Lucero, Sixto Rodriguez (real life former light heavyweight) vs Tulley, Stacy Keach (real life former contender for title of great actor). Boxing as metaphor for life was nothing new to film in 1972 but this sad tale of lives on the margin and dreams forgotten might be the finest most underrated boxing film ever made. The world of fighting in John Houston's tale finds it's metaphor not in the game itself but in the fight between Tully (Keach) and Lucero (Rodriguez). Tully, his time nearly gone, skills eroded from bad food, bad women and bad booze and Lucero his skills gone from too many blows in too many towns with names he could never pronounce or spell. Tully, disheveled, filthy, broken and by film's end reduced to wondering if he too had ever been young. Lucero, though now reduced to being broken in the ring, could never be broken or bent out of it. Walking with dignity and holding himself as a champ, Lucero comes into and leaves the film with the quiet grace that Tulley's character never had nor would ever know (how many of those nameless towns did Lucero ply his trade in, alone?). The great irony of the film is that while he is only in the film for a few scenes, and has perhaps five minutes of screen time, Lucero's battle with Tulley represents Tulley's battle with himself and thus is the only true ring war Tulley engages in. Another minor irony is Tully's calling Jeff Bridge's young fighter and father "soft" in the middle. Truly, it is this "kid" who gives Tully one of several examples of what it truly means to have "heart". Bridge's keeps coming back to the ring even after several brutal beatings and never waivers in his effort to be a father. At first it seems that he will be as much a failure at fatherhood as he would appear to be a fighter. In the end, like Lucero's stoic dignity, Houston's forgotten film stands quietly in the pantheon of cinematic treasures. A true champ can only lose his title in the ring and "Fat City" will stand a Champion, head held high as long as there are those to cherish great cinema. Lastly, I found this DVD for 3.00 @ a local Big Lots, could the irony be more poignant?
Review of Fat City
