Southpaw: The Francis Barrett Story (1999)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Liam McGrath

Release Date:

19 March 1999 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Plot Keywords:

Boxing | Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Francis Barrett	...	Himself
Chick Gillen	...	Himself
Tom Humphries	...	Himself
Colum Flynn	...	Himself
Nicolas Cruz Hernandez	...	Himself
Gerry Callan	...	Himself
Jim McGee	...	Himself
Luigi Leo	...	Ken Thomas
Eamonn Hunt	...	Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

Southpaw (USA)

Runtime:

79 min | USA:77 min

Country:

UK | Ireland

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15

Company:

Bórd Scannán na hÉireann

Soundtrack:

Enter the Tornado

Unpretentious account of young boxers fight against prejudice

The first I heard of Francie Barret, the subject of _Southpaw_ was during the 1996 Olymplics, when a Right-Wing Asshole I had the misfortune to live with complained that "we had a knacker flying the flag for us" `Knacker' is a term of derision roughly eqivilant to `nigger' used to describe the intinerent community from which Francie comes, and this comment epitomises some of the prejudices he has to confront in the course of this documentary. He comes across as being a decent, honest young boxer who demonstrates the absurdity of the racial prjudice which stoll exists towards travelling people in Ireland, a prejudice as vitriolic in some cases as the worst that Irish people had to face when disembarking in Britain or the U.S. in the past. Coming from a community who choose to live in a relatively primative way, he never seems fazed by the prescence of the camera, and his trainers and friends seem equally cinegenic. It's a documentary that takes few chances stylistically, and never tries to romanticise his career a la _Rocky_ but isn't any the worse for that. those wishing to learn about Ireland's Travelling community will find this a welcome antidote to the sentimentalisation of _Into the West_ or the paddywhackery of _Trojan Eddie_