Cockfighter
Tags: violence, cult

Plot synopsis:
Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) has just received a Reno divorce in Nevada. That night, she discovers one of her neighbors, Laury Palmer, and Palmer's gentleman caller both murdered in Palmer's home. The killer is Palmer's other boyfriend, Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney), an insanely jealous man who won't abide anyone "cutting in" on him.
Helen says nothing to the police; she's leaving town and doesn't want to be impeded. She runs into Sam and is instantly attracted to his self-confidence and brutality, but she is engaged to marry a wealthy boyfriend, Fred (Phillip Terry). Sam wants to call on her in San Francisco. He arrives there and meets Georgia Staples (Audrey Long), Helen's foster sister, also rich. Sam soon shifts his attentions to her, marrying the sister for her money after a whirlwind romance. Neither Helen's engagement nor Sam's marriage is an impediment to their beginning an affair.
Meanwhile, back in Reno, the owner of the boarding house where Helen lived has hired a mercenary, verse-quoting detective, Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak), to find out who killed Laury. The detective follows Sam's friend, Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.), to San Francisco, where he soon begins to make blackmailing overtures to Helen. Marty finds out who hired the detective and attempts to kill her, but Sam thinks he's trying to cut in on his action and kills Marty.
Fred is troubled by the resulting police investigation, as well as by Helen's increasingly heartless demeanor. He calls off their engagement. Sam and Helen face off in a fatal confrontation as their schemes begin unraveling, with Sam fatally shooting Helen before he is slain by police.

Review: "Cockfighter" is one of a number of collaborations between Monte Hellman and Warren Oates, with a brilliant, austere script written by Charles Willeford (also author of the book) and equally simple yet elegant cinematography by Nestor Alemendros, D.P. of Malick's "Badlands" and "Days of Heaven".This film really captures an emerging respect and relationship between Hellman and Oates, who barely utters a word through the whole film.
Like "The Shooting", "Ride in the Whirlwind" and "Two-lane Blacktop", Hellman turns to Oates for a unique and character-driven performance.
Oates' stoicism really carries the feel of the film, with very honest performances from supporting actors Harry Dean Stanton, Richard B.
Oates' Frank Mansfield is the true subject of the film, who, from the beginning, is a broken man on a mission, willing to keep going against the odds for his small piece of redemption.
While there are distinctly beautiful and poignant images of cockfighting (animal lovers beware), it's pace and personality are more like that of an "art film".
As a huge fan of Hellman and Oates, especially Cockfighter, my opinion is that the marketing of the film and it's outer "cover" (literally and figuratively) were designed to get it seen at any cost.
I think it's one of the most extraordinary movies of the decade, and further proof that Monte Hellman is one of the most underrated directors of all time.
Hellman, like many other film makers, got his first big break working for Roger Corman, directing 'Beast From Haunted Cave' in the 1950s.
Aside from that can of worms 'Cockfighter' features a superb performance from Warren Oates, one of his very best ever, so if you are an Oates fan you MUST try and see this movie!
Hellman and Oates worked on four movies altogether, and the supporting cast also includes Harry Dean Stanton and Millie Perkins, who had three Hellman movies apiece, and Laurie Bird who co-starred in 'Two-Lane Blacktop'.
On top of that you have some strong performances by a whole bunch of character actors like Warren Finnerty ('Cool Hand Luke'), Ed Begley Jr, Steve Railsback (in one of my favourite scenes) and - one of the biggest surprises - Troy Donahue, who has a memorable cameo as Oates alcoholic brother.
'Cockfighter's explicit fight sequences will repel most people but if you persevere you'll witness some brilliant acting, especially from Warren Oates.
There is no spoon-feeding here.Just re-released for sale on tape (and DVD), this film is now available again for those who like to watch a movie that honestly takes you someplace that few of us have ever been.
Warren Oates plays a character who lives by a moral code much like the people in the pulp westerns and detective stories -- a man's honor is shown by his actions, and his willingness to see his convictions through to whatever end may come.
Cockfighter, another Roger Corman/Monte Hellman collaboration, explores the popular but mostly illegal "sport" of cockfighting (it is banned in 48 states).
Based on a novel by Charles Willeford, the film contains one of Warren Oates' best performances as Frank Mansfield, a trainer of prize cockfighters.
Filmed in actual outdoor arenas in Georgia (cockfighting was legal in Georgia) by cinematographer Nestor Almenderos (Days of Heaven, Kramer Vs. Kramer), the crowds at the matches consist of real fans and people who have participated in this brutal spectacle, giving the film a documentary look and feel.In Cockfighter, we are privy to a world that none of us will probably ever see or ever want to see, a world where roosters are bred and trained to engage in a deadly battle with other birds for the benefit of gamblers and spectators.
I personally had to turn away from the screen on several occasions.As the film begins, Frank has lost a match with his friendly adversary Jack (Harry Dean Stanton) and has to give up his truck, mobile home, and his girlfriend Dodo (Laurie Bird).
Although Oates says only a few words during the film, his facial expressions and hand gestures leave little doubt about what he is thinking and feeling.
I am one of the few people who managed to see this in the UK, because it was banned, an understandable if incorrect decision, as the film does not glamorise the unpleasant "sport" of cock fighting.
Neither is it really the subject of the film, it just happens to be the driver of the obsessions of the central character played by Warren Oates, and what a completely mesmeric compelling portrait he gives!
A terrific character study with a performance by the late-great Warren Oates that consumes the screen.The kind of film most people don`t have the attention span for anymore....and that`s a shame.
I love how he manages to convey so much without speaking (those who haven't seen the film - Oates barely speaks in this film).Monte Hellman...does a good job, but this is not his best work.
There are some amazing moments in this, though, and the cockfighting footage is insane (and I'm sure this film didn't qualify for the "no animals were harmed..." tag, which wasn't in use then anyway, but you get the point).And I love what Hellman does in the love scene by the lake between Frank and his girl.
This movie actually made me want to go to a cockfight, so, I mean, yeah.COCKFIGHTER...a must-see for Oates/Hellman fans.
This is the definitive movie on rooster fights, and it features a great performance by Warren Oates.
Here the director films in perfect slow motion a real cockfight and you see the intelligent strategic way roosters fight.
All the praise for the actual movie has already been said here, I just wanted to emphasize that in fact one of the best parts of this movie is that its probably the only place you'll ever see one any film cockfighting with any respect for whats actually going on.
This movie has truly inspired me to become a cockfighter at the caliber of Harry Dean Stanton's character.
This Roger Corman produced movie about the dubious sport of cockfighting probably occupies similar ground to Cannibal Holocaust in a way.
They both exploit animal violence for their goals but those goals stretch beyond mere schlocky entertainment (and I have to say that CH is no more hypocritical than the people who condemn it and then chow down on burgers).True there are actual cockfighting scenes in the movie and real animals were harmed and killed and the fights themselves are presented in a very grim way, so animal lovers are advised to stay away.
But Cockfighter is also a Monte Hellman movie and not content with wadding its way through schlock.
It's similar in many ways to his masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop in that it is an understated character study disguised as something else (in Blacktop's case a road movie, here a movie about cockfighting), introvert and contemplative without any pretense and stripped of all fat.Warren Oates almost totally silent performance is great, relying on glances and gestures and understated enough to suck you in his character's tormented psyche like a Lon Chaney of 70's hardboiled cinema.
The puzzling ending is another example of this and I think the movie is better off because of it.Newcomers to Hellman's movies might wanna start elsewhere and work their way to Cockfighter.
PETA and the ASPCA must really gnash their teeth over this movie.The script is terse, due mostly to the fact that Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) has taken a vow of silence until he wins the 'Cockfighter of the Year' medal handed out by some caricature of a southern Senator.
But the story flows, would you really expect any Roger Corman-produced movie to get too bogged down, and largely because you're never more than twenty minutes away from another bloody cockfight.Warren Oates is really feeling his...
None of the other actors are really given a chance to make an impression.Ultimately I only watched 'Cockfighter' to see where it fits into the Rednexploitation genre, movies such as 'Moonrunners' or 'Walking Tall.' I'd say it's near the top of that heap and it's moderately enjoyable as a slice of life and for Oates' acting, but really if cockfights are one of those traditional forms of entertainment replaced by the Gameboy then I'm not so sure it was a bad trade..
He's one of the great character actors from the 1970s and 1980s, and he has good chemistry here with Harry Dean Stanton.Piece of trivia: The videostore guy told me that Hellman rented rooms to hold the cockfights but neglected to tell hotel management about it..
Roger Corman intended to direct the film himself at first, but then decided to hire Monte Hellman instead who turned the film's questionable subject matter into bloody work of art.
The slow motion scenes of fighting cocks might seem cool (and definitely cruel), but these are not there just for style but to emphasize the brutality and cruelty of the so called sport.
'Cockfighter' is not your usual sports film (cockfighting is not very usual sport either) but rather deep character study.The movie follows the story of silent anti-hero Frank Mansfield, professional cockfighter and trainer who vowed to stay silent after his loud mouth lost him the Cockfighter of the Year award, and caused the death of his pride fighting rooster.
Warren Oates gives brilliant performance as a man who is so obsessed in this cruel sport that he is almost incapable for normal human feelings and relationships.
It is hard to sympathize with Frank, but it is easy to feel for him on his quest back to the top of the sport and losing people (and his soul) around him.Thanks to the portrayal of animal cruelty 'Cockfighter' might not be very suitable for faint hearted, but still it is a magnificently powerful and intense film with masterful performances.
The Roger Corman produced, Monte Hellman directed Cockfighter is a film -if made today- that would be sure to enrage PETA and the SPCA.
Bloody cock fights aside, the story is the age old sports film formula where the protagonist loses it all before he learns something about himself as he rebuilds from within to become the best.
If Hellman wasn't behind the lens I'd be OK with Cockfighter being a mere exploitation film, but because he is I expected more.
But unless you're trying to convince the world that grindhouse is an important and relevant film movement, then you'll see Cockfighter for what it really is: a mediocre film that squanders the talents of Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton and most notably, Monte Hellman.http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/.
'Cockfighter' didn't get much love upon it's release and it hasn't gathered it till today probably because it is not an easy watch, mainly because the back story is about cockfights (like the title assumes), and they are pretty gruesome scenes (especially if animal cruelty is something you can't tolerate, and especially if you are very fond of cocks).
Though 'Cockfighter' is about cockfights, its main focus is on Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates in one of his best roles), and his struggles to get back into the top game and mainly his inner conflicts - he loves and as it seems, he hates the bloody sport.
Warren Oates manages to show so much and create such a deep and disturbed character mainly with silence (Frank Mansfield decided to stop talking after his big mouth got him into big troubles).
Superb performance by Oates, supported by great cast, Monte Hellman's subtle direction mixed with Charles Willeford's sharp script and minimalistic, but effective cinematography, 'Cockfighter' is heartbreaking, heartwarming and disgusting at the same time..
In the face of this, Hellman chose his chief collaborators wisely i.e. leading-man Warren Oates (this was possibly the beloved character actor's very best role) and cinematographer Nestor Almendros (who captures the mainly rustic locales via warm hues but, at the same time, an unsentimental veracity); also notable in this regard is the jaunty/wistful score by one Michael Franks.The narrative deals with the titular sport which, deemed the most violent, had been rendered illegal in most American states; watching the film, one realizes just how many enthusiasts it has and, though the events are set in the South, in the Commentary it is inferred that the practice of cockfighting is spread wide across the country!
In a typically quirky touch, here Oates does not speak a line of dialogue throughout until the very last moments of the film – having 'shot his mouth off' and subsequently lost a bet as well as his chance to win a prestigious medal, he vows to remain silent for as long as it takes him to be named "Cockfighter Of The Year"!
The supporting cast, then, includes faces familiar from Hellman's previous efforts (Laurie Bird, Millie Perkins and Harry Dean Stanton), as well as past-his-prime heart-throb Troy Donahue and newcomers Ed Begley Jr. and Steve Railsback.The DVD extras also include the theatrical trailer, TV and radio spots, where the film's "naked" look at competitiveness is likened to that of the classic pool-hall expose' THE HUSTLER (1961); of course, parallels can also be drawn with TWO-LANE BLACKTOP itself, which involves drag-racing, not to mention THE GREATEST (1977), the biopic of boxing champ Muhammad Ali which Hellman completed after the premature death of original director Tom Gries!
That said, Hellman employs several devices in order to garner audience interest in the proceedings: Oates' intermittent narration explaining the breeding process of the cocks themselves, the preparation that goes into these matches, and the extensive gambling that is the ultimate raison d'être of it all; the viciousness of the fighting is amplified (indeed rendered almost unwatchable at times) both by the spikes that are tied to the cock's heels – causing blood to spurt onto the shoes of their handlers, anticipating the graphic bouts in Martin Scorsese's boxing drama RAGING BULL (1980) – and the occasional use of slow-motion; and also the sheer diversity of venues in which these contests are organized (ranging from arenas to private barns and even hotel rooms, where the film also displays a welcome sense of irony with the takings of the night being instantly 'lost' in a hold-up!).
Monte Hellman is probably one of the most subtly brilliant and profound American movie directors who ever lived, but definitely also the most underrated and shamefully overlooked one.
It's basically a repulsive topic, and also one of the main reasons why the film was a tremendous box office flop at the time, but only through actually making the effort of watching "Cockfighter", you will notice the film does not primarily handles about animal cruelty and clandestine sports.
He frequently collaborated with Monte Hellman, like also in "Two-Lane Blacktop" and "The Shooting", and delivered some of his best work.
Here in this film he also receives excellent support from respectable B-movie actors such as Harry Dean Stanton, Steve Railsback Ed Begley Jr. and even Troy Donahue.
One gets into the underworld of cockfighting (still legal then, in some US states) with characters, situations and fates that are as close to real life as one could imagine.Speechless Warren Oates radiates as an unlikely hero, dominating the scene with Hellman's complicity.
This is his only film i've seen so far; here he connects his narrative to the character, the actor (who apparently starred in many of his other movies).
If you watch this film you may be led to believe, like i did, that some of it was bureaucratic work Almendros had to do to narrate the boring character Hellman proposes, but other moments are shining and worth watching.
Warren Oates/Monte Hellman gem.
Warren Oates anchors this violent exploitation film, in a rare true leading role with his frequent collaborator Monte Hellman ("Two-Lane Blacktop").
The story is fairly routine, I suppose, considering that this is the only cockfighting movie I've heard of -- Oates plays Frank Mansfield, a man so obsessed with winning an award for the cockfighter of the year in America that he takes a vow of silence until he achieves it.
Harry Dean Stanton plays Jack, his major rival in the ring of battle, who embarrasses the glib Frank to the point where he takes the vow.I think that this is going to be a "love it or hate it" movie, because first of all the violent cockfighting is not faked, and it is shown in close detail and slow motion.
The very first scenes of the movie I knew I was going to like it, because here's the great Oates driving a dirty old RV and rolling his own smokes.
Maybe fear a little, this isn't a Disney film.Warren Oates seems to be continuously excellent the more of his work I get to watch, and sure enough he gets the {sports metaphor involving a net or a run or a goal which means he's great}.
Everyone turns out great performances; The Oates seems to blend into the chicken scene expertly.
Warren Oates gives one of the most curious performances of the American cinema of the 1970s, not just of his career, with Cockfighter.
He's always on the move for the next fight, and when he loses, sometimes by boasting and getting drunk, he just gets right back up with his expression of "well, let's just do this" see-sawing between true determination and respectable glee.There's not many movies that feature cockfighting, and perhaps there is good reason: it is, in fact, illegal in nearly all (if not just all) of the US, it would be difficult to put on today without, of course, animal control people on the set.
But the goal of Monte Hellman's film is to take an eye on this hick-centric environment, with people cast who likely had never been in a movie but, more than likely, handled their share of chickens in their lifetimes.
There's even some slow-motion in one of the scenes where Frank's bird loses.It comes about as close as could be ever allowed for visual poetry with these fighting fowl, and this is to Hellman's credit.