Review of The Fighter (2010) by Tim-T — 28 Nov 2012

To the head, to the body, to the Budweiser: The Fighter (a true story, yet a thinly-masked Budweiser commercial, to be sure) deserves accolades, yes, but why is every punch delivered with the same video-game sound effect? Never loud for some punches, fainter for others -- just punch-sound, punch-sound, punch-sound: Get real, sound editors.

Of course, it's nothing new that fighting sounds have always been exaggerated in Hollywood (with the possible exception of Jeff Bridges' punch in Peter Bogdanovich's "Last Picture Show"), and there is indeed much integrity in the history of boxing, but why is knocking someone out still a sport? Isn't boxing just romanticized human rooster-fighting? For the same reason we hire babes in bikinis to hold up "Round 1" signs, we (more often than not, males) are apparently just animals out for sex, blood, and Budweiser (and if we are not, that makes no difference for what Hollywood sells).

That said, I thought Wahlberg (strangely, no nomination) and Mellisa Leo (nominated for best supporting actress [and later winning that award with an historical (expletive!) acceptance speech]), were both excellent, and the mother's 7 white-trash daughters were both intentionally amusing and scary.

Is it worth seeing? Sure -- it's a true story, and Wahlberg and Bale (who also later won an oscar) offer genuine portrayals. Lastly, you had to love the clip tagged on the end with the real brothers from Lowell, Mass.

They did not need to tell you who was who--it was a charming tag after an unsettling story.