Fat City (1972)

April 14, 2025 10:37 AM

[TRAILER] Washed-up boxer Tully (Stacy Keach) is inspired to restart his career after seeing potential in a teenager, Ernie (Jeff Bridges), whom he spars with at a gym. While Tully battles his past demons, including issues with alcohol, Ernie faces his own challenges. Pressured into marriage and sudden fatherhood by his girlfriend (Candy Clark), Ernie can shrug off his personal problems when he enters the ring. As both fighters continue with their bouts, Tully's star falls while Ernie's is on the rise. Fat City is a bleak, mordant, slice of life boxing drama that doesn't pull its punches.

Also starring Susan Tyrrell, Nicholas Colasanto, Art Aragon, Curtis Cokes, Sixto Rodriguez, Billy Walker, Wayne Mahan, Ruben Navarro, Al Silvani, Álvaro López, Carl D. Parker, Bill Riddle.

Directed by John Huston. Screenplay by Leonard Gardner, based on his 1969 novel of the same name. Produced by Ray Stark, John Huston. Cinematography by Conrad L. Hall. Edited by Walter A. Thompson. Music by Marvin Hamlisch.

100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (with 27 reviews).

Currently available for digital rental in the US. Check streaming options for your country and services via JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

People frame this as John Huston adapting to New Hollywood but honestly, it's the same kind of grim movie about aging men he always made -- not that much distance between Fat City and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Loved the way the boxing scenes make Tully's instability into a physical thing. He's uncertain about his place in the world, and he's uncertain about his footing.

Huston has never disappointed me as a director.
posted by Bryant at 12:58 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]

About ten years ago, TCM showed this one night and I was riveted to it. But that's not the story. The story is, over the course of the next week, like four different people in the office I worked at the time independently mentioned it, and I realized we had all watched this old ass movie that was on at 8 PM on a Monday. How many people watched TCM? I'm trying to tell you, it was a lot. And it may be still, but who has cable anymore? Max has a section of TCM films, but that's not the same; you need the hosts, the curation, the interviews. It is the craziest thing to me that there is no live streaming TCM app. It would make a fortune. I'd be tempted to cancel everything else.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:12 PM on April 14 [7 favorites]

This is a great movie. It's an extraordinary book and the only one Leonard Gardner ever wrote.

Susan Tyrrell's performance is the most real drunk I've ever seen on screen.
posted by dobbs at 6:36 PM on April 14 [3 favorites]

Wait until you meet Opening Night's Myrtle Gordon.
posted by sunimplodes at 11:09 PM on April 18

This movie is a perfect juxtaposition of people kidding themselves about being on the way up and people kidding themselves about whether they are on the way down.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:07 AM on April 27