Main Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox, Ken Stott, Gerard McSorley
Release Year: 1997
Country: US/IE/UK
Run Time: 154 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) directed this drama about a Belfast boxer, filmed with Dublin locations substituting for Belfast. Released after his 14-year prison sentence for IRA activities, 32-year-old Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) returns to his old neighborhood and sees former-flame Maggie (Emily Watson), who has an unhappy marriage and now raises her son alone while her husband is in prison. To get back in the boxing ring, Danny gets the community-center gym back in operation and starts training, encountering opposition from militant IRA members, including Harry (Gerald McSorley). Danny and Maggie grow closer, but after a bomb sets off events leading to the destruction of the gym, Danny leaves for a disastrous boxing match in London. More grim situations arise when he returns to Belfast. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Director Jim Sheridan and his frequent writing collaborator Terry George craft this superb drama that examines the personal impact of Ireland's Troubles on one morally conflicted ex-convict. Most of the director's previous works are centered on characters who are their own worst enemies, blind in some significant way to how they have caused their own suffering. Here, the filmmakers have given stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson a pair of worldly wise emotional veterans who are all too keenly aware of the flawed decision-making that led to their downfall. As the story's hero, Danny Flynn, Day-Lewis is one step from defeated, struggling to make a difference by molding the minds and hearts of his neighborhood's children before hateful rhetoric robs them of their futures, and of hope. Ultimately, The Boxer refuses to take the easy way out, becoming a heart-wrenching film about the inevitable failure of redemption in a system of violence. It's a stark, unforgiving, and spare drama, seemingly small on the surface, with things to say that linger, dark and awful, about humanity's tragic acceptance of unthinkable cycles of ruin. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Eleanor Methven - Patsy; Ciaran Fitzgerald - Liam; David McBlain - Sean; Damien Denny - Eddie Carroll; Clayon Stewart - Akim; Kenneth Cranham - Matt Maguire
Credit
Richard Earl - Art Director, Fiona Daly - Art Director, Nye Heron - Associate Producer, Nuala Moiselle - Casting, Barry McGuigan - Consultant/advisor, Joan Bergin - Costume Designer, Tommy Gormley - First Assistant Director, Jim Sheridan - Director, Nye Heron - Second Unit Director, Gerry Hambling - Editor, Gavin Friday - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Seezer - Composer (Music Score), Alex Steyermark - Musical Direction/Supervision, Brian Morris - Production Designer, Chris Menges - Cinematographer, Jim Sheridan - Producer, Arthur Lappin - Producer, Kieran Horgan - Sound/Sound Designer, Jim Sheridan - Screenwriter, Terry George - Screenwriter
