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CockfighterRating:
Release Date: 30 January, 2001 Retail Price: $29.98 OUR Price: $26.99 You SAVE: $2.99! Cast: Complete Cast (14 total) |
Cockfighter Reviews
Vanishing Ways
This is not an exploitation film, nor is it hard to watch, as some would have you believe. Yes, it depicts real cockfights, but that is what this is about- cockfighting and the men who love(d) it... This film is graceful, lovely, and goes down quite easily. It's one that you can finish and then watch again right away.
I'm not going to address issues of morality here, because if you have problems with the subject matter then why are you even reading reviews on this. I'm also not going to recap the plot, as that can be found elsewhere. I just wanted to write and say how really magnificent this work is, and if you have a love of vanishing Americana, then you must check it out.
Cockfighter
W. C. Fields had a notorious and well-documented loathing of children and small animals. There's nothing innately evil about children and small animals, but they tend to be small and cute and have been known to steal an audience's attention and sympathy without breaking much of a sweat. Roosters tend to be small, if not terribly cute. They're capable of diverting an audience's attention, though. Would Fields have envied COCKFIGHTER'S Warren Oates? After all, Oates not only gets to (really) kick a feathered, five-pound scene-stealer, but also, in a continuous, uncut shot, gets to stretch its neck out and chop its head off.
Animals WERE harmed during the making of COCKFIGHTER and anyone who might find graphic scenes of violence upsetting or repulsive are strongly urged to let this one pass by. Built on a small ($400,000) budget and shot on a tight, four-week schedule by Monte Hellman for producer Roger Corman (Hellman, on the commentary track, claims this is one of only two movies Corman never made a profit on) COCKFIGHTER is a quickie/cheapie that cuts deep against the grain by exploring more than exploiting. Shot in Georgia and wisely going for a run-down, lived-in, authentic look, COCKFIGHTER introduces us to Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) at what seems a typical point in his life. He's making an outrageous bet with Jack Burke (Harry Dean Stanton) and we're soon to see minus truck, trailer, and live-in girlfriend. Flashbacks teach us that it's not the first time he's made a wager he can't afford and won't back down from. One of those ill-timed bets inspired a mocking `Look where your big mouth got you!' And so Frank takes a vow of silence, a self-imposed penance that speaks volumes of Frank's stubborn sense of honor.
The vow is maintained throughout the movie, save for the intermittent voice-over narration. It's a vow Frank will keep until he's able to redeem himself to himself. Of course, redemption comes in many guises. For Frank, it may be finding the right bird - a white rooster named White Lightning, for instance - and riding him to the Championship, or it might be establishing a solid relationship with the woman he loves, Dody White Burke (Laurie Bird.) The emotional meat of this one is carried in the scenes between Oates and Bird, a relationship that probably should have been fleshed out some. If there's a flaw in this movie it's that it doesn't allow us into the triumphs and setbacks on the road to the Championship, and, it doesn't spend enough time with Dody and Frank. Still, the movie spends a lot of time in the ring, and the down-home earthiness filmed in a quasi-documentary style delivers a powerful punch. On the c-track Hellman says they considered using an amateur cast. There are an awful lot of barking amateurs populating the screen, but Oates, the last American actor for all seasons, fits smoothly into this environment. Some movie stars we admire because they do things that we wish we could do. Oates is that rarer, much rarer, bird who we relate to because they're us. That he delivers a powerful performance without uttering a word is little short of astounding.
Master cinematographer Néstor Almendros captures perfectly the furtive beauty of cockfighting. Oates is perfect. Stanton, Bird, and the rest of the cast acquit themselves with honor. Hellman gives the subject a down-home feeling that fits well. The story may be a little undercooked and the Laurie Bird character underdeveloped, but this is certainly better than the typical drive-in, exploitation fare Corman was specializing in at the time. A very good film and worth a view.
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