Bleed for This

Starring: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciaran Hinds, Ted Levine, Jordan Gelber, Amanda Clayton, Daniel Sauli, Tina Casciani
Directed by: Ben Younger
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Sport
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Boxer Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) suffers a near-fatal car accident. He's determined to get back in the ring, although his doctors caution he may never walk again.

Review:

Tim: There's been so many great boxing movies over the years- it just works on the big screen. Bleed for This tells an almost unbelievable true story that adds tho the legacy of solid boxing movies. While this is nowhere near the best in the sub-genre, I still enjoyed the film.

The most interesting thing about this is that it's a boxing story, but it's also an overcoming-impossible-odds story, and one where much of the real drama takes place outside of the ring. Pazienza was a talented boxing in the 1980s, but it's his brutal car accident and severe spinal injury (his neck was broken) that makes his story almost too impossible to believe. I'm stunned that he battled back from such a frightening injury to actually compete in boxing again (which is a dangerous, punishing sport). Seeing these events unfold on screen really separated this film. The boxing scenes are okay, but we've seen significantly better ones before. They're fine, but they aren't especially memorable. What really sticks with you are all the scenes where Vinny is battling back from the spinal injury, lifting weights, training, etc. I watched all these scenes with an uncomfortable grimace on my face- you just feel how dangerous what he's doing is, how easily he could reinjure himself- or worse. The courage it took to do what Vinny did was astounding. The first match back after his injury is the same thing all over again- I was just cringing with every blow that put tension on his repaired spine. I honestly don't know how he did it.

Miles Teller does a really good job in the lead role. I was really big on him early in his career, cooled off some in recent years, but am reminded of his talent in films like this. I love how he bulked up for the role- he was believable as this scrappy boxer. He gives a strong, memorable performance and really elevated the film. The same can be said about Aaron Eckhart, who continually gives great performances nearly every time out of the gate. He's an underrated actor and this was a challenging, stretching role for him. He did well with it. Ciaran Hinds and Katey Sagal have some nice moments as well, but this film is really about Teller and Eckhart.

I do have to say that some of the creative licensing that was taken with this film bothered me a little. Doing minimal research, I saw that Panzienza has had multiple arrests for several different crimes, including domestic violence. You wouldn't suspect that from the film. The movie also rearranges the truth in his post-injury boxing. It skips over smaller fights he was part of for entertainment purposes, which makes the whole film feel significantly more dramatic than the true story upon which it was based. I know all movie based on true stories do this to some extent, but these ones bothered me a bit more than normal.

Now, while there's a lot to like here, Bleed for This is probably too long at 1 hour, 57 minutes. It needed to be a good 10 minutes shorter. It's hard to always stay engaged because you don't really like many of the characters. Some of this was intentional, because these are all flawed people- I appreciated that aspect. But, while I was rooting for Vinny to recover, I never really cared about him or his family on any true emotional level. The characters aren't nearly strong enough. As mentioned, the boxing scenes were fine, but we've seen so much better. As a whole, this is a worthwhile movie, it's a good film- but compared to the great boxing movies out there, this one gets lost in the shuffle.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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