First of all, let’s talk about the two protagonists.
Frankie was originally a stern, rigid old man. He has no family, only a daughter who will never hear from him. He goes back to church every day for Mass, but the priest doesn't like him, thinking that he must have done something wrong that cannot be forgiven by God. He can't get along with women. From the moment he saw Maggie in his boxing ring, he was at a loss, so that in the early days, every time he saw Maggie, he was embarrassed and disturbed in capital letters.
From accepting her to practice in the boxing ring, to agreeing to lend her pear balls, to agreeing to guide her training, to finally agreeing to be her manager and lead her to conquer the world... His originally frozen heart melted little by little, The love for his daughter, and even his wife, that was missing in his heart was filled, and the emptiness of his heart was no longer so often pinned on religion. When Maggie was infinitely beautiful, he was her mentor and military advisor; when Maggie was paralyzed in bed, he never gave up and did everything he could to treat her. Therefore, before Maggie was heartbroken by her family, she once proposed to live in a cabin with him and enjoy a quiet and comfortable life; when she made up her mind, he became the only one Someone who can help her achieve her goals. However, killing Maggie with his own hands is undoubtedly too cruel for Frankie. After all, the gap in his heart for so many years has finally been filled, but he will be torn off by himself and punched again. smash. After experiencing painful struggles, he finally decided that even if he had to bear the "curse" of the priest, he would fulfill her wish and help her end the pain. He kissed Maggie, who was so weak and dying on the sickbed, with tears in her eyes, and told her that "Mo Kushler" was engraved on her shirt and made the world cheer and go crazy. Meaning - my darling, my blood.
Looking at his dejected back when he walked out of the ward, I thought, this man really loves her.
Back to Maggie.
She was born in a small remote place, lost her father at a young age, and had great conflicts with her family. The experience from childhood to adulthood only made her understand one thing - she is rubbish. She only worked as a restaurant waiter, year after year, day after day. Only the boxing dream makes her different from others. However, before Frankie's formal training, she was just a 31-year-old boxer who was not in the mainstream, with nothing but ruthlessness. She used hard work, perseverance, and sincerity to get Frankie's recognition and her own level of rapid progress.
When her boxing career was booming, she used the money she saved to buy a big house for her family, but she was reprimanded by her mother-because living in a big house, she could no longer enjoy medical insurance... At the same time, Her mother didn't understand her career, and she smiled mockingly when she saw the injuries on her face left during the competition, and advised her to find someone to marry early and stop doing this.
While she was paralyzed in bed, her family said they wanted to visit her, but they made her wait two weeks because they were going to Disneyland! After having a good time, they brought lawyers, legal documents, travel shirts and caps, and walked to the ward in a dusty manner. They asked Maggie, a paralyzed Maggie, to sign papers with a pen in her mouth, agreeing to transfer the property to her mother's name. Maggie was irritated by their attitude and did not agree to sign the document. Seeing that the situation was powerless, they left angrily.
Such a family cannot share her pride and glory when she succeeds, and will only blame her for trivial matters; cannot share her pain when she fails, but learn to take advantage of the fire and focus on her property. It's terrifying. It was this kind of family that made Maggie gradually fall in love with this man after facing Frankie's trust and care, filling the spiritual vacancy caused by the bad family.
Next, let's take a look at the main line.
The film focuses on Maggie's boxing career, interspersed with the stories of different boxers, shows the relationship between ability and opportunity, and explores the necessary elements of success through comparisons between different boxers.
Huge Willie - has the ability but no chance, and finally got a chance to compete for the championship by changing managers and succeeded;
old black Eddie - has no ability and chance, lost an eye for the championship challenge and stopped being a boxer , currently following Frankie, doing the humble chores in the boxing ring;
Maggie - capable but missed the opportunity. In the end, due to hemiplegia in the game, she failed to commit suicide. Finally, she was able to "euthanize" with the help of the coach.
In real life, more people have no ability and no opportunity, and they are mediocre all their lives.
Among them, ability requires innate talent, acquired efforts and correct methods (correct guidance from trainers); opportunities need to be given by others or taken by oneself. Of course, one must seize the opportunity, seize the opportunity, and achieve qualitative change in order to get rid of it. mediocre.
Neither of the two is mediocre; the two do not match, it is regrettable; the two are matched, and this has the conditions for success. If you want to succeed, you can't have an attitude, you can't have an attitude, you can't have a method (the little skinny Dange is full of enthusiasm, but he only knows how to shout, and he can't even punch when he is training with Eddie), there is an attitude and a method. There is no chance either (Willie, the big guy at the beginning, already has the ability to win the championship, but Frankie doesn't give him a chance at all. Attitude has a method and opportunity but misses the opportunity (Maggie, because of her own negligence and the insidiousness of her opponent, she failed in the championship game and was disabled), and she has an attitude, method, and opportunity. After the hunk Willie).
But anyone who's seen the movie knows that it's not just about success. After all, the film used the last third, 40 minutes of length, to talk about the life of the paralyzed Maggie. So I think how to deal with failure is the real theme of this movie.
The film conveys the theme of the film through the different attitudes of different characters in the face of failure.
Maggie: Self-destruction.
As the heroine, in the first third of the movie, she used sincerity to influence the stubborn coach and started formal training; in the middle third, she was almost always playing games, which is simply a human block. Killing Buddha is invincible. It is the constant path of fighting monsters and upgrading in all juvenile comics. On the other hand, when she had the upper hand and success was at her fingertips, she was fouled and sneaked by an opponent during the break, fell headfirst on the rest bench, and woke up paralyzed on the bed... In the face of her family members, she was not sympathetic to her feelings, but only calculated. The face of money, the pain of losing a leg, she decided to give up her life. She told Frankie that she had already got everything she wanted, cheers, applause, and the realization of her dreams, so she didn't want to see it all taken away one by one. At her repeated pleas, Frankie ended up taking her own life.
Frankie: Continue to challenge the psychological line of defense and overcome past failures.
Facing the boxer who he had trained for eight years to rely on others, after a series of psychological adjustments, he accepted the female boxer Maggie. In the game arrangement for her, he constantly broke through the psychological defense line and challenged more powerful players, allowing Maggie to grow rapidly.
Eddie: Plain and self-sufficient.
This character is the "narrator" throughout the film, having gone through 109 matches and 15 rounds in the final match, the Championship Challenge (although almost every round was crushed) , and finally abolished his right eye. After the defeat, he followed Frankie and worked hard to run the ring. He has always had keen insight and extraordinary wisdom, and he has always looked back on the past with an indifferent, calm and contented look. Because he knew he had had a chance, he had come so close to a championship.
Little Skinny Dange: After experiencing bullying and humiliation, I gave up and finally decided to start over.
He is the one mentioned earlier, a boxing gym learner who is full of passion but has difficulty even punching (he can't be called a boxer at all). Facing the bullying of those around him, he has been in a state of forbearance for a long time; after a beating, he gave up for a while, but resumed his practice at the end of the film.
So why exactly did Maggie fail?
In my opinion, her mistakes are also inevitable by chance. When I rewatched it, the scenes before her when she was complacent seemed to imply her final failure.
In the four-round competition, she was used to the "blitzkrieg". She only needed two or three punches each time, and it took less than ten seconds to end a match. Such tactics revealed her great strength and ambition, but also fueled her conceit, and made her less patient to fight against opponents for a long time, to hone her stamina and coping ability.
When she offered to play a six-round match, Frankie said her lungs weren't ready for six rounds. Her answer: I can knock down the opponent quickly and end the game as soon as possible. This more or less shows that she is too utilitarian, does not consider her actual situation, is unwilling to step by step, and just wants to blindly challenge more powerful opponents.
Before encountering the really tough opponent "Blue Bear", she hardly ever played more than one round, and it was basically a quick battle. Therefore, in the face of a strong enemy, a longer game time has undoubtedly become a big test for her. The strategy and countermeasures are basically where Frankie points her to fight, which is not flexible enough and not independent enough to some extent. Therefore, when faced with the upper hand of "Blue Bear", it is difficult for her to deal with it calmly. In the third round, he had the upper hand, but he began to be conceited and underestimated the enemy. In the end, he was attacked by the opponent due to negligence. In addition, due to bad luck, his neck just hit the rest bench when he fell, which eventually led to his boxing career. 's termination.
In addition, I carefully observed Frankie's placement of the stool and found some clues. When Maggie first started playing, the coach would put the stool down after she had finished playing, and when she walked to the corner; when her lightning tactics were perfected, the coach would put the stool directly as soon as she heard the signal that she had won; the first two When Maggie came back in the next round, the coach also put the stool after seeing her come back. In the third round, she was very powerful and had a great advantage, so as soon as the referee announced the end of the round, he put the stool, but he didn't think so, this time the stool was put early but hurt her. To sum up, in the third round, not only Maggie underestimated the enemy, but the coach also underestimated the enemy. The two made mistakes at the same time, which eventually led to the tragedy.
This movie is outstanding in many aspects. It is a good movie worth pondering over and over again. At the same time, it also shows us a different charm of boxing~\(≧▽≦)/~
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