Directed by John Huston
Written by Leonard Gardner from his novel
1972/US
IDMb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Tully: I know how I look. I look like a bum. I am a bum.
Oma: You’re not a bum. If you took a little more pains in your appearance I bet you could even get a job you really liked.
Tully: The job I’d really like hasn’t been invented.
Late in his career, John Huston brings us one of the great boxing movies.
The setting is Stockton, California. Tully (Stacy Keach) is a washed-up pro boxer. He is also a down-and-out alcoholic. He goes to the gym one day to fool around and finds 18-year old Ernie (Jeff Bridges) doing a great job with the punching bag. He thinks Ernie has real potential and tells him to look up his old manager at another gym. The manager also sees a future for Ernie and takes him on.
Tully spends most of his time in skid row bars. Other regulars there are Oma (Susan Tyrell) and her boyfriend Earl, who is an African-American. Oma has quite a mouth on her when she is drunk which is usually. Eventually, Earl goes to jail and Tully starts living with Oma.
Ernie wins a couple of fights. He also knocks up his girlfriend Faye (a brunette Candy Clark in her film debut). He marries her but must get a day job, thus ending his fighting days. In the meantime, Tully decides to give pro fighting another try, sobers up and goes into training. This is not so easy to do with Oma around. I’ll end there.
I’m still waiting to find a John Huston movie I don’t like. I loved this one. There’s plenty of boxing but really it’s a character study. The acting is fantastic. I was not acquainted with Susan Tyrell and am glad to see she got an Oscar nomination for her performance. She absolutely disappears into her part. The men are also great. This is almost certainly going on to my Favorite New-to-Me Movie of 2020 list. Recommended.
Yeah, John Houston’s pretty awesome! Even most of his lesser efforts (like In This Our Life with Bette Davis giving her all for a screenplay of dubious quality) have a few great moments that make it more than worth your time.
I even like Reflections in a Golden Eye, which kind of like Huston making a John Waters movie despite badly misunderstanding the material.
The one I don’t like is The List of Adrian Messenger. The gimmick is as stupid as the movie.
I kind of like In This Our Life. Bette was so deliciously bad! I’ll give you Adrian Messenger which I had forgotten entirely about. Haven’t seen Reflections in a Golden Eye.
I thought I was the only person who saw In This Our Life!
No, there are two of us to appreciate John Huston’s only “woman’s picture”.
Susan Tyrrell was absolutely amazing here. That Oscar nomination was so deserved. It made me want to know more about her, but she mostly played in minor movies as far as I can see. I hope some of them will come up on the List.
I honestly think she should have won. But then my beloved Eileen Heckart wouldn’t have her Oscar!