Fat City
Composite Score: 84.93
Starring: Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrell, Candy Clark, Nicholas Colasanto, Art Aragon, Curtis Stokes, Sixto Rodriguez, Billy Walker, Wayne Mahan, and Ruben Navarro
Director: John Huston
Writer: Leonard Gardner
Genres: Drama, Sport
MPAA Rating: PG
Box Office: N/A
Why should you Watch This Film?
Fat City is the film adaptation of Leonard Gardner’s novel of the same name, from director and producer John Huston, about a pair of boxers with careers on different trajectories living in the town of Stockton, California. The film stars Stacy Keach as Billy Tully, a former champion boxer turned washed up alcoholic, across from Jeff Bridges as Ernie Munger, a young man who has been boxing to stay in shape but has the potential to become a great. They are joined by Nicholas Colasanto as manager/coach Ruben, Candy Clark as Ernie’s girlfriend Faye, and Susan Tyrell in an Oscar-nominated performance as the barfly and occasional romantic interest of Tully, Oma. For its raw examination of blue-collar humanity and the eternal but seemingly impossible dream of really making it big, the film continues to wow audiences who give it a shot.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Fat City unfolds more as a series of interconnected episodes in the lives of the two fighters at its center and less as a cohesive narrative feature. As such, audiences used to more straightforward storytelling might find it difficult to follow or engage with. Time jumps come unexpectedly at times, and the characters often speak about decisions made between scenes that feel rather important despite their being left out of the actual runtime. The character development still plays out like you’d want it to, even without those scenes, but it does feel at times that the audience may have been robbed of an even better film with about fifteen to twenty extra minutes of runtime.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
The gritty realism of Fat City helps establish it within the late-1960s era of American film, but it also helps the film win its audience over. Huston’s use of actual locations, specifically locations within the city of Stockton, gives the film a feeling of authenticity that allows the audience to experience what is almost a look behind the curtain at another side of life. The casting of actual figures from the world of boxing as side characters serves to amplify the sense of attention to detail that is created by every seedy bar, each backroom boxing match, and every conversation on the street. Conrad L. Hall’s cinematography – utilizing light and framing each scene to look like a guerrilla journalist’s photograph of poverty in America – accentuates the whole film and really puts that sense of realism over the top in a way that wins the audience fully over.
The performances of the two leading men and Tyrell’s noteworthy supporting performance only serve to elevate the film’s realism to a place of greatness even more. Young Jeff Bridges sells the part of reluctant but dedicated fighter well, feeling every bit as out of place but desperate for success as any young fighter new to the sport should. His conversion from kid to adult and from amateur to pro plays second fiddle to the devolution of Keach’s Tully for much of the film, but without it, the film would most likely feel too bleak to be worth watching. Keach does a phenomenal job of portraying a washed-up fighter who found out too late that his dreams of success and escape were too big to be realized. His constant bouncing from barfly to trainee to lover to laborer and back again forces Keach to play a menagerie of roles bound up in the one character, but none of them ever feel far from the true struggle of the everyman that Tully is meant to portray, and that’s a testament to Keach’s skill. (Side note: if it hadn’t been released the same year as The Godfather and Sleuth (what?), Keach probably could have won an Oscar for this role or at least received a nomination.) Of the main characters, it is fitting that Susan Tyrell was the film’s lone Oscar nominee because she puts on a tragic clinic as the alcoholic nuisance and emotional blessing that is the character of Oma. Her incoherent mood swings, fits of depression and rage, and almost delusional sense of self-worth all drive home to the audience the sense of resignation and desperation that permeates the film. Though Bridges and Keach might be the films “stars”, Tyrell’s Oma is the true soul of the film, without whom the whole thing would fall apart.
Anchored by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Stacy Keach, and Susan Tyrell, Fat City is a testament to John Huston’s directorial capabilities, offering audiences a sobering look at the reality of our drive for success that deserves mention among the greats. Its vignette-adjacent style of storytelling can make it less approachable than some other films within its era and/or genres, but for audiences who can make it through, there’s a poignant film at the heart of it all. This film is currently available to stream on the Criterion Channel or on Tubi with ads for anyone looking to watch it sometime soon.
