Cornered: A Life Caught in the Ring

Just finished this excellent feature length documentary that details an infamous (in the boxing world at least) 1983 bout between undefeated prospect Billy Collins, Jr. and the guy he was supposed to beat, Luis Resto. The end result is kind of a THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988) for the boxing world as the film examines the illegal activity that occurred during the bout and the tragic consequences it had on a multitude of lives. It certainly exposes the sleaziest side of boxing and you can't help but feel sorry for the guilt-ridden Resto who bares his soul for the filmmakers. Lewis, on the other hand, is a piece of work. I've never seen a more reprehensible human being in my entire life. First time director Eric Drath used to be a boxing agent and he handles a majority of the material well. There is one hugely manipulative misstep though with Drath having Resto travel to Tennessee to apologize to Collins' family, despite their earlier request of not wanting anything to do with the documentary. Regardless, this can be seen as being much more than about dirty boxing - it showcases the workings of the human conscience.

Eric Drath recounts a great boxing story but in doing so defiles it. From the Michael Moore school of documentary making, he takes an already exploited, broken man and exploits him some more - always looking for a money shot.

Sending Mr Resto to see his estranged family and then, without prior warning to see the Collins family was beyond crass.

Any documentary maker who needs to put his own face in his film is flawed.

It's a great story and actually does unearth new evidence about the tragedy. It's just a pity that the project was devoid of integrity, empathy and compassion.

Watch Ring of Fire or No Mas instead.

This documentary by Eric Drath is about a fight between Luis Resto and Billy Collins. Resto was a fighter with a middling record while Collins was on the path to an eventual title. The fight itself has been mired in controversy ever since, as it was found that a significant amount of the padding from Resto's gloves had been removed prior to the fight. This caused Resto's punches to be more like bare knuckled shots. You don't much like most of the people in this documentary, especially Panama Louis, who allegedly was the mastermind of this. Still, this film is compelling as a morality tale. Neither boxer ended up gaining anything, which is part of the moral. I don't usually watch sports docs but this one, especially about something I didn't know about, but I was intrigued by the characters in this film. The truth is stranger than fiction? You can count on it.

People interested in boxing and in atoning will be equally attracted to it. I don't like to focus in subjective angles in reviews, but for this one I liked the story itself develop. The search for the truth. But I was not attracted to the part of the film connected to the guilt and atonement, the story beyond sports. This aspect is important, but I found it long and confused.

Overall, this could be a great 30 for 30 ESPN documentaries. At 90 minutes, it drags a bit. But again, if you like boxing or stories with people paying their dues, it works. Alert: a bit obvious, but if you think boxing is really savage due to its violence, you should really go for something else.

The film really starts off great as a very objective approach to what happened at the notorious Resto/Collins fight. But the film loses all credibility when the director breaks the fourth wall and starts parading Resto around.

It is the cardinal sin of a documentary filmmaker to do anything but DOCUMENT. Here, the director pays to have Resto fly all over America and do something he would otherwise not do. That is not a documentary. That is "reality" television.

Furthermore, his constant harassment of Billy Collins family is very uncomfortable. When a subject doesn't want to be interviewed, LEAVE THEM ALONE. There is nothing entertaining about watching a filmmaker bother someone until the police are called. It's something I would expect from network news, not a serious documentary filmmaker.

It's really such a shame because the film had a lot of promise. I won't say it's completely a waste of time, but I felt the filmmaker could have made a great film without Resto's guilt parade.