FAT CITY (1972) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: John Huston
Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges,
Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark
Stacy Keach plays an aging boxer settling into a life on the skids in Stockton, California. Jeff Bridges plays a new kid with some good-looking moves, who Keach meets working out at the Y. These aren't guys who are ever going to fight for a title. They're club fighters doing their work in tank-town gyms, ham-and-egg pugs who might hope to get a preliminary bout somewhere, but not much more. Win some, lose some, go a few rounds, put on a good show, collect a couple hundred bucks and go back to day labor while the cuts heal. Huston's approach to this world is matter-of-fact. It's as if he'd just wandered into some dive bar, found these down-and-outers sitting there, and rolled the camera. (Susan Tyrrell as the barfly Keach gets involved with is so convincing, it's scary.) The ending's a million miles from "Rocky" or "Cinderella Man", but then, so is the rest of the film. "Fat City" would make a credible entry on anybody's list of the best boxing movies ever. Just don't look for a lot of romance or redemption in it, that's all.
Susan Tyrrell
(1945-2012)
