You Can't Hit Some Things

Is there any glamour to be stripped away from boxing? I don't know, but I do know 1972's Fat City is a great film. Directed by John Huston, it follows one washed up boxer, played by Stacey Keach, as he befriends an up-and-comer played by a very young Jeff Bridges. Along the way, Keach meets an alcoholic woman played by Susan Tyrrell and Bridges gets knocked out a lot. Huston vividly evokes a hot, down-and-out Stockton, California peopled by some of the most credibly dippy and fractious characters you'll ever see.

First we meet Keach's character, Billy Tully, sprawled back in bed. The camera lingers a long time and if you didn't notice his penis prominently in the middle of the frame right away, you're bound to notice it by the time the shot finally tracks to follow him across the room.

What a way to start. Does it mean anything? I guess the story is indirectly about downstairs plumbing. Boxers talk about pissing blood and then we actually see it later in the film. Tully wins one fight when he correctly deduces his opponent is hurting below the belt, despite one of his managers telling him it was too risky a gamble.

Nicholas Colasanto and Art Aragon as the two coaches are worth the price of admission alone. I could listen to them swap stories and opinions all day about the history and current state of boxing. They have the kind of credible mix of knowhow, instinct, and innocent bullshitting that you'd only get from writers who've known guys like this.

Oma Lee Greer (Tyrrell) is just as great. You can watch her gears turn at the bar as she starts out talking to Tully about her man in jail and gradually the conversation starts to work on the premise she and Tully are going to start living together. "You can count on me," is a line he starts randomly inserting into the dialogue. But her batty brain makes her easy come, easy go.

The final note of the film is about loneliness. Even Bridges' wide-eyed young man doesn't seem to expect much glory from the job. He's already worked the fields, cutting weeds, with Tully in one of the film's fascinating, slice-of-life segments on California agricultural labour in the '70s. No glory, but what about loyal friends? Tully starts to realise that might be the real con in the business.

Fat City is available on The Criterion Channel now as part of a John Huston collection this month.

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