Sparring

This movie portraits Steve's (Mathieu Kassovitz) professional drama. Steve is an aging father, husband and boxer with much more losses than wins. He's hired to be a training fighter of a famous and talented boxer. Over the course of this professional challenge, Steve shows his value as an experiencied, although loser, boxer fighter.

Although he is not good and talented boxer he is real fighter who is ready to deal with difficulties of life like real man. That is not just described in ring but in his relationship with his family, his honesty, and his virtue gets the best from all people around him. Also, boxing scenes are great and real also as music.

What a sad movie, it's about dreams and failures, unfortunately failure presents itself to many who can't fulfill the dream of working in a profession they've always dreamed of, often it's not just a matter of having the gift, but also having the opportunity, or luck, or chance, or who knows fate, something that didn't happen in these people's lives, a beautiful, poetic and sad movie... But also having the opportunity, or luck, or chance, or who knows fate, something that didn't happen in these people's lives, a beautiful, poetic and sad movie... A beautiful, poetic and sad movie... Very good and sad...

What we see here is a loser who did odd jobs to keep his family afloat, making his poor and miserable living with his family by either a punching bag for other famous boxing stars or kept losing in his own pathetic boxing fights, earning as little as getting his minimum wages. His facial wounds were an eye-sore proof of his every boxing aftermath, and he even pissing blood when he urinated that only showed he got some internal damages to his body. Yet what we saw in this film was a guy kept chain smoking and littered cigarette butts everywhere when he finished smoking.

Was there any logic or a basic common sense in boxing? A boxer who not only smoked but chain-smoked. So except getting short breaths when he fought, his lungs could never provide him with enough oxygen. No wonder this moron kept losing fights. And every time when he lost, he smoked more to suppress his pains and loss.

This is a pathetic film about a loser without any self discipline and basic knowledge, trying so hard to be a good husband and father with pipe dreams, making his living by using his body as a punching bag. The only comfort he got was his chain smoking.

You don't have to watch it through, 'cause there's no need to waste your time, your sympathy, humanity, and compassion on morons or losers.

This film is for me a a sort of French FAT CITY. Remember the John Huston's movie from 1972, about losers in the fighting game and starring Stacy Keach. And a particular short scene in the beginning of both features can make you think about the link between the two movies; the sequence where the main lead urinate blood in the toilet. Yes that's a movie dedicated to those hundreds of shadow prize fighters who have sometimes dozens of defeats and nearly none victory in their honour list. A movie, this French one, so poignant, moving, cruel, painful. But certainly not totally hopeless. The tale of a tenth grade fighter who struggles to survive with his family and who accepts to serve as a sparring Partner. Terrific.