Fighter review

Zach Stein

The movie, Fighter, directed by David O. Russell, is a based on a true story.  Mark Wahlberg puts his family distractions aside and tries to overcome his dreams to win a title in boxing as he takes on the role of the main character “Irish” Mickey Ward.  Christian Bale takes on the role of his brother, Dickey trying to comeback from his crack addiction.  Hollywood is making a movie on Dickey’s life and showed kids and the world what crack addiction is really like.  Dickey is known for knocking Sugar Ray down in the ring, but is also training his brother to be a great boxer.   Mickey faced a series of defeats physically and mentally, but thru his hard work and dedication he passed all the speed bumps in his life to win a boxing title.

Mickey faces a bunch of family problems during his boxing career.  His mother was his manager and would put him in matches with big money that he couldn’t possibly win.  Mickey was known as a stepping stone to other boxers.  During these embarrassing defeats Mickey wanted to quit because he felt like a disappointment to his family.  Mickey stuck with boxing and had an offer to train in Las Vegas to get money for training with them, but he didn’t want to upset his family so he respectfully rejected the offer even though he knew that was a good opportunity.  Mickey is the type of the character that doesn’t want to hurt his family and stand up for what he believes in.  Later on in the movie Dickey had an incident with the cops and ended up going to Jail.  Dickey taught his brother everything he knows about boxing, and Mickey didn’t know what he was going to do without him.  Mickey was depresses and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.  Mickey found a new manager and trainer and continued to peruse his dreams while his brother was coming back from his addiction in Jail.  Thru Mickey’s dedication, hard work, and achieving his entire personal problem he got his life and family back together along with two boxing titles. 

David O. Russell made a great movie with a lot of good themes involved.  One theme that I thought was important to pick up on was never give up on your dreams, and no matter how bad things get they always get better.   Unfortunately things might get even worse before they get better, but they always get better.  Mickey was down in depression felt tired, weak, and wanted to give up.  He searched within himself found that inner strength and got the motivation to not give up and not be a quitter, and got out there and won a boxing title.  In the movie he makes this theme stick out when all the family and personal problems Mickey faces but pushes thru it.   Dickey fixes his drug addiction, and had to show that to his whole family to be eligible to reenter the ring to train his brother.   Another hard lesson this movie teaches is to stay away from drugs.  The Hollywood film of Dickey’s life wasn’t fake it was reality.  Once you smoke crack you are going to get addicted and that’s a fact.  The film about his life shows how he hurt his family, and most importantly hurt himself.  Dickey realizes in his jail cell how much he hurt his family and wanted to change his ways and be with his son.  In the film it shows his son crying at court.  It was that moment in the movie that he realized that he had to get his life back.  Also in his jail cell it showed him going thru withdrawals which aren’t fake either.  This movie also had sport related themes that once you enter the ring, and your training facility you have to put all your distractions aside and focus on your dream as an athlete. 

I would recommend this movie to any Rocky fans out there.  This movie has some lifelong lessons, and is very inspirational to athletes.  It teaches kids about drug addiction and how much you can mess up your life if you choose that path.  It also shows how much you hurt the ones you love, and the person you become if you are addicted to drugs.  This movie is a good eye opener for family members and people who know that their friends are started to experience with drugs.  The fighter is even a good movie for a drug addict to watch because he will realize all the pain and harm he brings to his family.  With the drug addict knowing he is hurting his loved ones, and how hard it is to comeback from a drug addiction he might stop before it is too late.  As an athlete I have learned a lot from this movie.  Mickey kept his personal problems aside while he was training for his events.  It is very difficult to keep your family problems aside while training for your sport.  This movie shows how important it is to keep your distractions blocked and focus on what is important in your sport.  The ups and downs of the movie are the reason it had such an impact on me.  I can also relate to this movie because I have friends, and family members that have a drug addiction.  It is very hard for them to stay clean and make a complete comeback.  It is sad they choose the path they did.  Even though I have a family member going thru drug rehab it is hard to block my distractions when I enter the rink.  I think if I learn to block all my distractions out before I enter the rink I will play twice as good.  Also this movie has another lesson, and that is to always stay positive with a loved one going thru drug addiction.  In conclusion this movie is a great movie and would impact many athletes, family members, and kids around the world.