Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

lasttimeisaw Glancing with a documentary eye, John Huston's FAT CITY opens with Kris Kristofferson's lugubrious HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT to accommodate to a downbeat tonality, and concomitantly fills the screen with montages of the story's locale and denizens, a rundown California town called Stockton in the 50s, and then introduces Billy Tully (a cleft-lipped and hair- receding Keach), a divorced, childless peckerwood and former boxer on the brink of turning 30, doing odd jobs from hand to mouth, he aspires to return to the ring, but both physically and mentally he hasn't been conditioned to reclaim his glory. Meantime, a young stud Ernie Munger (Bridges), recommended by Billy, starts his professional boxing days but is he really the "one in a million" material which Billy sees in him? The script is penned by the author of its source novel, Leonard Gardner, which warrants fidelity to a large extent but also leans more on Billy than Ernie in the narrative. The boxing scenes, to the lights of a pugilism outsider, are less vicarious and impactful than its more famed cinematic cousins and sometimes one can discern they are playacting, both Keach and Bridges are not toned up in a pro's shape, but that might be the case here, Billy is over the hill, and the allusive reason behind his hard-earned victory is more due to his opponent's deteriorating health than his own prowess. As for Ernie, he loses both two matches presented on-screen and has a soft belly which both literally and metaphorically implies that he is a younger version of Billy, getting married out of onus rather than love, the road ahead of him looks glum, and it speaks volumes in the final close- up where the two boxers sitting sipping their coffee in concert but inside they are miles away from each other (Billy is a lush Ernie tries to avoid), without obvious effort of fumbling for words, that silent moment could be the only time they share before parting company for keeps, no matter how similar their trajectories will be, both Keach and Bridges (at a tender age of 23) are extraordinary players of conveying connotations and embodying nuances. A boisterous Susan Tyrell snatches an Oscar nomination for her terrific turn as Oma, a barfly who strikes a romantic relationship with Billy, but she is a damaged goods through and through, married twice before, habitually drenched in the hard stuff, Billy might be merely a fling to her while her current lover is in the jug. The two-handers between them are coruscating with sheer communion (in the seedy bar where they engages themselves from small talk to wearing their affectionate hearts on their sleeves), or blistering intensity (in their equally mangy bedsit where Huston pulls off the most kitchen-sink spat in the American map), she is an attainable lure for a rough diamond like Billy, but she will do him no good, and the vicious circle will never cease to repeat, time and again, because loneliness brings people together but it takes a helluva luck to be able to stick together.In a word, FAT CITY is on the top rung of Huston's corpus, a strangely disconsolate but whole- heartedly candid social critique of the stagnation and cul-de-sac facing by the have-nots, bestowed with a sublimely subdued texture with unobtrusive dexterity, but as a boxing drama, it still looks rough-hewn and conspicuously pulls its punches in terms of veracity.

Martin Bradley One of John Huston's late masterpieces. In fact, if "Fat City" were the only John Huston film you were ever to see you would still know you were watching the work of a great director. Leonard Gardner adapted his own novel about a punch-drunk boxer hoping to make a comeback and Huston transformed it into a sad, funny elegy on the themes of loss and survival; every scene makes a point, every scene hits home.It's also magnificently acted. Stacy Keach is Tully, the boxer who's a born loser. Jeff Bridges is the younger boxer who's 'soft in the middle' and who's no more likely to make it than Tully. Nicholas Colasanto steals almost every scene he's in as their manager, sadly another loser and there's a phenomenal performance from Susan Tyrrell as the lush Keach takes up with. She was Oscar-nominated and she should have won. This is also one of the greatest boxing pictures ever made.

PimpinAinttEasy To the fans of Charles Bukowski, you guys might want to check out this film. Its about the boxing scene in Stockton, California - described through the lives of two boxers, their lovers and their common trainer. It is a sad film about the ups and downs (mostly downs) in the boxers lives as they grapple with all the bad luck, the women, ennui and sloth. The characters were extremely fatalistic, seemingly unable to conquer the devil inside their minds or conquering it for a short while before it starts working on them again.Sex is an important part of the film. One of the boxers, Billy Tully (Stacy Keach) cannot seem to get over his wife leaving him. A spiritually wounding affair with an alcoholic woman does not allow him to forget his wife whom he loved dearly. Even when he tries to revive his flagging boxing career, it is in the hope that he can win his wife back. The other boxer, Ernie Munger (Jeff Bridges) is deeply insecure about his new wife. Another important aspect of the film is its shabby run down small town vibe. I love American films like these with its gas stations, small town bars, long empty roads, side streets, orchards, barren fields, levees and ugly one room apartments. There is something very idyllic yet bleak about these landscapes.The wiry Stacy Keach excels in a role that was offered to none other than Marlon Brando. Jeff Bridges plays a mildly talented but ultimately bland young man without any real personality. Susan Tyrrell is brilliant as an impulsive and alcoholic woman who befriends Stacy Keach's wounded boxer. Nicholas Colasanto steals the show despite the presence of all the other great actors. His turn as a cynical but persistent trainer added so much to this film. I was thinking about some of the Charles Bukowski novels that I had read while I was watching the film. I recommend the book by Leonard Gardner too. Best Regards, Pimpin.(9/10)

me-justaman I tried to hang in there looking for the great movie everybody was saying it was, but I couldn't sit through it.Every scene is so poorly written, the dialog is forced and give absolutely no sense of realism; sometimes it actually doesn't even make sens at all : trying to stick the most information in the dialog of one scene, ending up with plain ridicule. the scenes structure is all very muddy. really untalented storytelling all over. As for the direction of John Huston, it feels like he just had the camera rolling without even reading the script or paying attention to what the actors were doing. A prolific director, now i see at what price. John Huston is an overrated director who seem to have gotten away with plain bad film making. it is a consensus.this movie has A LOT of boxing scenes. Jeff Bridges looks pathetically ridicule as he pretend to box, he looks like a nerdy and feminine teenager who hasn't even seen a boxing match in his life, and should be studying computer science (well not in 1971 i guess!). he is so badly directed that he ends up being simply annoying. if John Huston doesn't do his job, Jeff Bridges could have at least taken a basic training to prepare for this movie. And once again, John Huston shoot the boxing scenes with absolutely no interest for quality, story, emotion or action.A beautiful story about losers (probably a great book), potential for a great drama, wasted by amateur scriptwriting (a book writer is not necessarily a script writer), a director who obviously doesn't make no effort, and ridiculous boxing scenes as Jeff bridges makes a fool of himself.to like this movie is to be very indulgent toward cinema and be satisfied with amateurish, bad film making.