A Fighting Man

I wasn't expecting much, but this came as a pleasant surprise! The editing uses flashbacks in between rounds to tell the motivations that drive the two fighters, revealing their personal dramas little by little.

This helps to keep you interested on the movie, and ultimately on the outcome of the fight.

It also works because there's no 'villain' on the ring - both characters have good reasons to be on this match, and it's difficult to root just for one of them (though for me Dominic Purcell has a slight edge, if anything for being older).

"The best we can do is to forgive ourselves." Sailor O'Connor (Purcell) is an aging fighter with a past that won't let him go. He is trying to move on when he is approached by a local promoter for one last fight. After agreeing for the biggest payday he's ever had he tells his mother and old trainer, neither of whom is happy about it. His opponent is an up and coming young kid with a past he is also trying to change. Together they fight not only each other but the past they can't forget. As many of you know I am a huge fan of sports movies. Being a lower budget one that not many people have heard of I wasn't expecting too much from this. I'm not sure if that had any effect on my feelings toward this but I really really enjoyed it. Every other boxing movie I have seen tells the story of the characters then ends with the fight. This one switches between the fighting and the story which I really enjoyed. You see some punches then part of the fighters life which segues beautifully into the break in between rounds. That gives extra meaning to the rest period. I could go on and on about this but I'll end by saying I highly recommend this. Overall, not sure if it was because I wasn't expecting something this good but I really enjoyed this. I actually liked it more then The Fighter. I give this an A-.

Freddie Roach, the great boxing trainer, is the fight doctor.

Not bad but not remarkable Canadian boxing film either. Anyway, it is better than I expected for a film with Blade Trinity villain Dominic Purcell in the leading role and one of the writers of 1996 Z-movie Electra, Damian Lee, as both the writer and the director. Famke Jansen has a small role, which seems that was included only to have her in the casting, as the relation between her character and Purcell's is poorly developped (the mystery is unveiled in the end without the necessary emotion). Other established actors were also casted, in other underdevelopped characters. Alternating parts of the fight with flashbacks is a good narrative idea, but Damian Lee was unable to make espectator feels anything. Adam Beach speaking in the middle of the fight was ridiculous and nonsense.

i just saw actor dominic purcell in the movie "a fighting man"! give an academy award to him, the other actors, the producer, the director, the man who wrote the script! i saw all of the "rocky" movies. every one. this is more true to life.a child sees his father brutally hit his mother. then, the father knocks him against the window of the car, and cracks it. the child vows to his mother to never get knocked down right then and there! and, "sailor", played by dominic purcell, is not knocked down, even in his last, his sixty-fourth, fight. his mother raises him herself. the father has run off, abandoning the both of them. my father did the same thing.i see myself in "sailor". this is a prizefighters movie. this is not some "pink and white idiot's" movie about what it must be to be a prizefighter. this is a movie in which the entire cast spills their guts out! purcell was born in england, but, raised in Australia. Australia is a man's world. how many innocent men and women were sent to "new south wales" as convicts years ago? the raw seething beneath the skin for past injustices done to his people comes to life in dominic purcell. bravo! to everyone involved! a masterpiece!