Fighting

FIGHTING is a movie written and directed by Dito Montiel, starring Channing Tatum as a street guy who becomes an underground fighter. Terrence Howard plays a self-described "two-bit hustler" who becomes his ersatz agent.

I didn't see FIGHTING when it came out last year. I wish I had. FIGHTING is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It's an effective companion piece to both RED BELT and HARSH TIMES, both of which are movies I deeply love.

I won't get into a lengthy description: you can find that shit online somewhere. What bears mentioning is this movie, at its core, doesn't do anything new. It obeys the exact same plot pattern as millions of low-budget martial arts movies, some good, most mediocre, some bad.

FIGHTING is set apart by execution. It is, in many ways, a brilliant movie. It tells the truth. The characters and their problems are real. Even when it deals with the artifice of contemporary movie-making -- script structure, character arc, the ending, etc. -- it does so in a way that feels organic to the world in which it exists, itself only a few degrees to the left of the real world.

I saw G.I. JOE in the theaters, mostly because I had a ton of G.I. Joe guys when I was a kid, and a certain degree of nostalgia demanded I see this movie when it came out. That, and a desire to see Sienna Miller as The Baroness (she was good, but not perfect).

My point is Channing Tatum is decent in G.I.JOE, and fucking fantastic in FIGHTING. It's obvious that Channing and Dito were not trying to make a martial arts movie. They weren't trying to make an action movie. They set out to do a Scorsese/DeNiro New York street movie, a MIDNIGHT COWBOY with fists. And they succeeded.

There's a wonderful love story at the heart of FIGHTING. The relationship between Shawn and Zulay is sweet. You love them, and what they have. Again, it's real.

I recently watched a Chilean martial arts movie called KILLTRO, which is similar in some ways. Our guy, Zamir (Marko Zaror), is in love with Kim, the daughter of "the Korean," a local tae kwon do teacher who doesn't like Zamir. Everything in KILLTRO is driven by Zamir's pursuit of Kim's heart. Zamir's portrayed as a very, very simple guy... He's almost child-like, which leads to some unintentional comedy via his clumsy attempts to win her over. He's a somewhat dense character, and doesn't have much else on his mind besides his love for Kim, and the occasional need to beat the crap out of bad guys.

I bring up KILLTRO because Shawn (Tatum) is not exactly a rocket scientist, either. But instead of being a man-child, he's just a guy with a very uncomplicated internal life. Though he has no money and sometimes has to sleep in the park, Shawn pursues Zulay anyway, because his heart leaves him no other choice. It's winning in its purity, and it certainly doesn't hurt that Zulay Henao is a talented actress, and flat-out gorgeous. You get why this guy would want to befriend her protective mother and offer to find the money to help pay her rent.

There's also a very cool parallel story between Shawn and his rep, Harvey. They're both losers who have created one last chance for themselves. In the final fight, Harvey uses every last ounce of his remaining juice on the streets to make the deal, in the exact same way Shawn has to use every last ounce he has to try to win this fight. They have nowhere else to go. They have no one else but each other.

This movie reminds me of ROGUE, in the sense that ROGUE is a very by-the-numbers creature feature, just like so many others, and yet rises above by pure execution. It doesn't reinvent the wheel by any stretch of the imagination, and is still just a good fucking movie. FIGHTING does for underground tournament martial arts movies what ROGUE did for survival horror creature features. There's a lesson to be had in there.

The fight scenes in FIGHTING are also very much of interest. Because this movie is so organic, and you're so much on Shawn's side, there's a real danger felt in these sequences. Except for the climactic fight, Shawn (and the audience) doesn't know who he's going to face until his opponent actually shows up, typically a few seconds before the fight actually begins.

In one scene, Harvey makes a deal, and Shawn is brought forward. He looks up, and there's a HUGE tattoo'd guy sitting on some bleachers, staring down at Shawn and the crowd. As soon as the word's given, the guy just stands up, takes off his jacket and starts marching down the bleachers toward Shawn. In a standard movie of this variety, when the combat starts, we would get a lot of fake-ass bullshit to show you how hip and edgy the filmmakers are, with a pounding techno soundtrack and lots of cuts to keep your eye moving. It's as engaging as watching someone play STREETFIGHTER IV. But because FIGHTING plays it real, when that dude comes down the bleachers, the feeling in your gut is... oooooooooh, shit. The mere fact that Shawn doesn't back down from the guy wins him over that much more.

Something else of note: Shawn is a tough guy, but he's not a master martial artist, special forces guy, what have you. His dad was a wrestling coach, and Shawn wrestled. And... that's it. In FIGHTING, he faces off against guys who are bigger, guys who are better-trained. While they have size, speed, skill and strength, Shawn has a complete disregard for personal safety. He bulldozes into these guys and brings the fight to them.

This seemed very real, as well. I remember when the UFC first started up. There was one match in which this guy with something like a 10th-degree black belt went up against... I think it was Tank Abbott, but don't quote me. Point is, the black belt came out looking to display his skill, and Tank (or whoever) just floored the dude like a truck. It was as surprising as it was educational.

I also once worked a gig as a PA for a company which shot live martial arts events for the internet. I was running cable, and I was ringside. The two fighters came out, and they both had multiple black belts and years of training. But within the first few seconds, the artifice of their training fell away, and they just started brawling, throwing big swings. Despite their training, when it got down to brass tacks, what these guys did was indistinguishable from a bar fight.

My point is, I believed it when Shawn would win... though that also bears mentioning. Shawn doesn't so much win, per se, as he just never quite loses. And if he's not going to lose, then ergo the other guy must lose, if you get my drift.

It reminded me of Rocky. Particularly in the first Rocky movie, and the last, Rocky doesn't win (spoiler). He just doesn't quite lose. He's beaten in points, but the crowd cheers for him. Points or not, they know who the real winner was. Rocky also "wins" in ROCKY III, purely by allowing Clubber Lang to pound on him until he gets tired, and sets himself up for the fall. Again, Rocky spends the majority of the fight just... not losing.

The same deal applies to John McClane. The first DIE HARD pits this drunk New York cop versus a team of well-trained, well-equipped terrorists. McClane wins by not losing. Look at LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. The villains are better fighters. They're smarter, and have more resources. But take a look at the scene in which McClane fights Maggie Q. She beats the living shit out of him with martial arts. McClane comes back... and tackles her to the ground. Then he runs her over with a car. His tactics are so simple they're almost primitive. The comparison between them on paper makes McClane look ridiculous. The scene's almost played for laughs. But Maggie Q isn't laughing when she eats a car's grille. And who comes out on top at the end of that confrontation?

This seems to be a very American quality.

There's a lesson to be had in all of this. There are times in life when you win. And I think the thing to do between those times is to simply... not lose.

I'm excited about Dito Montiel. I'm going to check out A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS as soon as possible.

I started film school in the late-'90s. We were still buzzing about the amazing filmmakers who made their bones in that decade: Tarantino, Rodriguez, Fincher, Takeshi, Miike, Woo, etc. Since then, I've been watching to see who would emerge to define the oughts.

I fully realize this is very, VERY subjective, and I may well be overlooking some glaring names, but - after having seen FIGHTING - I think the people we should be looking at are: Dito Montiel, David Ayer, Shane Meadows and Eli Roth. In terms of the latter, I'm of the opinion that HOSTEL II is an as-yet-unrecognized masterpiece. We also may have to add Oren Peli to that list, but I feel like I need to see his next movie, first.

Go see FIGHTING. It's an amazing film.