that you need to focus your attention on something or someone. Also the dialogue is so fast paced in most of the scenes that the camera switching back and forth to each person is very important, and I think was done very well in this film. During any of the boxing scenes it is important to see the action and the reaction of each punch through the camera angle and editing. The scenes when Dicky is high on crack the switching back and forth of scenes in his head and the confusing muddled sounds playing over them makes you feel like you're in his mind with him, going through whatever he is at the time.
The Fighter has a lot of great elements; the editing, the acting, and the overall theme. Watching a film that focuses on the trials and tribulations you must go through to achieve your goal is heartwarming and entertaining.