Southpaw (2015)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.
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33 films that influenced Southpaw
What critics say influenced Southpaw
It has the over-the-top brutality of “Raging Bull,” without matching Martin Scorsese’s artistry.
While lacking the grace and ethereal beauty of the matches in “Raging Bull,” “Southpaw” comes off pretty much as the real thing.
Although there are plenty of echoes of past boxing films, from the grit of Raging Bull to the heart of The Champ (both versions) as well as the Rocky pics , Champion, Somebody Up There Likes Me and others, this movie has a beating heart of its own.
Think Rocky rather than Raging Bull, and don’t spend time wondering how soon screenwriters Kurt Sutter (TV’s Sons of Anarchy) and Richard Wenk (The Mechanic) will reference The Great White Hope.
Of course, how that idea gets executed is what makes the difference between Raging Bull and Grudge Match .
Put more simply, there’s a lot of punching in “Southpaw,” which combines the training narrative from “Rocky,” the visceral ringside energy of “Raging Bull” and the rank melodrama of “Million Dollar Baby” to make something, if not new, then at least stylish in its derivativeness.
Gyllenhaal, in a role originally written for Eminem (who eventually limited his contribution to a speed rap training anthem that’s no match for the Rocky theme), is so committed and compelling he overcomes the clichés, even when director Antoine Fuqua surrenders to them.
Sylvester Stallone made the boxing term southpaw part of the Everyday lexicon in "Rocky" and this film's finale borrows liberally from that one, one fighter's humble entrance contrasted with Vegas flash, Leila waiting in the dressing room just like Adrienne.
It may be unfair, but it's inevitable that the modern boxing movie will ultimately be compared to John Avildsen and Sylvester Stallone's scrappy but brilliant Rocky.
Although there are plenty of echoes of past boxing films, from the grit of Raging Bull to the heart of The Champ (both versions) as well as the Rocky pics , Champion, Somebody Up There Likes Me and others, this movie has a beating heart of its own.
Boxing films already possess a stigma thanks to the Rocky franchise (save the first ending against expectations in a way that made it near impossible to be a copycat by shunning the “happily ever after”).
It contains echoes of Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, even that Jon Voight weepie, The Champ.
A flurry of haymakers in the form of boxing movie cliches, "Southpaw" was conceived as a loose remake of "The Champ" — Wallace Beery in 1931, Jon Voight in 1979 — tailored for Marshall Mathers, also known as Eminem.
Think of this trite fight film as a close relative of "The Champ," and I'm talking more about the equally contrived 1979 remake (with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder) than the ancient 1931 Oscar winner (with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper).
“Southpaw” is, like most fellow boxing movies, a shameless melodrama, one that mixes “Rocky III” with “Rocky V,” plus bits of Franco Zeffirelli’s unwatchable 1979 remake of “The Champ,” in which Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder tussle over who can mug more.
The powerful boxing scenes, vividly shot from Madison Square Garden to Vegas by Mauro Fiore and edited by John Refoua, help distract from the father-daughter scenes that outdo The Champ (the Wallace Beery original and the Jon Voight remake) for gooey sentiment.
Director Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day , The Equalizer ), working from an overcooked screenplay by Kurt Sutter ( Sons of Anarchy ), knows he's not in the same ring with Raging Bull, Rocky, Million Dollar Baby and The Fighter, though the script unblushingly mooches from each of them.
On the downside, whole chunks of “Southpaw” have been lifted from other films: “The Champ” (boxer-child love story), the “Rocky” franchise (an opponent, played by Miguel Gomez, who is less character than arrogant supervillain), “Raging Bull” (the way the camera artfully dwells on Billy’s bruised/defiant features), “The Fighter” (how family and friends can nurture or gnaw at a boxer).
It's been done a thousand times, including such famous performers as Wallace Beery in "The Champ," Kirk Douglas in "Champion," Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky," Michelle Rodriguez in "Girlfight," Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby" and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter."
Throughout the years, boxing movies have been synonymous with tales of redemption – from “Rocky,” to “Raging Bull,” to “The Fighter” – and Antoine Fuqua’s “Southpaw” is no different.
The only real problem is that occasional feeling of strained seriousness - as if the movie were trying way too hard to be, if not "Raging Bull," than at least "The Fighter."
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It's been done a thousand times, including such famous performers as Wallace Beery in "The Champ," Kirk Douglas in "Champion," Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky," Michelle Rodriguez in "Girlfight," Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby" and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter."
As old as 1931’s “The Champ,” in fact, and at times nearly as soggy.
When producers Alan and Peter Riche decided to make a boxing drama similar to the 1931 father-son tale The Champ , they immediately sought out Eminem for the role.
The fall-from-grace storyline is a familiar angle in boxing films: Sylvester Stallone used it in his “Rocky” franchise and it has been a staple of the genre as far back as the 1930s when Warner Bros. and other studios were churning out such films as “The Champ,” “The Life of Jimmy Dolan” and “They Made Me a Criminal.”
Even in 1931, The Champ must have seemed old-fashioned.
It's been done a thousand times, including such famous performers as Wallace Beery in "The Champ," Kirk Douglas in "Champion," Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky," Michelle Rodriguez in "Girlfight," Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby" and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter."
Which is sometimes all you want out of a boxing movie, “Raging Bull,” “Million Dollar Baby,” and 1949’s “Champion” notwithstanding.
Just don't confuse "Southpaw" with a really good example of the genre and its ringside dramatic possibilities, whether old ("The Set-Up," "Champion") or newer ("Raging Bull" or the less grandiose "The Fighter").
And despite speeches about Hope’s graduation from the School of Hard Knocks, he doesn’t function as a bristling working-class hero or antihero, like the fictional protagonists of Golden Boy , Body and Soul , The Set-Up , and Champion.
We’ve seen it many times before, in everything from Champion to Requiem for a Heavyweight, but what makes this one different is the dedication, commitment and sincerity the star brings to every aspect of the role.
Because this is yet another riches-to-rags sports redemption story in the vein of “Cinderella Man.” Billy wins that opening bout, but barely, retaining his light middleweight title.
Beside it, Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man is nuanced, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull restrained.
Various iterations have resulted in many a "Rocky," two versions of "The Champ" and 2005's "Cinderella Man," to name just a few enjoyable examples.
Rocky III's rebuilding-the-champ drama meets Cinderella Man's Daddy struggles, with a dash of The Fighter's neighborhood grit and some Eminem on the soundtrack for the beefcake training montage.
Not as smart as “The Fighter” and not as achingly epic as “Cinderella Man,” “Southpaw” comes through as a light heavyweight on its own terms.
Written by Kurt Sutter ( Sons of Anarchy ) and directed by Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day ), Southpaw has some stiff competition in the boxing-film subgenre: Rocky , Raging Bull , Million Dollar Baby , The Fighter , Cinderella Man , Requiem for a Heavyweight (and coming in the near future are Bleed for This, Creed , and Hands of Stone).
Put more simply, there’s a lot of punching in “Southpaw,” which combines the training narrative from “Rocky,” the visceral ringside energy of “Raging Bull” and the rank melodrama of “Million Dollar Baby” to make something, if not new, then at least stylish in its derivativeness.
It's been done a thousand times, including such famous performers as Wallace Beery in "The Champ," Kirk Douglas in "Champion," Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky," Michelle Rodriguez in "Girlfight," Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby" and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter."
Which is sometimes all you want out of a boxing movie, “Raging Bull,” “Million Dollar Baby,” and 1949’s “Champion” notwithstanding.
Remember how in “Million Dollar Baby,” Clint Eastwood cast Morgan Freeman as his fellow coach?
He loses everything so fast it makes quadriplegic Hilary Swank signing over power of attorney with her teeth in Million Dollar Baby seem like subtle writing.
Billy has an adorable, precocious 10-year-old (Oona Laurence--magnificent) counting on him not to lose his temper no more, and to that end, he enlists the help of Bagger Vance boxing manager Tick (Forest Whitaker) in a role that Morgan Freeman would have played a few years ago and did in fact in Million Dollar Baby.
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Eminem may make the best music contribution to a boxing movie since Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" in John Huston's Fat City (1972).
He’s thrilling to watch and the only unpredictable thing in a two-hours-plus movie where you can count on one hand the number of moments that aren’t hand-me-downs from better boxing films like Rocky, Raging Bull, and Fat City.
Stacy Keach fights physical and emotional gravity to stay on his feet in Huston’s Fat City .
But before Billy faces his ultimate foe — Miguel is a less memorable version of Mr. T’s scene-stealing Clubber Lang from Rocky III — he must go on that defining personal journey: being banned from boxing for a year, losing his home and family, and one upbeat song (Eminem’s “Phenomenal”) that champions his indomitable spirit in the face of such adversity.
“Southpaw” is, like most fellow boxing movies, a shameless melodrama, one that mixes “Rocky III” with “Rocky V,” plus bits of Franco Zeffirelli’s unwatchable 1979 remake of “The Champ,” in which Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder tussle over who can mug more.
Rocky III's rebuilding-the-champ drama meets Cinderella Man's Daddy struggles, with a dash of The Fighter's neighborhood grit and some Eminem on the soundtrack for the beefcake training montage.
The plot takes a turn toward “Rocky III” territory when he’s goaded into a confrontation by upstart contender Miquel Escobar (the terribly unlikable Miquel Gomez), and tragedy ensues.
If you’re familiar with the wide world of boxing movies, you’ll notice that this is basically the plot of Rocky III.