Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: With Southpaw stepping into the ring next week, and the Rocky spinoff Creed on its way this autumn, let’s cheer on some of the great boxing movies of yesteryear.
Fat City (1972)
Stockton, California circa 1972 looks like a series of Stephen Shore photos collaged with the drunks and burnouts of the archetypal mid-century skid row. Fat City—John Huston’s ode to a peculiarly American species of loser—is set here, in filthy bars, dingy gyms, and all manner of places where one wouldn’t even want to wash their hands. This is the story of a has-been (Stacy Keach, sans hairpiece), an up-and-comer (Jeff Bridges), and a barfly (Susan Tyrrell) doing nothing much except getting by each day. This is a boxing movie without all that much boxing in it; when the fights come, they are desperate, painful, pathetic, and quick. These are not great athletes, but second- and third-rate fighters—guys who probably shouldn’t be in the ring to begin with. Even the characters who aren’t boxers look beaten up.