Day of the Fight

The first short film by Kubrick, it follows a boxer through the day-long wait for an evening fight.

I watched this out of interest as I watch the majority of Kubrick's films. However this is the only appeal that I can see for watching this.

The short follows the boxer through his routines on the day, the heavy narration talks us through the whole thing. In theory the short is meant to give us an insight in the boxer's thoughts and feelings however it really only shows us what he eats and who he talks to.

This is interesting if you are a Kubrick completist but other than that it is of limited appeal.

"Look" magazine photographer and chess-player Stanley Kubrick teamed up with old school chum Alexander Singer to launch their filmmaking careers and that of their star with this short but sweet self-financed boxing documentary, based on the future legendary director's 1949 photo feature "Prizefighter", which after the original buyer went belly-up was sold to RKO for a cool $100 profit.

We follow the fan (short for fanatic as no-nonsense narrator Douglas Edwards informs us) to the places where matched pairs of men get up on a canvas covered platform and commit legal assault and lawful battery in an attempt to capture the primitive vicarious visceral thrill of seeing one animal overcome another with the science of hammering each other unconscious with upholstered fists.

Irish-American middleweight Walter Cartier is selected at random, with a little help from boxing historian Nat Fleischer, from the 6,000 professional prize fighters who more often than not fail to scrape a living in America to give us insight into the people the fan seldom sees and never considers behind the facts and figures and columns of cold statistics in the record books.

Walter Cartier makes an amiable enough presence at the centre of the action to be able to go on to a TV acting career as we see his daily routine transform him into arena man, with able support coming from his twin brother and manager Vincent Cartier and opponent Bobby James as well as a brief appearance from Nat Fleischer and the dulcet tones of news reader Douglas Edwards.

The filmmakers make a fine pairing as Kubrick ducks and dives with his hand-held camera getting up close and personal with Cartier both before and during the fight while Singer rises above it all with his camera on a tripod to catch an overview of the action which together with the debut score of another childhood friend Gerald Fried all comes together to make a strong first impression.

"No one ever told Walter to be a fighter..."

Day of the Fight (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Kubrick's second short shows us a day in the life of a middle-weight boxer as he prepares for a fight. Even with the boring narration, this film here moves a lot better and the fight scene is rather interesting because it's shown complete as it happened. You can spot Kubrick in a few scenes with his camera.

Flying Padre (1951)

** (out of 4)

Stanley Kubrick's first film is a documentary about a priest in New Mexico who needs a plane to keep up with all his people. This is a really boring and flat film even with its 9 minute running time. The priest really isn't that interesting and the narration is flat and stiff. God knows better things were to follow from Kubrick.

Seafarers, The (1953)

** (out of 4)

Overly long and dreadfully boring promotional film for the Seafarers Union, which basically tries to teach people why they should join. This is historically interesting only because it's Stanely Kubrick's first film in color. The rest is pure boredom and it's no wonder Kubrick doesn't want this film seeing the light of day.

It's true, I would not know anything about this short RKO-type documentary if not for the fact that it was the first time that iconoclast Stanley Kubrick picked up a camera with rolling film stock to be screened in theaters. But as a student filmmaker myself, I find it of the utmost fascination - even when it is in a jittery, ragged print like the one I obtained on video - to see the early, primitive works of famous directors (Last Year in Vietnam by Stone, My Best Friend's Birthday by Tarantino, and Les Mistons by Truffaut are others) and the foundations of style. Day of the Fight, to be sure, is not something of incredible note, and it would not be until the Killing that Kubrick would create a great film. Yet through this film, I was constantly aware- and pleased- by how this very typical kind of story was executed.

In a way, it's almost of more worth to watch this film with the sound off; the narration, while good at getting to know the very basics of this boxer that's being profiled, it's also a distraction and not very revelatory. As just a succession of images, however, it works a lot more. It's the kind of short documentary that is 70% real, and 30% staged, with Kubrick following the boxer and his brother on the streets of New York, leading up to the fight that will bring him recognition. When looking at how Kubrick uses the camera, it seems fairly simple and, for those looking for all of the Kubrick trademarks, disappointing. But in just looking at how he uses the camera, how he gets his subjects in frame, and the importance of composition and the subtleties of lighting, it's really quite good. And the fight sequence, filmed by Kubrick and a friend, has some cut-away shots that almost ring of the future of Scorsese's Raging Bull (though, of course, still primitive).

Is it more of a curiosity, a film for Kubrick die-hard completists looking to have all 16 of his works, docs and features, in their collection? Sure, but it is also one of the better short doc's he made in his formative years, taking a subject he was already interested in (he was a photographer for Look magazine with this boxer under profile) and going a step further. As his sort of film school, this is in terms of the image even more fascinating than the lackluster 'doodle on the fridge' film Fear and Desire.

Interesting presentation (very 'The Killing'), great photography, compelling dialogue.