The Fighter – From Futility to Freedom

The movie, 'The Fighter' is intense, cruel, depressing, uplifting and well made. It is based on a true story of human depravity, futility and redemption with a very subtle but pervasive dose of Irish Catholicism and piety. It is based on the autobiography of the boxer Micky Ward whose life as a boxer had a remarkable turnarounds.

Micky has the family which is a bunch of lazy step-sisters and a junkie step-brother Dicky (boxing trainer junkie) and a shrewd step-mom and dad none of whom really have much of a livelihood except to live off the money Micky makes fighting. Micky's step-brother , Dicky, was himself a boxer once and taught Micky boxing. Step-mom sets up matches for Micky whenever the family needs money, sometimes knowingly sending him to matches which are bad for his career and health. Dicky is Micky's trainer. Dicky seldom shows up for training because much of his time is spent in a crack-house with his junkie friends, almost always high with dope. Dicky a one time boxing champ, is now a dope addict and has a 5ish son who lives with step-mom and sisters. Micky has a daughter who lives with his ex-wife and her husband. You couldn't find a more broken family.

Micky's family is emotionally manipulative in living off Micky. Do their best to give an impression that they are a dotting family and are doing everything for Micky's best interests. Micky gets a new bartender girlfriend who fights (literally) against his family to extricate him from them and help him get on his own. Micky ponders detaching himself from the family much to the chagrin of his step brother Dicky, step-mom and step-sisters. Dicky's dope gets him in trouble. Micky in trying to help Dicky, gets his hand broken. Dicky lands in the prison. Micky’s career seems over.

With Dicky in prison, with his girlfriend’s support Micky gets a new start. There is a sense of normalcy and hope. But Micky realizes that as broken was Dicky was he was his best trainer. Dicky comes out of prison, and the destructive family dynamics return. Micky's step-Mom, Dicky, Micky's girlfriend take it on each other. Each of them tries to prove how so important they have been to Micky’s life and how they did what was best for Micky. Being unable to really prove their point, they get angry and indignant with each other and they all of them desert Micky.

Then comes a seminal moment when Micky's step-mom, Micky's brother, Micky's girlfriend get to see the utter depravity in their own selves. They realize how they in trying to appear to help Micky were really only trying to get to achieve their own selfish ends. Dicky only sought to re-establish his boxing career upon Micky’s accomplishments. Micky's step Mom supported Micky so that through him her dope addicted real son Dicky would have a second chance at life. They also wanted money from Micky’s fights. For Micky's broken 'treated-like-s***' bartender girlfriend, Micky was her best shot at life. If he failed, she too would lose her only chance for a better prospect in life.

This self-deprecating introspective realization starts with Dicky kneeling down in a dark passage in the prison and praying to God to give him a second chance. The introspective turn of events help each of them see their utter depravity, see how broken and in need of redemption they themselves are. Knowing who they REALLY are, they become more humble less overbearing.  Thus they become 'free' to try to do only their ‘little’ part to help Micky. Micky gets freed to be the best he can be. The rest is history.

Just like the Orwellian 'double-speak' human beings do a 'double-think'. They can really get themselves to think that they are helping someone when in truth they are only trying to help themselves. Their conscious mind thinks one thought (which makes them think they are selfless), but the unconscious thinks another 'repressed' selfish thought that serves the opposite interest. This unconscious selfish thought is repressed by another thought - that they are basically good people who have good attractive qualities which they think they can use to help others. They cannot see the duplicity in their seemingly selfless motives, unless they are willing to acknowledge the truth that there is nothing about them that is really good or attractive.

This is a deeply Christian principle that man is so deeply marred by the Fall and that he is so broken that even his best intentions and motives are colored by his deeply selfish nature. Christian theology calls this 'total depravity'. Only when man realizes that he is 'totally depraved' and so really needs help from God to become righteous, he is freed from his depraved self-seeking self and his redemption starts.

'The Fighter' depicts this cycle from futility to freedom so beautifully. There is initially the phase of 'double-think' and accompanying clash of selfish interests and self-exalting attitudes ultimatelyresulting in futility. Then there is a phase of realization of the deep ‘total depravity’ and submission to God following which is redemption and truer love, better community and gratitude towards God and life.