The Fighter Starring Mark Walberg (Dec. 2010) - Essay Example

The stories were subsequently inspiring and some based on even true life of people (Petrakis, 2011). The plot of The Fighter David O. Russell’s The Fighter is based on a real life story of an Irish boxer, Micky Ward, a welterweight out of hardscrabble Lowell, Massachusetts, who fought in the 1980’s and 90’s. This boxing movie focuses on how family pull becomes an obstacle for achieving success in the field of boxing. Micky’s role is played by established Hollywood star, Mark Walberg. (Ebert, 2011, pp.176,177) The dilemma is skillfully laid out in the first act.

Micky leads his life in the shadow of his elder step brother Dicky (Christian bale). Dicky was previously a promising fighter, who achieved his peak in a fight against Sugar Ray Leonard, but has gone to seed and has picked up a serious crack habit along the way. (Demott, B, 2012, p-117) The character of Dicky is straight out of Eugene o’ Neil, a pipe dreamer who still talks about his glory days and continues to submerge in fantasies about making a comeback to the boxing arena. The delusion of Dicky is provoked further by his whacked-out family, especially his mother Alice (Melissa Leo).

Alice clearly favors the spoilt Dicky over the quiet and more focused Micky. Micky’s professional boxing life is also influenced by his mother Alice, as she is her manager. Alice has a weird habit of getting Micky into fights in which he is overmatched by his opponents and gets a serious ‘beating’. This ‘beating’ not only emphasizes physically but also mentally. (Petrakis, 2011) The film focuses on how Micky’s life changes due to the event, and the influence of his lady love Charlene on his way to comeback in the boxing profession.

The story inspires when Micky returns to the boxing ring, and attains his long time dream of being the champion (Couser, 2011, p.29). Influences of Micky’s family in his boxing career Micky’s boxing career was essentially influenced by his family. This was due to both the emotional aspects and also the direct involvement of Micky’s family member in his profession. Emotionally Micky was bonded with his step brother icky, as he idolized him as a boxer. Also deep down, a part of Micky was engaged in the feeling that the need of a family was essential.

In the professional aspects, Micky’s mother Alice was his manager, and his step brother Dicky was his trainer. Being the integral part of Micky’s profession, both of them essentially influenced Micky’s boxing career (Turrisi, 2011). Negative influences of Micky’s family in his boxing career Micky’s biggest hurdle towards achieving success in his boxing career was his backlog due to his family. His mother Alice clearly favored his brother Dicky over the quiet and more focused Micky. As Micky’s manager, Alice had a weird habit of getting Micky into fights in which he is overmatched by his opponents and gets a serious ‘beating’.

This ‘beating’ not only emphasizes physically but also mentally. Due to subsequent losses that Micky has to suffer due to her mother’s decisions; Micky’s confidence got affected severely. Micky’s role in the field of boxing became as that of a “stepping stone”, a sacrificial lamb, which the rising stars used to climb up in the ladder in the field of boxing. Although this was a role that Micky did not desire for, neither did he deserve the