Bleed for This Review

Boxing films or films focused on boxers have been a staple in film dating back to the inception of the medium. There’s something inherently ingrained into the psyche of those watching these films, watching the protagonist get bloody and beaten for fame, money, to prove themselves or to win the girl. These films speak to our primal urge for trial by combat and maybe that’s why boxing films pop up so often in theaters. Ben Younger’s 2016 film “Bleed for This” understands the DNA that makes up the milieu of boxing films and provides an entertaining, albeit predictable, adaptation to the life of the Vinny “Pazmanian Devil” Pazienza and his battle to step back into the ring after a near fatal car accident. 

The film begins at weigh-in, Vinny needs to make weight and stalls his faceoff with his next opponent as he tries sliming off his excess mass to even qualify in his junior welterweight division. We get an understanding of Vinny’s dire need to remain in this division, but also for his lack of seriousness that may show his dangerous levels of cockiness that might be his undoing. He makes weight and celebrates the night before his big fight by gabling instead of resting, it's here that we see the kind of person Vinny is, getting the groundwork of his character, an overconfident boxer with dreams bigger that his punches with a habit for gabling his winnings. Miles Teller does a fantastic job at making this likable blue-collar fighter relatable, he loves his family, he loves his Ma, he’s also human with his own vices, but most of all he loves boxing even though it encompasses his entire entity. 

Pazienza’s efforts to make weight ultimately go wasted as he loses his match against Roger Mayweather, leading his promoter Lou Duva, played by the always stellar Ted Levine, to publicly suggest Vinny retire from the sport on HBO. One of the best lines in the film is when Duva tells Vinny the hard truth that “You got heart kid, but you wear it on your fuckin’ chin” he tells him the harsh reality of how boxing chews people up and spits them out. Vinny retaliates by saying his has one more in him and then he’s done, Duva regrettable sets up a fight for the optimistic loser. Vinny is in desperate need of an adrenaline needle to his career leading to his domineering dad to seek out help from Kevin Rooney, one of the men that helped Tyson become the beast he was in the ring. The film then begins the “underdog” training montage here. Vinny and Kev start their relationship off rocky due to Vinny’s overconfidence getting the best of him, he has the “professional” mentality and would rather go about things his own way. Tensions flare as Kev suggests to move the welterweight fighter up a weight class to better the strain on his body, he doesn’t want Vinny to starve himself to qualify for lightweight and he doesn’t want him to bulk up too much to fight in the heavyweights, this decision proves itself to be the call Vinny needs. 

The next match Vinny is lined up to fight is against Gilbert Dele, a title fight for the WBA World Light Middleweight champion, a match that he wins by technical knockout. Flying high on his win the champ goes for a drive in his brand-new Pontiac firebird, when he suffers a head-on collision that leaves him with a fractured neck, endangering his promising return to boxing. If a diagram was made for the film this is where the second act would end and the third act begins. The film takes on a phoenix rising from its ashes metaphor as we see a man try to rebuild his life after suffering an injury that takes literally everything from him. His only identity is boxing and without that he would have rather died in that car accident than live a life where people speak to him as if he were dead.

While the film is extremely predictable, not much you can do with a story based on the life of an actual person, it provides powerful performances from Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart and the supporting cast making it a film worth watching if in the mood for a film about the warrior’s spirit to keep on fighting though any adversity. I also give this film points for not shoving the film's title into the actual dialogue.