Country:
USA
Starring:
Dustin Poirier
Tim Credeur
Albert Stainback
Gil Guillory
Corey Judice
Directed By:
Petra Epperlein
Michael Tucker
I know, probably more than most people, how much bullshit is associated with mixed martial arts *. Part of that is due to the sport's young age ** and the low number of men it broke and part is due to the way the UFC is marketing the sport. They created a sexy imagery around the sweaty, bloody warrior for whom fighting is pure and symbolic and helpful in keeping his greater demons away. See what I mean? Sure, the tip of the iceberg looks amazing, but it's about 1//10 of what there is. Enter Petra Eppelein, Michael Tucker and their little documentary FIGHTVILLE. I'm still at loss to figure out how it happened, but they came up with the freshest, most accurate spin on the sport I have ever seen on screen. Was it planned to expose the truth or did it happen spontaneously? It would have been so easy to take the highway and rehash the same ready-made commercial clichés that everybody buys into and yet, it's not what happens here. If you want to know how fighting in mixed martial arts really is, watch FIGHTVILLE.
What makes the backbone of this documentary is that is focuses on fighters who haven't made it yet ***. It follows the life and career of Dustin Poirier, Albert Stainback and Tim Credeur, from Lafayette, Louisiana. Credeur fought in the UFC, but never found big time success over there, so he focuses on training his pupils, bring them up to the big leagues. It's not glamorous and yet, it's not a disaster-scenario movie that shows the ravages the dream can have on young fighters. It just shows how hard they work and all the hard sacrifices they have to do in their daily lives. One of my favorite scenes is Dustin Poirier cutting weight and eating fish with almond butter, which he dreads, but he explains that he needs the nutrients, because his body will start breaking down his muscles if he doesn't. Poirier has the most boring life of all the people in the documentary and yet he has the most success. There is a direct correlation.
Another aspect I liked about FIGHTVILLE is the behavior of coach Tim Credeur, who has the total package as a trainer. I loved the scenes where he punishes his students who he signed up for fights and didn't show at the gym to put the work in. It's important for two reasons. First, it's a dry run of what's going to happen to them in the fight, if they don't change their preparation and two, it's a reminder that the gym vouches for them and by coming in unprepared, they hurt its reputation and therefore all of their coaches and teammates. Albert Stainback is the prototype young fighter with a horrible childhood, who talks a big game. When he derails from his preparation for his second pro fight, so Credeur uses Dustin Poirier to bring him back down to Earth. At the end, Stainback is thankful for the beating, because he's brought back to the reality of the sport. You can always end up on either end of a brutal beatdown.
Neither a poetic rendering or a cautionary tale, FIGHTVILLE gives you the facts about fighting. If you want to get in the game, this is how it's going to be, for a long, long time. If you get through all these ordeals successfully and convincingly, then you may taste the glorious payoff that is the UFC (which, by the way, is no cake walk). It's a long, grinding and painful way, to be that sweaty, bloody warrior that everybody else wants to be. FIGHTVILLE closes the gap between the idea and the reality of mixed martial arts. Maybe the parts about promoting were a little less relevant. No disrespect to Gil Guillory, but maybe it would've warranted its own documentary, rather than being patched on a film about another set of issues. It didn't really have the breathing room to be as interesting as the young fighters' upbringing. I would've loved to have more footage from Tim Credeur's gym and maybe a more in-depth portrait of the coach rather than bits about local promotions. So a minor lack of focus is the only issue of a tremendous documentary that gives proper, accurate insights on the latest urban myth.
SCORE: 88%
*Also known as ultimate fighting, extreme fighting or UFC. Stay in a gym long enough and you'll meet a bozo, walking off the street to tell you he's a fourth degree black belt in UFC style.
** The UFC was born in November of 1993, but mixed martial arts didn't become a smooth, seamless discipline until the turn of the century. The "style vs style" mentality is still somewhat present, although it is slowly fading.
*** If you follow the UFC minimally, you already knew who Dustin Poirier was, he's a household name in the featherweight division now. So he made it.