With a screenplay adapted by Leonard Gardner from his own novel, John Huston's drama examines the meager hopes and resigned dreams of small-time boxers. In limbo between retirement and his youthful prime, alcoholic farm laborer Tully (Stacy Keach) shacks up with fellow outcast Oma (Susan Tyrrell) and keeps trying to make a boxing comeback, but his personal demons repeatedly overpower his ambitions. Meanwhile, fellow Stockton, CA resident and budding fighter Ernie (Jeff Bridges) takes Tully's advice to join trainer Ruben ...
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With a screenplay adapted by Leonard Gardner from his own novel, John Huston's drama examines the meager hopes and resigned dreams of small-time boxers. In limbo between retirement and his youthful prime, alcoholic farm laborer Tully (Stacy Keach) shacks up with fellow outcast Oma (Susan Tyrrell) and keeps trying to make a boxing comeback, but his personal demons repeatedly overpower his ambitions. Meanwhile, fellow Stockton, CA resident and budding fighter Ernie (Jeff Bridges) takes Tully's advice to join trainer Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto)'s gym and make something of himself. Learning the tough lesson that winning is not as easy as it sounds, Ernie is still determined to get what he can out of boxing and, unlike Tully, not let disappointments get the best of him. Shot on location in Stockton by Conrad Hall, the film maintains a realistic, slice-of-life view of Tully's and Ernie's struggles, eschewing theatrical boxing victories for psychological and social details. As Huston avowed at the Cannes Film Festival that Fat City's virtue was its "modesty," critics agreed that he had made his best film in two decades; and Tyrrell was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. However, despite the praise and the efforts of producer Ray Stark, Fat City failed at the box office. Even so, its unromanticized depiction of modest wins and personal losses revealed that old Hollywood pro Huston had adapted well to the late '60s-early '70s New Hollywood grit, and the film revived his artistic standing. Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
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Add this copy of Fat City [Dvd] to cart. $8.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
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Seller's Description:
Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark. Very good. 1972 Run time: 96. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Fat City [Dvd] to cart. $9.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark. Very good. 1972 Run time: 96. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
This beautiful, sad, and gritty 1972 film set in Stockton, California and directed by John Huston is based upon the 1969 novel of the same name by Leonard Gardner who also wrote the film's screenplay. The film captures the lives of the struggling poor and down and out with a focus on boxing and on agricultural day labor. The film offers a sense of depressed lonely lives with faded dreams but with the glimmer of hope and a better life.
The film tells of the friendship of two young men, aspiring boxers, whose lives are moving in different directions. Billy Tully, 29 (Stacey Keach) is a boxer who once showed promise but who loses his wife when his career goes sour. Billy drinks and drifts from job to job while trying to get back into the ring. His friend, Ernie Munger, 18, displays modest fighting talent and takes to the ring in an attempt to support his young wife and their child. Both Billy and Ernie must resort to the world of agricultural day labor around Stockton to support themselves.
Many other characters in the film establish the nature of Stockton life, including the lady friends of the two young fighters, Oma (Susan Tyrell) and Faye (Candy Clark). Curtis Cokes plays Earl, a rival for the favors of Oma while Nicholas Colsanto plays the boxing trainer of both men, Ruben, in a run-down gym. Other characters add to the atmosphere, including bartenders and bar patrons, an aging waiter, day laborers and their recruiters, and those with no particular place to go hanging on the city streets.
The film's cinematography captures the decaying character of Stockton from its opening scene which is set along Skid Row. The bars, restaurants, and streets, and their patrons establish a depressing mood of near hopelessness. The scenes of the fighters, their trainers, and their audiences show professional boxing at its lower levels without the large purses but with the sleaze and with all the pain. Kris Kristofferson's song "Help Me Make it Through the Nigh" plays several times during the film.
Both Gardner's novel and this film are too little known in their respective genres. "Fat City" was Garner's only novel and it is fortunate to have him as the writer of the screenplay as well. I loved the book when I read it years ago and loved this film which I saw only recently.
Robin Friedman
jimmymack
Feb 18, 2010
Fat City
reality does not sell which why such a excellent film is ignored-people like Rocky.
for realistic asction see Framed-Joe Don Baker-Darker than amber-Bill Smith and Rod Taylor-youtube.com
besides action Fat City show futility of pro-
fighting as a full tine "occupation"
hope you'll find interesting,
best jimmy mack