Early in Orthodox Stance, up-and-coming pugilist Dmitriy
Salita undercuts much of the documentary's ostensible drama by claiming he sees
no conflict whatsoever between his strong Orthodox Jewish convictions and his
profession as a would-be prize fighter. The film does little to contradict his
claims. Promoters and fans go out of their way to accommodate Salita's
religion, and he apparently abstains from all the vices and temptations of the
boxing game. Besides, boxing and Orthodox Judaism have more in common than most
people imagine. Both rely heavily on faith, traffic in rituals and repetition,
and encourage rigid self-discipline and Spartan self-denial. Yet the film never
makes this association between seemingly antithetical entities, instead
coasting way too heavily on the superficial novelty of a godly man making his
living by beating the crap out of strangers.
Like generations of boxers before
him, Salita grew up poor and hungry, a Russian immigrant deeply scarred by his
mother's death. He found a productive outlet in boxing, winning Golden Gloves
and steadily ascending the amateur and professional ranks. Orthodox documents Salita's battles toward a
title shot. In the process, he rubs elbows with Matisyahu (who offers to write
a song about him, and performs before one of his fights), NYC Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, and President Bush, who invites Salita to a Hanukkah
celebration/photo op.
Salita comes off as a nice,
reserved, dedicated young man with a good head on his shoulders, albeit one
that gets clobbered regularly. He seems deeply devoted to his sport and his
religion, which makes him a good guy, but a fairly dull subject for a
documentary, especially since he appears to have already mastered the fine art
of issuing blandly positive sound-bites that give reporters (and
documentarians) what they need to do their job, but not much more. When champ
Floyd Mayweather makes a flashy, motormouth appearance, he throws Salita's
stoic reserve into even sharper relief. Of course, not every boxer can be as
batshit insane as Mike Tyson. But the world would be much more entertaining if
they were. This well-meaning but fairly dull film would be, too.