Fat City (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Fat City |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Huston |
| script | Leonard Gardner |
| production | Ray Stark |
| music | Marvin Hamlisch |
| camera | Conrad L. Hall |
| cut | Walter Thompson |
| occupation | |
| |
Fat City is a 1971 John Huston boxer drama starring Jeff Bridges and Stacy Keach . The novel of the same name came from Leonard Gardner in 1969 , who also wrote the screenplay for this film.
action
Stockton in California. Boxer Billy Tully is past his prime. His wife has long since left him and alcohol has become his best friend. He works aimlessly, for example as a fruit and vegetable picker in a row with guest workers. To get back in shape, he visits a fitness center to box a few rounds with the young sparring partner Ernie Munger, an 18-year-old hopeful. Billy thinks that Ernie has some potential and suggests that he see his former manager and trainer Ruben, whom he blames for the failure of his last fight. Later, Billy meets the regular bar-goer Grandma and her boyfriend Earl and tells them how impressed he is with the boxing talent. This made Billy decide to try boxing himself again in order to strive for a comeback. When Earl has to go to jail for a few months for a wrongdoing, Billy sees this as an opportunity to end up with his girlfriend's grandma and to relax her. Grandma is highly flammable, and both of the developing relationships quickly turn out to be volatile.
Meanwhile, Ernie Munger starts his first boxing match, which he promptly loses with a broken nose. The next fight is also lost. Ernie's life threatens to be similar to Billy's. The young man, barely of legal age, is forced into a marriage with Faye, who is pregnant by him. So young hopeful Ernie also ends up in the orchards to earn at least a little money as a picker. In the meantime, Tully has fully prepared for his comeback. A tough Mexican named Lucero was chosen as his opponent, who has also had his prime and is in a lot of pain. Both fight against each other as if it were for their life. The aging boxers go down, but Tully is declared the winner. When Billy learns that he has won a measly 100 dollars, he feels betrayed by manager Ruben again and ends his business relationship with him. Dejected, Billy goes to Grandma to at least find consolation from her. But he finds her in the arms of Earl, who has since been released from prison. Earl makes it clear to Billy that the alcoholic Grandma no longer wants to have anything to do with him, Tully.
When Ernie Munger returns from a boxing match one night, he sees Tully stumbling down the street drunk. Munger tries to avoid him, but Billy wants to have a drink with him, so stroll to the next bar, where Ernie only wants to have a coffee, as he fears, like the bad role model before his eyes, Billy Tully, to end. While they are both drinking, Tully looks around the restaurant and realizes how remote and unapproachable the people present appear to him. Ernie Munger tells Billy that he has to go now, but Billy asks him to stay with him a little longer. Ernie stays and both men continue to drink their coffee together, in silence to one another.
Production notes
Fat City was shot on location in Stockton (California) and had its world premiere on July 26, 1972. In Germany, the film had its premiere on November 4, 1973 at 8:15 pm on ARD .
The buildings were created by Richard Sylbert , the costumes by Dorothy Jeakins . Kris Kristofferson sings his song Help Me Make It Through the Night .
Susan Tyrrell was nominated for an Oscar in 1973 for Best Supporting Actress for her acting performance.
Curtis Cokes , cast by Grandma friend Earl , is a real boxer. Art Aragon , the interpreter of the babe, was actually a professional boxer too .
useful information
What the term "Fat City" means, author Gardner explained in a 1969 newspaper interview. This is black slang, which is a synonym for a “good life” that one wants to lead.
Reviews
Fat City was the first film in a decade (the 1960s) in which director Huston had ranked flop and flop, which would prove to be a veritable critical success. Below are several examples from Germany and abroad:
"... one of his [Huston's] best films."
"This is dark material, but Fat City is far too full of life for the film to be really as dark as it appears."
"Lively but all too casual exploration of a failure with more interest in the characters than in the sport."
“Tight adaptation of Leonard Gardner's novel… is Huston's best film in 20 years. Keach, Bridges and Tyrrell are all good. "
"John Huston's comeback as a quality director, a mercilessly honest and at the same time depressingly realistic boxer film."
"Huston's specialty reappeared in Fat City (1972), where the alleged subject - second-rate boxers and their promoters - provided the framework for a thorough study of personal and professional success."
"A parable of the eternal struggle of man against failure and despair, which are based first in the individual and only then in the inexorable performance principle of society."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Gardner in Life magazine
- ↑ cf. on this: Kay Less : Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films , Volume 4, p. 128. Berlin 2001. It also states: “It was only with his realistic boxer portrait“ Fat City ”, a low-budget production, that Huston was now able to damage his Restore call. "
- ↑ Fat City. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 18, 2018 .
Web links
- Fat City in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Fat City on allemovie.com
- Fat City on rottentomatoes.com