Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder. I'm Ben and I'm joined by Darren. Hi, guys. So we were just here with a sports movie just a few weeks ago.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Coming back for more.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we.
We did it a little early, just barely missed it. Yeah. Canopy this month jumped decided that their theme was gonna be sports movies. So they have an incredible selection of movies, like, lots of good classics and lots of kind of like, undersung ones too. So I would definitely go peruse their list of curated sports movies and kind of dig deep. As we discussed last time, me and Darren are not big sports guys, but there's something about sports movies.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Sports movies? Yep.
These are both very sport movies.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Again, very sport movies. And like, also, I'm not like a big, like, fighting guy.
Even, like, further removed from, like, sports, like, sure. Never ever thought about, like, fight, like, boxing, martial arts, like, other than like an action movie, like, kind of framing, like, and I think it kind of.
Maybe there's something there of like the, like.
Oh, the, the thrill of like martial arts in this kind of movie is like, overlaps with the uplifting narrative of. Of a sports movie.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: The general sports movie.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, you're just like, oh, wow, the proficiency. Oh, the skill. Cool. Yeah. And it's very, like, visually rich to like, watch somebody do that very well and like, we'll get into it. But like, the actors in these movies did a very good job portraying their sports.
Do you have any other, like, boxing, like, fighting framed movies that you're a fan of?
[00:02:05] Speaker A: You know, so I do like the. The first Rocky movie. Sure. Is a great. Is a great sports movie.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And then the later Creeds are also.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Very, very good sports movies. Boxing, similar to you, boxing in general and fighting UFC type stuff has never been something that I was super interested in, even when I was more of a sports guy. Sure, yeah, that kind of thing. So most of my exposure has been in. In media like this, so.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: But yes, like you said, great sports movies. I'm excited to talk about these two movies today.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, with.
Without further ado, we should probably just go ahead and jump in.
I think we decided that I would be starting first and I will be talking about Wilhelm start the timer, 2010's the Fighter.
So I'll kick us off by reading our IMDb plot synopsis. Based on the story of Mickey Ward, a fledgling boxer who tries to escape the shadow of his more famous but troubled older boxing brother and get his own shot at greatness.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: The.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: That is a wild sentence.
Oh, that is all one sentence. Okay. Yeah. That's why that read kind of funny.
Yeah. So this is a true story, which we talked about briefly before we started recording, of a boxer portrayed by Mark Wahlberg and his older brother portrayed by Christian Bale.
Who? Christian Bale.
His character was known as Dicky Ecklund, known for knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Knocking him down.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Yep. Not knocking him out, but knocking him down, which was like, a pretty big feat for the legend of Sugar Ray Leonard. So he's from. They're both from Lowell, Massachusetts.
You really get that kind of, like, Bostony, like, Massachusetts, like, tough guy. Yeah.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Like, they had the two actual guys in this movie around on the set so they could get those voices down correctly and the mannerisms. Yeah, you can. It shows.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. Christian Bale, like, put on a incredible performance as a manic addict.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Crack. Yeah, he's a crack addict. He lost. He did his weight loss routine for this movie. He lost a bunch of weight.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: One the classic Christian Bale, like, body transformation. That's kind of shocking.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: He won one of the two Academy Awards that this movie was given.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Melissa Leo also won as playing their mother.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And so an interesting framing in this movie because it starts out it's kind of like a faux documentary. They show some, like, also some, like, childhood footage of them.
But, like, in my memory, it was like the whole movie was a faux documentary. But that's just part of it because they are filming a documentary on Dickie.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Which is a thing that really happened.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is a really. And it's. HBO is doing this documentary. They don't reveal until midway through the movie it's not about a boxing comeback because that's how the family frames it.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: And that's what Dickie thinks.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Right, and that's what Dickie thinks. And then they get to a certain point and they're like, it's on the crack epidemic. And it's like, oh, and it's so heavy. But it's like, this is. That's why I love a sports movie, because it's like it's. It's never just about the sport. It's about the narrative of a family and a life around a sport and, like, how those things interact. And it's.
I mean, a classic Christian Bale transformation of, like, he's the fast talking, the joking. And, like, they show a quick clip at the end of the real guy and how he captures the essence of that man is Pretty incredible of like the joke in the very.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: I mean, doesn't really look like him at all, but really embodied that performance Absolutely. That character very well.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Had you seen this movie before?
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yes, yes. It'd been a while. And when we were talking about it, I had completely missed that the first time I'd seen it, that it was a real guy. Like, I'm not. Again, I'm not a boxing guy. Like, I don't care about boxing. It's not something. Had no idea these were real people that this had happened.
It's an interesting story. Much darker sports movies than the last group of sports movies we talked about.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. And, like, I feel like there's something about, like, fighting movies in this, like, the sub genre of fighting in sports movies that tend to be a little bit darker because there's something about the.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Violence that like, invites explicit violence. Right. Like, it's. It is necessary to the sport. Like, you know, football is violent, hockey is violent. But, like, then the fact that it is about the violence specifically, you know, characters come at it from a different perspective a lot in these movies, and.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: It tends to, like, lead to the story, like, outside of the sport. Also has to be somewhat darker, like, to, like, feel balanced because, like, the stakes are so much higher in the sport.
But, yeah, I.
I think, like, across the board, I just got to say this is a great movie.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: It's a good movie.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Really good movie. Yes.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
Mark Wahlberg also, like, perfectly cast for, like, the younger brother who's kind of been overshadowed by the, like, huge character, huge personality of his older brother his whole life, like, plays that very well. It's a big part of the, like, emotional arc of the movie.
Amy Adams is an incredible, wonderful performances.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: From always family members and the girlfriend.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Million Sisters and the mom, the dad.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Everybody was so good.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're also, like, defined. And you're like, okay, yeah, I get. I get everything that's going on.
And there's Wilhelm. But I think if. If you like, if you like a boxing movie, like, this is an easy one to get on board for. It's not a hard watch. Like some, like, darker, like, violent movies.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Overly violent. Right. It's not an overly violent.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: It's not too graphic. Like, because some of these movies, they really pummel you with, like, how violent the sport is. This one is not that. It's very much about the emotional dynamic.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: The family drama and stuff. Yeah.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: So I would heavily invite all of you to get on Canopy and watch this one.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: If you like Christian Bale performances Anything like that. I mean, if you're an Oscar watcher, these are Oscar winning performances in this movie. It's pretty good stuff.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So with that, we'll take a quick break and then we'll be back with our next movie.
All right, we are back and we're just gonna go ahead and jump right in with Darren's pick. Wilhelm, start the timer. And what do we think?
[00:09:07] Speaker A: So coming up, we have the movie Warrior from a year later, 2011 for this one. So very close time range to the Fighter.
The Fighter and Warrior.
This one, not a boxing movie, but a MMA based movie. Yeah.
So a little change of pace, but very much similar in that it's a family driven kind of drama.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: We. Outside of the ring and inside of it, as it turns out, we didn't.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Mention it in the last one, but these two movies about brothers.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Brothers, yeah.
With a parent that is heavily involved in their sport.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: So IMDb description for Warrior, we have the youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament. A path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged older brother.
So it turns out they're both fighters and they end up in the same tournament. Basically, it's the gist of the movie. You have Nick Nolte playing the father of the two brothers, played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.
A couple of great performances by these brothers as well. Yeah, I actually like this movie better.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Sure.
I feel like.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: I don't know why exactly, but it hit harder for me.
I don't know why.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: I feel like the pacing and the depth, like there's a little bit of a disconnect, I feel like because of the stylization of the fighter. But like, this one, like felt very grounded. Like if you felt like you were there with the characters, the.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: The amount of time spent between each brother as it went back and forth, their training process and stuff, showing the different kind of people they are based on this broken family dynamic that they're trying to stitch back together, you know, and ends up going all the way to. To the end of the movie in the tournament and stuff like that. And yeah, like I said, great performances all around. Nick Nolte was nominated for an Academy Award for this one.
I love this movie.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I. So kicking off the movie, it opens with a song by the band the national and then also closes with a song by the National.
They're one of my wife's favorite bands.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Great.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: And. And I Like, I watched this one without her. I was just like, ah, I. You missed a perfect one for you. I wish you would have been here for this. You really would have loved. Because, like, it's kind of like, the perfect, like, vibe for this movie. Like, and, like, I love when sports movies use indie bands and then, like, really utilizing bands who, like, can, like, make a really epic, like, soundtrack. Like, the.
The way that the end peaks with the music and them, like, walking off together is.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Just magical.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Absolutely pulls at the heartstrings. You got the whole thing going. It's. It's a.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Without even saying what.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: It's just, like, so good.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: It's a wonderful ending to this movie. And if you feel the journey the whole way through between the two guys and stuff, and it's. It's great.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, we haven't really said much about, like, what it's about, but, like, it's two. It's two brothers who both haven't been fighting, but were previously professional fighters, presumably trained by their dad before, who is. I don't think they explicitly said how bad he was, but was presumably a violent alcoholic who abused him.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Bad father broke up the family.
The brothers grew up apart or was, you know, towards the end of their growing up. And Tom Hardy plays a combat veteran who. That's part of his plot. And the. He's a striker. He hits really hard, knocks guys out, whereas Joel Edgerton is a technical guy. He's doing holds and stuff like that and winning by submission. And so you kind of have a balance between the two types of styles. They're fighting, the shows, really, their different personalities, and it was a fun journey. Like I said, it's a great sports movie and highly rated. Great.
I definitely recommend.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: One of my favorite fighting movies ever. It's great.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
Interesting culturally, because I feel like this came out right as UFC was starting to get its foothold, but not it. Not the, like, household name that it is today, like, where everybody's like, oh, yeah, that's the fighting that you watch.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: It was, like, still starting to be, like, the competitive with boxing, like, because, like. Yeah, it's weird to think about, like, 15 years ago. Like, it wasn't, like, the main.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah. When these movies came out.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Boxing was still. Was still bigger. Right.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
And I think we're talking about how, like, I think over time, this movie has kind of, like, become like, a foothold for, like, the UFC people, because they haven't had, like, their huge. And I think that's time they haven't.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Had their huge, like 10 hole pinpole movie. That's like, there something for them to go, oh, this is the UFC movie.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And like, and usually those come out after the sport has gotten its foothold, so we may still yet see a, like the Jake Gyllenhaal movie that we've been waiting on for a while. Yeah. We keep getting little hints of. But.
But yeah, this I think, is a great one for like talking about UFC and like mixed martial arts and has definitely felt of that era too.
I feel like the Fighter was like the previous era and kind of like being like. Remember, like 90s early boxing movies?
[00:14:45] Speaker A: It's more of an old throwback boxing, you know, type of style.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And then this is like, this is what. This is where we're going. So two interesting, like, contrasting, but very similar movies.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: The family dynamics. Yeah, exactly.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: And would you say that this would. I feel like it's a different type of thing than the Fighter, like, for who I was suggested for. Because it is more like a family drama. Like, I feel like it leans more heavily towards that.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
Because in. In the Fighter, it's A lot of it is about the one guy's fighting journey.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: With his family.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Yeah. The family drama is about the sport.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Whereas, like, this is. The sport is about that.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Family drama is very much there.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like I said, it's different.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: A deeper, I think, emotional movie, you know, the more of a tearjerker kind of a situation, like we said, so.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Oh, man. Yeah, that ending.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Just good stuff. Pulls you. Pulls you in.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: When it went to credit size, they're just leaving us there. But also good. Yeah, I don't. I don't need anything else.
All right, well, that was our episode today.
Thank you guys for listening. And next up is going to be our hundredth episode.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: We're so excited.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Then we're taking a quick break. We've got. We're putting something together, real fun for our hundredth episode, so please tune in for that. And then we'll be off for a month, and then we'll be back with a new season, new format, some new fun stuff for you. So thanks for listening and bye.
Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Cuba. Theme music by Ben C.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email podcast@pioneerlibrarysystem org Remember to like, review and subscribe. Thanks for listening.
