Friday, June 3, 2011

The Fighter

Why can't I stop thinking about Mark Wahlberg? There are a billion people without access to clean water, there are old widows being burned alive in India, and yet what does my mind keep gravitating to? That's right: Marky Mark. I just saw The Fighter the other day. It started out slow, I didn't really like it at first, but man, did it close with a bang. It's right up there with Rocky and Hoosiers and Raging Bull for me as one of the greatest sports movies. I've only seen it once, but holy smokes.

In the end, it was the "making of" portion of the DVD that put me over the top. Just the dedication involved in making the film baffles my mind. They spent four years on it from start to finish. Wahlberg made all of these other movies while he developed it as producer, namely "Max Payne", "The Lovely Bones", and a few others. The dude trained EVERY DAY for two hours, waking up at 4 A.M. in the morning and finishing at 6 A.M., and he did this for FOUR FRICKING YEARS!! In the behind-the-scenes snippets, he says he subjected himself to this regimen because they kept starting and stopping production, so at all times he wanted to look physically like he could be a world-class boxer. He even built a boxing ring at his house to train!

Wow, that's serious dedication. It inspired the hell out of me. It made me want to write and write until my fingers bleed. Seriously, do yourself a favor and see this movie. I thought it looked kinda dumb from the previews so I never saw it in the theaters, and now I'm kicking myself. It will inspire you, seeing where the character Mickey Ward (and his brother Dickie) came from and all they accomplished.

No comments:

Post a Comment