Review of Cockfighter (1974) by Tristan N — 30 Jan 2012

I'm not sure I shoul admit to having seen this - it is unavailable here in the UK, and it will never be screened or released on any video format either. The last attempted screening, in 2006 at the Edinburgh Film Festival, saw the event picketed by animal rights activists, forcing the organisers to cancel the screening. Their complaint, and a valid one, is that the cockfighting scenes in the film are unreconstructed - they are real. Animals were killed in the making of this production. Because of those reasons, Cockfighter remains a troubling watch.

This is the film Monte Hellman made after Two-Lane Blacktop. It explores another subculture in contemporary America - and again features characters who are removed from the mainstream, whose lives are lost, broken, disorganised - but who, within this subculture, find acceptance and love.

Warren Oates is Frank Mansfield, a game cock trainer who has taken a vow of silence only to be broken when he wins the coveted Cockfighter of the Year Award. This narrative arc places Cockfighter then squarely in the traditions of the American Sports Film - I was watching it and being constantly reminded of things like Rocky. It has the same structure.

Again Hellman casts some Two-Lane familiars - Warren Oates, taking the lead. Harry Dean Stanton giving again another of his fascinating performances, a man led by selfish instinct who has a predatory nature inside him - his brief scenes with Laurie Bird (another Two-Lane alumni) fizzle with domination games, and reveal a man asserting authority over another. The way he keeps putting his bird into fight, even when he's beaten, reveals the true measure of the man. Laurie Bird is, however, wasted in this film - she barely features.

I can imagine this was a tough sell in the 70s - and tougher now. Cockfighting is highly controversial - though it was once a recognised, and very popular, 'sport'. That into this frame you place a mute character as your central lead - well, let's just say, such a film would not be made in the 21st century. So it is a film very much of its day - and yet, because of its structure, it remains universal. It is another fascinating film from a director who has never entered the mainstream, but who is always worth watching. And, for all its controversies, Cockfighter remains a very interesting film.