The Fighter (film 2010) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Fighter (film 2010) - Research Paper Example Director David O. Russell’s seamlessly interweaves HBO raw footage of an addiction documentary, intimate psychologically complex family scenes, boxing training and spares, and professional boxing matches. All these elements serve to create a visceral, emotional, artistic experience for audiences as the story is framed within reality, yet we feel privy to private, behind-the-scenes moments and well as competing character perspectives. To vary the film quality of the documentary, daily life and training, and the professional matches and create an aura of authenticity, Russell employed a variety of techniques. He recreated footage from the HBO documentary High on Crack: Lost Lives in Lowell using circa 1990-1 Datacams. He filmed on the actual streets of Lowell and surrounding neighborhoods capturing local life and people—their postures, dress, and Name 2 attitudes. While Amy Adams and Christian Bale, are not Boston-natives, casting Mark Wahlberg as the Micky Ward secured a natural Boston accent from an identifiable Bostonian. In an interview with James Bell, Russell comments, â€Å"We were saturated in the people and the place† (para. 16). ... ed the HBO Datacams and sports film crews to create an authentic use of angles and distances from actors to enhance the believability of the fight scenes. Russell also used long takes to for pivotal fight scenes as Wahlberg had trained to build up the stamina for this type of film work. All of these factors tightly intersect to strengthen the authenticity of the film, draw audiences into the Boston-oriented world of this family, and create cinematic variety balanced by overall visual cohesion. Since The Fighter was based on an actual family’s experience, part of the reception inevitably includes how the family members react to their screen portrayals and image. While Ward and his charismatic brother accepted the film, as evidenced by their short clip at the film’s conclusion, many of the sisters did not agree with actresses cast to play them nor with their interpretations as a loud, brash, excluding unit of women. Also, the dominant matriarch Alice, who acted as mother and boxing manager to her two sons, greatly disagreed with her portrayal in the film. While during interviews actress Melissa Leo respectfully focused on Alice’s pioneering efforts as woman working in the Name 3 masculine world of boxing and engineered Dicky’s iconic match with Sugar Ray Leonard, Alice still felt the movie showed her to be more interested in making money off her sons, particularly Micky, as well as turning a blind eye to Dicky’s crack addiction. In general, few critics or audience members expressed dislike for The Fighter. Robbie Collin from News of the World and Kevin A. Ranson from MovieCrypt.com both disparaged Bales performance as egocentric and overshadowing of Wahlberg’s main character. However, many critics found Bale performance in keeping with the self-centered