The movie The Fighter – when minor characters are more important than the main
Seeing the title of this film and running through its description “diagonally”, one might think that this is just another sports drama from the category of those that all modern viewers have already “gorged on” to the bone. The paradox is that “The Fighter” is not quite such a picture.
Yes, there are fights, there is a struggle for victory and a desire to achieve world-class mastery, but this is by no means all that this film makes. Standard pictures with training and demonstration fights are rather an atmospheric background, a necessary decoration for the unfolding of the drama of each character and the drama of their relationship in general.
“The Fighter” – the film seems to be about boxing, but not really about it
The film is based on real events, which adds a special charm to it. Mickey Ward is a real person who was born in 1965 in Lowell. At the beginning of his career, he repeatedly won the New England Golden Gloves boxing tournament, and after a break in his career, during which he underwent a rather difficult operation on his right hand, Mickey returned to the big sport thanks to the initiative of his brother. The legendary fight, when Ward defeated his rival Shi Niri and became the WBU world welterweight champion, took place in London in 2000.
Oscar-winning role of Christian Bale
Christian Bale is an actor, without a doubt, very talented, he plays a variety of characters, gets used to the role in detail, and in some cases does not even spare his health in order to match the image (just remember his extreme weight loss for the movie “The Machinist”). Bale was repeatedly nominated for an Oscar, but at the moment he has only one coveted statuette of the most prestigious film award in the world: for a minor role in “The Fighter”. And this award can hardly be called undeserved.
Mark Wahlberg has publicly expressed concern about Bale’s health due to his next weight loss
The bitter truth of life, perhaps, lies in the fact that only a few achieve success and world recognition. Many are satisfied with the results of the average level, some are quite satisfied with the usual everyday life without pulling the veins of the struggle for their dreams, and some are completely slipping to the very bottom.
The character of Christian Bale, as you might guess, belongs to the category of the latter. Once a promising boxer, who once defeated the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard (this is not a fictional story, the fight with Sugar Ray really became the most famous in Dick Eklund’s career), he ruined his career and, in fact, life with his own hands, instead of the sound of a gong and the screams of an enthusiastic crowd finding pleasure and delight in drugs.
Awkward care from unlucky Eklund
The “fighter”, in fact, does not tell us about painful withdrawals, does not show shabby alleys with dealers of “dope” running away at the sound of police sirens, and does not even raise the issue of the premature death of most drug addicts. This picture makes Dick Eklund look like a silly simpleton.
He naively believes that reporters who have come to town are filming a film about his return to the ring, while it is enough just to look at Dick to consider such an assumption a sparkling joke. He considers himself the head coach of his brother, although it is in the order of things for him to just forget about Mickey’s important match. He manages to anger the police, who injure the hand of Ward, who decides to intercede for the good-for-nothing brother.
Running away from his friends’ house through the window when he is supposed to be at the airport is normal for Dicky.
Why, then, does the viewer unwittingly feel sympathy for this character, and perhaps even more than for the much more positive and respectable Mickey? Perhaps because Dick is essentially not evil. The principle “you want it the best, but it turns out the other way around” is familiar to each of us, and on Eklund it is demonstrated as clearly as possible.
Dick really loves his brother, and he really wants him to succeed. He does not envy the more successful Mickey and does not try to do something wrong to him – he really wants to help him, even if he does not succeed very well. After all, if we discard all conventions, then who, if not sincerely loving people, is capable of making our life better?
Background and Primary Role of Mark Wahlberg
An interesting fact that simply cannot be ignored is that Mark Wahlberg is three years older than Christian Bale, although he plays his younger brother. And he has far more drug experience than Bale. Nevertheless, Mark smoothly and harmoniously fits into the role of the good-natured, sympathetic and even sometimes soft-spoken Mickey Ward, who is literally torn to pieces by people dear to him.
A brother who thinks that he should train Mickey, and sometimes really gives the most effective tips. A normal trainer, able to work with Ward on a regular basis and give him the necessary load. A mom convinced that she is the best manager for her son, and at the same time always sided with Dick as her favorite.
And, finally, the love found in the course of the film – the barmaid Charlene, who dislikes the marginal Mickey family and tries to share it with her. All these people pull Ward each in their own direction, and each of them is convinced that it is he who knows how the guy will be better, and has the right to indicate how to live.
Stepping up for his brother, Mickey earns a hand injury and a short arrest
In fact, in this case, the character of Mark Wahlberg himself acts as a kind of background. He treats all people who love him equally well and cannot simply break any ties with them. What is interesting here is not Mickey Ward himself, but the kicks with which the manipulators drive him around the plot, their attitude to the young boxer and to each other, their ambitions and delusions. After all, the situation, alas, for many is close and understandable: people dear to us do not always give us the right to live our own life with their understanding and non-aggressive support, instead often trying to impose their own opinion on us.
The only consensus possible
Films with heroes torn apart are not uncommon. They make viewers worry, empathize with the characters, perhaps take one side or the other, wanting her to win in the end. However, in such situations it is always obvious that the position of any of the manipulators is an extreme.
The bottom line is that if you want the person well, then you must leave your differences and unite to help him achieve the desired goal. This is not a race with a prize – this is the fate of a living person, and its turns should not be due to the desire to indulge a mother, brother, coach or girlfriend.
Ultimately, Dick decides to negotiate with his brother’s girlfriend about something like a truce.
The film “The Fighter” skillfully brings us to the realization of this fact. He builds up the atmosphere, makes us, like Mickey himself, feel the unbearable irritation that causes in him the behavior of loved ones on the eve of an important battle. And when it seems that nothing good will turn out as a result – that they will bring the guy to a nervous breakdown and failure – they finally realize what needs to be done to truly support Ward. And they do this by putting Mickey at the forefront, and not their own motives, motives and desires.
During the fateful match, Mickey is supported by everyone who is dear to him.
The boxer wins, gets the world title, but this event no longer seems so important compared to the reconciliation of completely different people in the name of his success. Perhaps this film can be called a film about love even more than many romantic melodramas. Only love here is not vanilla and sublime, but complex, ambiguous, but incredibly realistic.
