Fat City (1972)

Director:

John Huston

Writer:

Leonard Gardner (novel)

Release Date:

26 July 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

The film tells the story of two boxers and their problems. One of them is on the decline of his career...

Plot Keywords:

Boxer | Title Fight | Money | Loneliness | Comeback

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Nov. 13

4:00 AM

TCM

Cast

Stacy Keach	...	Tully
Jeff Bridges	...	Ernie
Susan Tyrrell	...	Oma
Candy Clark	...	Faye
Nicholas Colasanto	...	Ruben
Art Aragon	...	Babe
Curtis Cokes	...	Earl
Sixto Rodriguez	...	Lucero
Billy Walker	...	Wes
Wayne Mahan	...	Buford
Ruben Navarro	...	Fuentes

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium, Stockton, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Under the then-extant rules, Stacy Keach should have been awarded Best Actor honors from the New York Film Critics Circle for his portrayal of Tully, as it required only a plurality of the vote. Keach was the top vote-getter for Best Actor. At the time, the NYCC was second in prestige only to the Academy Awards (and some actors and filmmakers considered it a superior honor) and was a major influence on subsequent Oscar nominations. A vocal faction of the NYFCC, dismayed by the rather low percentage of votes that would have given Keach the award, successfully demanded a rule change so that the winner would have to obtain a majority. In subsequent balloting, Keach failed to win a majority of the vote, and he lost ground to his main rival, Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972) However, Brando could not gain a majority either. A compromise candidate, Laurence Olivier in Sleuth (1972) eventually was awarded Best Actor honors.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Oma proposes a toast to Tully at the bar, suddenly she's holding a lighted cigarette, which vanishes again in the next shot.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Way We Were: Looking Back (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

Help Me Make It Through the Night

Yet another overlooked 70s gem...

The 1970s produced some of the greatest American movies of all time, that's indisputable. But while everyone focuses on (the admittedly very good) more famous works by Scorsese and Coppola, many equally worthwhile movies get little attention - 'Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia', 'Scarecrow', 'Fingers', 'Tracks', 'The Panic In Needle Park', 'Blue Collar', and this one, arguably John Huston's most underrated film. The four leads Stacey Keach ('The Ninth Configuration'), Jeff Bridges ('The Last Picture Show'), Susan Tyrrell ('The Killer Inside Me'), and Candy Clark ('American Graffiti') are all outstanding, and in Keach's case it's possibly his finest performance to date. What an underrated actor Keach is! This is a powerful and haunting look at the underbelly of American working class life, a subject very rarely dealt with honestly in contemporary Hollywood films. 'Fat City' doesn't deserve its obscurity. It is a small masterpiece. Highly recommended to people who value downbeat and realist dramas more than dumbed down popcorn "entertainment".