A Movie Worth 'Fighting' For

by Brett Parker

Fighting is not the movie I expected it to be. The commercials trump scenes of underground fist fights with the same fetishized allure in which The Fast and the Furious boasted street racing. At the very least, I expected a slightly better Never Back Down and at best, a fresh variation on the young-prizefighter-meets-corrupt-boxing tale. I was surprised to find that the film transcends both those ideas to become a detailed look at the world of street hustling with an affectionate eye for the people that inhabit it.

The film stars Channing Tatum as Sean MacArthur, a young Southern man struggling to make money on the streets of New York. He spends his days selling shabby merchandise on busy sidewalks, items ranging from books to umbrellas. One day, a group of street punks try stealing his goods and Sean erupts into a violent rage, beating the punks and trying to reclaim his stuff. This display of territorial fighting catches the eye of Harvey (Terrance Howard) a street hustler who makes Sean a peculiar offer: he’ll put him up in a bare-knuckle fight where the winner takes home $5,000.

Desperate for money, Sean decides to follow Harvey into an underground world of street fighting. Random venues are selected throughout the bureaus in which crowds gather to watch two intimidating opponents beat each other into bloody pulps for a cash prize. Sean finds success in this dangerous new world and Harvey helps him move up the ranks towards tougher opponents and bigger cash prizes. Things grow hazardous as Harvey gets threatened by the shady syndicate running the fight circuit and Sean must eventually face an old rival from his past (Brian J. White) in a high-stakes fight.

I don’t think the title Fighting necessarily refers to the street fighting that goes down in this film but the fighting everyday people do to survive in the city when they’re down on their luck. Director Dito Montiel actually cares about his characters and spends a great deal of time developing their feelings and struggles. Just about every character in the foreground is struggling with all their resources to keep their head above water in the big city and we can sympathize with just about everyone we see. Even the relationship between Sean and Harvey is more heartfelt than we’re used to. We’re used to seeing fighter-manager relationships in films being cynical and deceptive, but here these two realize they have a lot in common and actually grow to care about each other. There’s moments where we catch them exchanging looks of admiration and worry for each other. Notice the way Harvey’s eyes swell up when he thinks Sean is about to lose a very big fight.

Montiel’s last film was A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, which also starred Tatum in a story that loved its characters and was very attentive to New York City life. Here he has made a film with the same traits yet holds more narrative discipline and is a lot more entertaining. We realize his talents more clearly this time around and he could in fact become a great director of New York tales. He sees this environment with an uncompromising honesty that makes even contrived developments seem true to life. Even if the fighting world presented here seems a little far-fetched, Montiel basks it in such a convincing city atmosphere that we can believe such a circuit exists. This conviction is important, for it brings an aura of suspense every time Sean walks into a new fighting venue, for each place feels more dangerous than the last and Sean isn’t exactly the invincible warrior you’d expect him to be.

It certainly helps matters that Fighting is stacked with enormously likeable actors who make these characters more appealing then we expect them to be. Channing Tatum has the look of a tough guy yet holds a strong economy of charm and vulnerability that spares him from being a standard action figure. He’s going to be an awesome star. We always expect the wonderful Terrance Howard to be smooth and compelling, but he adds eccentric touches to his speech and shaky mannerisms to his body that helps make Harvey just as concerned with his status as he is a cool customer. And Zulay Henao is a real find as the club waitress who begins a nice courtship with Sean. Their romantic scenes together feel so genuine and patient that they can almost cast out and have their own wonderful romantic movie.

I was really surprised by this one. It’s an involving entertainment I really hope to see again sometime soon. While it may not elevate its genre origins to groundbreaking significance, it still delivers a whole lot more than it initially promised. There’s a good deal here for smart moviegoers as opposed to just the tough guy crowd. And I loved the soulful R&B soundtrack, which displays the likes of Marvin Gaye and Robin Thicke. Forgive my corniness, but Fighting wins by a knockout!