Fat City

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1972, 100 min
Section: Tribute to John Huston (1906-1987)

Synopsis

John Huston returns to the talented young boxer he was some fifty years before, bringing the camera into the ring to tell the story of two boxers standing at opposite ends of their careers and to pay a nostalgic but unpretentious film tribute to ordinary, everyday heroes. Stacy Keach, one of the greatest talents of American cinema in the second half of the 20th century, plays thirty-year-old Bill Tully whose best years of boxing are behind him. One day he meets a youngster named Ernie (Jeff Bridges) whose talent wakes up the desire in him to make up for the time lost with a bottle of whisky in his hand. This humanistic character study of individuals in a Californian suburb, struggling to rise up from an existence at rock bottom through their dreams of success in the ring, is one of several unfairly overlooked works in Huston’s filmography. Even after 35 years since its creation, Fat City is one of the most interesting motion pictures ever filmed in the sports world.