Day of the Fight (2024) Black and White debut gem from Jack Huston
“I’m not a monster”
My fetish for debut films continues with this black and white gem from Jack Huston and a boxing film that isn’t about boxing. Not really. More a man searching for peace ahead of the biggest fight of his life or more accurately, his current biggest fight, and a fight far from the boxing ring of Madison Square Garden. I watched Day of the Fight purely on a whim and on a Sunday night into an early Monday morning full of birthday cake and with the lights off and a puncher’s chance and a shot at redemption if not the title. I found a beauty of a film that almost works but will no doubt sink under the middleweight burden of being labelled a latter day Rocky or Scorsese’s Raging Bull and these comparisons won’t help the film’s cause.
But you can by allowing it into your heart, taking the ride and spreading the word. Treat yourself sometime, and tell someone else. Right?
Anyway, here’s a loving dissection of the opening 11 minutes:
Through the opening credits and the faint sounds of a crowd and that of a crying baby, the first stirrings of Ben MacDiarmid’s magnificent strings and piano musical score introduce us to the briefest glimpse of colour in the opening frames before the film settles into black and white and shot from above “Mike Flannigan” (Michael Pitt) as he wakes from a nightmare. Cuddling a black cat in bed and turning his head to the right to locate his alarm clock, Mike or “Mikey” or “Irish Mike” as he will called almost throughout the film, has awoken before his 6am alarm and almost immediately the first of the film’s incredible soundtrack of songs commences with “Crucify Your Mind” by Sixto Rodriguez as Mikey begins his early morning run through the Brooklyn streets of his hometown, shadow boxing as he goes. Often cut between normal and slow motion time, this theme continues on Mikey’s return to his barely furnished apartment, wallpaper seemingly peeling from every wall. Here he continues his morning routine of skipping rope, press ups and sit ups before shadow boxing once more but now in front of a dirty, full length mirror before lifting his mattress from the bare floorboards (a mattress now seen for the first time and obviously doubling for his bed) and against a wall for punching practice. As “Crucify Your Mind” comes to a conclusion so does Mikey’s workout routine but not before performing a handstand in full boxing gloves and now catching his breath, a piercing, ear shaking shrill replaces the beautiful music of before as he now takes a shower amid low murmurs and warnings from an as yet unseen doctor of a “series of clots” and now, via the first of the film’s many brief flashback scenes, we see Mikey, his head heavily bandaged, sitting on a hospital table as his doctor (now fully seen) warns him of a “bulge in an artery in a very difficult place”.
Back to present day and accompanied now by Ben MacDiarmid’s simple and beautiful piano musical score, we find Mikey in silent contemplation in front of a small bathroom mirror before preparing breakfast for a black cat he cuddles lovingly in his arms and next a first cigarette of the day and another flashback, captured from behind as Mikey, smoking once more, walks slowly through a caged-in prison courtyard and back again to present day and now dressed, sitting at a small writing table. Quickly we flashback once more, back to prison and Mikey being watched by a gang of fellow inmates from an overhead balcony and back again to present day as he pulls a card from a drawer. After much thought he begins writing, slowly and in a childlike crawl as he misspells dearest as “Deerest” followed by his daughter’s name Sasha as we quickly flashback to Mikey writing at his desk in prison, then cuddling his newborn daughter as the camera dissolves onto a beaming girlfriend and back to present day as Mikey considers what to write next before ultimately giving up. We now see the front cover of the card for the first time and an iconic black and white image of Muhammad Ali as he places the card back in a drawer. Packing his jacket pockets and placing his all important headphones around his neck in readiness for later, Mikey now thumbs through a box of vinyl records before settling on “Forever Tonight” by Tony Costello and putting this in his bag as he next plucks a picture of his ex girlfriend and daughter from a nightstand and picking a cassette tape for his Walkman, he leaves his apartment.
As he affixes his headphones and begins walking the neighbourhood streets of Brooklyn so begins the second song of the film and “Blues Run The Game” by Jackson C Frank and head down listening to the tune Mikey doesn’t see or hear an old street friend calling him until he turns around and catches his eye. His friend couldn’t be more excited for him or his fight later: “You’re fighting in the Garden! The fucking Garden!” as his old friend calls him “Irish Mike” for the first time in the film. Plentiful smiles and hugs are exchanged but with Mike fearful of being late and leaving his old friend with not just a “smoke” but the entire packet of cigarettes, the boxer begins to run as we cut to a nun caressing rosary beads at the gates of a school as Mike breathlessly arrives on the opposite side of the road. Checking his watch and believing he’s late, Mike is first downcast and then full of smiles as his daughter “Sasha” (Kat Elizabeth Williams) arrives at school and spotting Mike on the other side of the road is full of smiles herself as they each wave to each other before she enters school. We flashback once more to Mike holding Sasha as a baby as her mother and Mike’s now ex-girlfriend “Jessica” (Nicolette Robinson) beams with pride at both Mikey and their newborn daughter before back to present day and with Sasha safely at school and through the school gates, Mike throws his hands to the air in relief before making a cross sign of religious thanks for his luck of being on time to see his daughter.
Closing the opening 11 minutes of the film we return once more to the beautiful soundtrack from Ben MacDiarmid and now a selection of strings from either a fiddle or a violin as Mikey approaches the dockyard of his youth and reflections from the man he has become and the boy he once was in a rain filled puddle and a flashback to his childhood once more and walking hand in hand with his mother along the dockside. Returning to the puddle and the ripples throughout his reflection we see the man of present day, lost in thought for the boy he once was and for the man he will be post the biggest fight of his life later that evening…
Suffice to say I rather fell in love with Day of the Fight and long before the continuation of the musical theme that runs brilliantly throughout the film and if you can watch Nicolette Robinson as “Jessica” singing “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival and not shed a tear along the way, then you have a harder heart than mine. Of the performances not already noted, John Magaro as “Patrick” excels, as does Steve Buscemi in a cameo as family friend “Colm”, Joe Pesci may break your heart as “Tony” and Ron Perlman has the largest of the marquee roles as Mikey’s trainer, confidant and ass-kicker of a quarter of a century for “the best fighter I’ve ever seen”. I may have been mistaken (or wiping away a rogue tear or two during the closing credits) but I’m sure I saw that all three of Steve Buscemi, Joe Pesci and Ron Perlman were credited as producers or executive producers on the film (they’re not officially noted as such) but no matter, this is Irish Mike’s story to tell and a quite astounding portrayal of longing, seeking forgiveness, friendship, reconnection and reconciliation from Michael Pitt. Day of the Fight may be a boxing film but it’s much more than that and Pitt’s performance screams desperation, regret, anger, sorrow, redemption and a generosity of mind and spirit that surprised and moved me and had me rooted to the spot throughout the closing credits as I pulled myself together after the final ten minutes.
My favourite film watched in 2025 so far.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon