FAT CITY begins with Tully, slowly getting out of bed in his crusty, dilapidated apartment. Tully (Stacy Keach) is a retired boxer who wants one last shot at the big time... well, as big as you can get in gyms and halls that only house a few hundred fans. In his first workout for a year, he meets the 18-year-old Ernie (Jeff Bridges) and sees him a rising light in the sport. Eventually both of them hook up with a well-meaning - if completely inept - trainer played by "Coach" from CHEERS (Nicholas Colastano).
Despite the boxing in the movie, FAT CITY is refreshingly different from RAGING BULL and ROCKY, and substandard clones of those two great movies. While RAGING BULL uses boxing to the tell an epic story of rise and fall, and ROCKY is about someone working to prove himself to the world; FAT CITY is about the basic struggle that people go through just to make a few bucks. The fights are clumsy, and give a good indication of the lack of technique that must feature in the amateur/low professional scene. Fighters still box even if they're pissing blood the night before... because it's the only way they can make a living.
Stacy Keach is wonderful in his role. He isn't sporting his usual moustache, and his harelip gives the indication of a guy who been in too many scraps. He shambles around and keeps repeating to himself that he'll get in shape again... that he WILL rise out of his lousy jobs and return to his - largely romanticised - boxing career. But booze keeps pulling him down, leading to some hilarious - and poignant - scenes of him as a drunk. He shacks up with a gal, and she matches him blow for blow, in scenes reminiscent of BARFLY. In fact, I'd put the movie much closer to a BARFLY than any boxing movie.
FAT CITY is often very funny. Susan Tyrell - as Tully's shack-job - brilliantly slurs her way through a great, volatile part. Colastano comes out with some belters of lines, and is as humorous and lovable as his Coach role in CHEERS. But within all the humour, there's a real undercurrent that the movie is actually about isolation and loneliness... a theme beautifully reinforced by a memorable final scene. Whereas Ernie manages to find his own escape routes, Tully just keeps finding dead ends.
As ever, John Huston knows where to put the camera. It's a relaxed style but he always manages to pop the camera in a great place. FAT CITY is almost up there with the likes of Huston's UNDER THE VOLCANO and WISE BLOOD... a couple of my favourite movies.
I'm surprised FAT CITY isn't more renowned - perhaps it got a little lost in a year that also brought people THE GODFATHER and DELIVERANCE. For whatever reason you haven't checked it out before, have a go at checking it out now.
Despite the boxing in the movie, FAT CITY is refreshingly different from RAGING BULL and ROCKY, and substandard clones of those two great movies. While RAGING BULL uses boxing to the tell an epic story of rise and fall, and ROCKY is about someone working to prove himself to the world; FAT CITY is about the basic struggle that people go through just to make a few bucks. The fights are clumsy, and give a good indication of the lack of technique that must feature in the amateur/low professional scene. Fighters still box even if they're pissing blood the night before... because it's the only way they can make a living.
Stacy Keach is wonderful in his role. He isn't sporting his usual moustache, and his harelip gives the indication of a guy who been in too many scraps. He shambles around and keeps repeating to himself that he'll get in shape again... that he WILL rise out of his lousy jobs and return to his - largely romanticised - boxing career. But booze keeps pulling him down, leading to some hilarious - and poignant - scenes of him as a drunk. He shacks up with a gal, and she matches him blow for blow, in scenes reminiscent of BARFLY. In fact, I'd put the movie much closer to a BARFLY than any boxing movie.
FAT CITY is often very funny. Susan Tyrell - as Tully's shack-job - brilliantly slurs her way through a great, volatile part. Colastano comes out with some belters of lines, and is as humorous and lovable as his Coach role in CHEERS. But within all the humour, there's a real undercurrent that the movie is actually about isolation and loneliness... a theme beautifully reinforced by a memorable final scene. Whereas Ernie manages to find his own escape routes, Tully just keeps finding dead ends.
As ever, John Huston knows where to put the camera. It's a relaxed style but he always manages to pop the camera in a great place. FAT CITY is almost up there with the likes of Huston's UNDER THE VOLCANO and WISE BLOOD... a couple of my favourite movies.
I'm surprised FAT CITY isn't more renowned - perhaps it got a little lost in a year that also brought people THE GODFATHER and DELIVERANCE. For whatever reason you haven't checked it out before, have a go at checking it out now.