Cockfighter

1974 "From Governor's Mansions to Cheap Hotels: The Big Money Sport that's Dirty-Violent and Outside the Law!"
6.9| 1h23m| R| en
Details

A man who trains fighting cocks vows to remain silent until one of his birds wins a championship.

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Reviews

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!
FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
oliveira-7 The subject of cockfighting may be unsavory to many, but Monte Hellman built around it, with the help of writer/actor Willeford, a very pleasing piece of cinema. One gets into the underworld of cockfighting (still legal then, in some US states) with characters, situations and fates that are as close to real life as one could imagine.Speechless Warren Oates radiates as an unlikely hero, dominating the scene with Hellman's complicity. And the outstanding cinematography work by Almendros delivers an impressive image quality, with particular praise for the virtuoso capture of the highly shifting fights.Hellman likes challenges and excels in his trade.
RResende I really have a sympathy for the kind of film-making this film aims at. I respect the intentions, i am always able to live in the environments films like this try to create. But when this sort of film fails, it's never a glorious failure, nor an interesting one. The thing slides to fields of boredom and emptiness.For what concerns direction and, to me, acting, this film fails totally. Not because it's incompetent, simply because it's not engaging, there is not a visual idea Hellman tries to explore. This is his only film i've seen so far; here he connects his narrative to the character, the actor (who apparently starred in many of his other movies). It is what certain film writers define as "character study". Well, i think that may be done, if the character is interesting, and that depends on whether the actor is interesting as an actor and as a person. So this drastically reduces the possibilities of success in such a kind of film. I didn't think Warren Oates was interesting enough for me to follow him willingly. This made the film as uninteresting in its content as the life of the straightforward cock trainer.But something redeems all these flaws. the cinematography is unobtrusive and beautiful in many ways. Almendros was one of the cinematographers who could masterfully move away from protagonism and yet build a worthy mood we want to get into. Pairing with Truffaut, he gave us some exquisite moments of minimal photography, in the sense that he transcends through an apparent "naturalism". Striking... If you watch this film you may be led to believe, like i did, that some of it was bureaucratic work Almendros had to do to narrate the boring character Hellman proposes, but other moments are shining and worth watching. Among those are the cock fights. the cock close-ups are beautiful, and the careful editing allows the fight scenes to be really tough. The inner sets, when associated to intimacy, are also cozy and mood evoking. Apart from those, you'll want to see a certain scene: it's by a lake, the protagonist and his lover caress each other, and talk about their life and relation. The shot starts as a close-up of their faces, over a totally white background. Than the camera slowly zooms out, reveals the environment, and that's when we get the lake. All this is done with a subtlety which is really hard to see. This shot will be with me for a long long time.My opinion: 3/5 watch it, for the cinematography, only.http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com
chaos-rampant This Roger Corman produced movie about the dubious sport of cockfighting probably occupies similar ground to Cannibal Holocaust in a way. They both exploit animal violence for their goals but those goals stretch beyond mere schlocky entertainment (and I have to say that CH is no more hypocritical than the people who condemn it and then chow down on burgers).True there are actual cockfighting scenes in the movie and real animals were harmed and killed and the fights themselves are presented in a very grim way, so animal lovers are advised to stay away. But Cockfighter is also a Monte Hellman movie and not content with wadding its way through schlock. It's similar in many ways to his masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop in that it is an understated character study disguised as something else (in Blacktop's case a road movie, here a movie about cockfighting), introvert and contemplative without any pretense and stripped of all fat.Warren Oates almost totally silent performance is great, relying on glances and gestures and understated enough to suck you in his character's tormented psyche like a Lon Chaney of 70's hardboiled cinema. His character is reminiscent of the G.T.O. he played in Blacktop three years earlier, once again a drifter, a man that has fallen out with society and himself and is now trying to come to terms with life in his own way. As is true for other Hellman movies and his great talent, things are never spelled out but are left vague as if incomplete but still carrying all the meaning they're supposed to carry. The puzzling ending is another example of this and I think the movie is better off because of it.Newcomers to Hellman's movies might wanna start elsewhere and work their way to Cockfighter. This is still characteristic of his work and Oates is in top form, but it's not as good as Blacktop although maybe more accessible. A must-see for fans of Sam Peckinpah too.
musiconthemoon Yes! It's the curiously titled 'Cockfighter'! Fear not though, it's about blokes who enjoy watching chickens kill each other. Maybe fear a little, this isn't a Disney film.Warren Oates seems to be continuously excellent the more of his work I get to watch, and sure enough he gets the {sports metaphor involving a net or a run or a goal which means he's great}. Here he plays a character who pretty much says nothing, using only hand gestures to display his feelings about cocks.He pulls it off.This film 'ain't no 'date' film; this is about strapping sharp weaponry on to small birds and then watch them kill each other. Apparently it's the manly thing to do. Viewers get to see chickens stab each other in the head, then get to watch it in slow motion. Again. And again. There is however something visually amazing about watching two chickens kill each other, which I'm sure is why people did (do??) it. Probably not.It's an interesting and engaging character study, despite the 'shock' factor of chicken-death -for –fun. Everyone turns out great performances; The Oates seems to blend into the chicken scene expertly. Ed Bagley Jr. appears as a guy who loves his chicken a little too much and wears ridiculous clothing. He is a treat to behold. James Earl Jones' dad even pops up, which in retrospect I feel to be quite an honour, for some reason I can't quite fathom, a bit like people who feel 'lucky' to witness an animal give birth when in reality it's quite disgusting. The guy that plays the polish chicken-fetishist type guy (at one point he says something like "I'm well into cocks"… or something) is strangely creepy in his zeal for the 'sport'; watch all the close ups of him and tell me you don't feel awkward …like you've just watched him lick a child's face and he's turned to you and started a conversation about hammocks like nothing has happened. Harry Dean Stanton cuts a fine figure as a rival cock fighter who wears suits and fancy shoes. He all the way classy..uhuh. There is even a guy who sticks a c…chickens head into his mouth, licks its gentlemanly parts, then sticks his finger up it's hows-your-father, which apparently is illegal in the noble world of cock fighting. Who'd a thunk? Personally, I detest animal cruelty, and when it's for entertainment I'm raging. However I really enjoyed this film, which puts me in a weird place, like I've travelled to the future and got into a fist fight with my future-self. I'm not entirely sure whether it's pro-cock fighting or anti-cock fighting (although I suspect the film doesn't care). It's just about a guy who has found his calling doing something that most find morally reprehensible, but it's who he is and what he's good at. It's quite scary because it shows what people got up too to fill their time before game boys were invented.Think of 'Rocky' but with chickens. Yes 'Rocky' fans…there is a montage of chicken training action. Fear not. Chicken on a treadmill.According to IMDb.com this film has been banned from being released in the UK ever because the chicken fighting contravenes some film makers law, which is fine, but it is a good film, which is annoying.Ross @ www.musiconthemoon.com