Fat City
Director: John Huston
Year Released: 1972
Rating: 3.0
Depressing but powerful story about two men in two different stages in their life and how boxing plays an important part to both of them - the older man (Stacy Keach) has been away from fighting for a while and trying to earn a living by working small day jobs while the younger one (Jeff Bridges) is saddled with school and a girlfriend but has potential in the ring. Huston is certainly in fine form - he switches deftly from one narrative to the other - and his film is an intensely morose look at the sport, where victories and defeats both take a sizeable chunk out of you. Susan Tyrrell, as Keach's alcoholic girlfriend, is too loutish (at times) for the low-key film to handle, but her role is fairly minor and not that much of a distraction.
