Why does everybody think boxing is so easy? To my death, I will never get how Americans came to disdain professionalism, but they did. And it’s only going to get worse now that we (once again) have a President who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
If you don’t know any better, professions are just like role casting: “He looks like a firefighter”, “she looks like an accountant”, “and whatever that person is ought to be in a mascot costume.” I’m sure this is how jobs work in certain parts of the country and the world … but I think you’ll also find that people who are not qualified to do jobs have trouble doing them.
Today’s film is about a boxer who was once a world champion, but has been in jail and, subsequently, hasn’t had a fight in over ten years. While this kind of layoff isn’t inconceivable towards creating a champion (George Foreman), it is as far-fetched as stories go, and speaks very poorly of professionalism in the sport of boxing. Considering this is now a constant theme in boxing movies, let me go ahead and say there’s a big difference between looking the part and acting the part. And I’ll back the guy who has spent every day, you know, boxing for the past ten years over the guy who, you know, hasn’t. Every.single.time.
Mike Flannigan (Michael Pitt) is a loser. He’s the kind of palooka you expect to wake up with a stray cat sleeping on his face. I’d be shocked if his place had running water, let alone hot water. On the Day of the Fight, he has an agenda. Eventually, he has to end up at Madison Square Garden and kick the champ’s ass, but there’s a whole lotta business that has to happen first – a whole lot of wrongs to be righted.
The film isn’t set up like that exactly. In retrospect, Day of the Fight feels like an extension of the last day fully lived in Groundhog Day. The reason is Mike has taken one too many blows to the head. He has a brain aneurism. A serious fight will probably cost him his life, so he’s gotta make everything right in his world before he enters the ring. That means making peace with his manager (Ron Perlman), his daughter, and his ex (Nicolette Robinson).
How a guy ten years removed from his last fight who will cave with one serious blow to the cranium
is somehow confident that he will beat the champ, is, well, fiction. It’s good fiction, but it’s fiction, nonetheless. This is a story of penance, redemption, the acquisition of a soul once lost.
Michael Pitt used to be a wiry guy. I guess I haven’t seen him in a while. I suppose he looks the part, although I can pretty much guarantee this role was written with Tom Hardy in mind. Pitt does it justice. And it doesn’t really feel like a boxing movie, which is good because 1) The boxing in it ain’t great. (Neither of these guys is a champion, tbh) and 2) Boxing remains the easiest metaphor in moviedom. (If you can’t see it, you aren’t looking.) Day of the Fight is a presentable blue-collar tale. It won’t move mountains, but it might strike a chord with a soul or two in need of redemption.
There was once a boxer named Mike
Opponents would fear when he’d strike
But his career hit a snag
When left holding the bag
Now he’s desperate to find the land of “like”
Rated R, 108 Minutes
Director: Jack Huston
Writer: Jack Huston
Genre: Groundhog Day for losers
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Atoners
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Tormentors
