MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)
Beautifully adapted from the stories of boxing expert F. X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby initially looks like a classic sports-movie-rags-to-riches deal, but it’s when director Clint Eastwood digs deeper that this multiple Oscar winner really takes flight. All of the characters in the film (Hilary Swank’s sweet, optimistic boxer; Clint Eastwood’s grizzled veteran trainer; Morgan Freeman’s seen-it-all-before boxing vet) have been bashed and bruised by life, and it’s the blood-strong bonds they form that make the film so profoundly moving. Its depiction of women in the ring is spare, unsentimental and non-sensationalist, and the film remains the standard-bearer for this sub-genre. Million Dollar Baby is a pitch-perfect film, and everything about it truly sings, including the brilliant performances (including a career best from the director himself, and a stellar turn from Swank); the director’s own low-key musical score; the salty, often hilarious dialogue; and its grimy, seamy depiction of the boxing world. Million Dollar Baby is a masterpiece.
GIRLFIGHT (2000)
Partially funded by indie great John Sayles after various financing options fell apart, 2000’s Girlfight instantly announced debut writer/director Karyn Kusama as a major talent to watch. Tough, soulful, and bristling with energy and fighting spirit, this impressive low budgeter follows Diana Guzman (a stunning career-making turn from Michelle Rodriguez), a young Latin woman who uses boxing as a means to transcend the difficulties and drudgery of her daily life. Energetic, sensual, sensitive and beautifully made, Girlfight is a real feat of female filmmaking. “There are not enough difficult, complex women on the screen,” Kusama told Bomb upon the release of the film. “The idea that a woman could be emotionally moving and powerful, and in possession of herself and her body, is not something that we see in film because so much of a woman’s physical sense of self when acting seems to be a performance for other people. I wanted to see a woman become physically powerful on that screen.”
FIGHT VALLEY (2016)
If you want females fighting, this little-seen indie packs a surprisingly hefty punch. When a young woman is killed in an illegal underground fighting club, her sister, Windsor (Susie Celek), quite rightly seeks vengeance. In order to get to the bottom of who threw the killer punch, she enters the world of women’s street fighting. Fight Valley is The Fast And Furious with more chokeholds, featuring a supporting cast of UFC fighters, including Cris Cyborg, Meisha Tate, and Holly Holm. As Windsor navigates her way through the murky world of the titular fight club, she learns the ways of the street from her sister’s motley crew, who all have a tale to tell and a code to live by. Writer/director Rob Hawk offers up a film whose female protagonists don’t need to wait for a man to validate them. In fact, any men who do have a presence in the film tend to be on the outside looking in. John Noonan
CHICK FIGHT (2020)
In this boisterous comedy from Aussie actor turned director Paul Leyden (best known for the soap As The World Turns), Malin Akerman brings it big time as Anna, a down-on-her-luck waitress who finds new meaning in life via a woman-only fight club. After realising she can really throw, Anna rises through the ranks with the help of Alec Baldwin’s haggard trainer, and eventually gets under the skin of Bella Thorne’s undisputed champ. Described by director Paul Leyden as “Bridesmaids meets Fight Club”, Chick Fight is a rollicking, salty charmer that cannily mixes a little commentary in amongst the raunchy jokes and jaw-hits. “We all need somewhere to take out all the anxiety and the stress of the world,” Malin Ackerman told The Advocate. “It would be lovely to meet up with these ladies in an underground fight club and consensually just get it all out. And stick together and hold each other up as we do in our sisterhoods that we have. That’s so important to be there for each other.”
THE OPPONENT (2000)
A barely released female fight flick from director Eugene Jarecki (the brother of The Jinx and Capturing The Friedmans director Andrew Jarecki, and himself the helmer of docos Why We Fight and Reagan) and star Erika Eleniak (who enjoyed a brief flash of stardom in the nineties as one of the pre-Pammy red swimsuited lifeguards on Baywatch), The Opponent is a surprisingly tough little number. Eleniak gives an engagingly gritty performance as Patty, who takes boxing lessons after taking one too many hits from her abusive boyfriend, and then finds that she has a knack for ducking, weaving and punching under the tutelage of James Colby’s gym owner and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s fellow boxer. “I did all my own fighting for the film,” Erika Eleniak told Flesh Eating Zipper. “Very challenging and gratifying…and painful, at times! I severed two tendons in my right hand and that put a stop to my ‘boxing career.’ I have tried Krav Maga for fun, since then…I loved it!”
RAZE (2013)
“Fifty women are kidnapped and forced to fight to the death in order to save a loved one’s life,” producer, star and veteran stunt performer Zoe Bell sold FilmInk on the premise for the now largely (and sadly) forgotten 2013 indie drama Raze. “It’s a women-in-prison film, but it’s also emotionally more accurate than most genre or grindhouse-type movies. It’s brutal, both physically and emotionally.” With a plot like this, it would have been easy for the film to play in to all the tropes of women-in-prison flicks, but the filmmakers thankfully manage to avoid the cliches. Director Josh C. Waller (the excellent low budgeter McCanick) treats the characters’ emotional stories with depth, but that doesn’t mean he shies away from the woman-on-woman brutality either. “My drive was to have the fights be as realistic as possible, and to have female fights that I’d not seen before,” Zoe Bell told FilmInk. “So, there were no weapons, no makeup, and no pretty blood. We just wanted it to be really raw.” Elizabeth Flux
THROUGH MY FATHER’S EYES (2019)
Directed by British boxer/actor Gary Stretch, Through My Father’s Eyes tells the electrifying story of MMA/UFC superstar Ronda Rousey, who nearly died at birth when her umbilical cord became wrapped around her neck, and caused a host of physical and emotional issues for her as a child. Overcoming adversity at every turn, Rousey eventually went on to become one of the world’s most famous female fighters, as well as a pop culture heavyweight, with roles in films like The Expendables 3 and Fast & Furious 7. “Ronda’s story is about more than just fighting,” said Gary Stretch upon the film’s release. “It’s about family, perseverance, and overcoming the odds. Ronda’s family were worried about her as a child, because of the circumstances of her birth. She didn’t speak until she was eight. But her father used to say, ‘Don’t worry about Ronda…she’s going to be an Olympic athlete.’ The fighting aspect is almost secondary to Ronda having so much determination to prove her father right.”
Fight To Live is released in cinemas for one night only on May 15. Click here for our review.
