I woke up at two in the morning. I tried starting a couple Prime films that had familiar names, but they kept failing and wouldn’t start playing. I remembered the title of A Fighting Man. It sounded like a boxing story, so I thought I would give it a try. It began playback, just like I had originally planned for a middle of the night feature film to do, even though the others had let me down. The movie began and drew me in instantly. At first I was a little irritated because the storyline kept flip flopping between the fight and back history. Soon, I got into the rhythm of the story . . . thinking it would lull me to sleep, but no . . . I only became wider awake with each new piece of the storyline puzzle.
Storyline
Haunted by a tragic past, undefeated washed up boxer Sailor O’Connor is a broken man. When a fluke opportunity arises to step back in the ring, he takes it. Now he must stay on his feet throughout a bloody, brutal beating in the ring.
Official Trailer – imdb.com/video/vi1323022873
Dominic Purcell plays the part of Sailor O’Connor.
Dominic was born in England, to a Norwegian father and Irish mother. At the age of two, Dominic and his family moved from England to Sydney’s Bondi and then moved to the Western Suburbs. After trying his hand at landscape gardening he decided to become an actor whilst watching the war movie Platoon (1986). Due to his working-class background, acting seemed a very unlikely choice of career, so he didn’t pursue it until sometime later. He studied at The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and then later enrolled at the Western Australian Academy of Performing arts where he met his future wife Rebecca and studied with Hugh Jackman. In 1997, Dominic scored a role in the TV series Raw FM (1997) and then landed a part in Mission: Impossible II (2000), which was filmed in Australia. He became a TV star. In 2000, he won the Green Card lottery and now lives in Los Angeles with his family.
The film was written and directed by Damian Lee, who started as a bare-knuckle boxer in Peru. The cast was a combination of new faces and familiar faces: Sheila McCarthy who played in one of my favorite Canadian series Little Mosque on the Prairie, Louis Gossett Jr., Kim Coates, Famke Jamssen, and James Caan.
User review:
TOP REVIEW
Very original
Great boxing drama which through a very original script and editing recreates a boxing match in which between rounds and through long flashbacks we find out the reasons why boxers are fighting in that fight. One of the great virtues of the film is it’s originality in the way that tells the story, not resembling to any other movie of the genre, being the less important of the film the boxing match and focusing more in the human drama that both fighters are going through Damian Lee, director and screenwriter of the film achieved in a outstanding way to keep you interested until the ending of the story. The film is starring by a great Dominic Purcell who lead a cast with some established names such as James Caan, Louis Gosset JR and Famke Jamssen who also displays a very nice performance. There is a brief appearance of Freddie Roach that boxing fans will probably enjoy Highly recommended.
One of the most touching scenes comes when Famke Janssen as the ex-wife of Sailor seeks out Jenessa Grant as the young wife of King Soloman and tells her what to do after the fight regardless of who the winner is.
For years I would take my sister Deedee to see the Golden Gloves championships at the University of Puget Sound field house. I enjoyed boxing at the time when Joe Clough was THE local boxing coach. Many of his trained students from the Pierce County area went on to the Olympics and came back with gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Sailor O’Connor did not fight like he had been trained by Joe Clough, but I like a good storyline and someone you can root for. When I was involved with the Tacoma Jaycees I was a licensed Second, which meant I could get into the ring with our boxer who won the So You Think You’re Tough event at the Field House. Our boxer Tyrone won all three of his bouts with knockouts and took home almost a thousand dollars for his efforts. Tyrone checked with each of his opponents after the fights. “Did I win?” asked one. Tyrone politely told him, “No.” I liked Tyrone and his concern. Outside of the ring, you can be yourself, but inside the ring you need to focus and concentrate.
Peg interviewed local boxing coaches (Tacoma Boys Club on Hilltop) for the 1990 Goodwill Games, which were held in the Seattle area and reached down to Tacoma as well. She enjoyed speaking with the coaches and how they worked with their fighters.
A Fighting Man was worth a couple hours of non-sleep watching and another couple of hours discussing and thinking about it.
The end of the fight is positive for both fighters, which is hard to tell from the damage they did to each other.
