Cockfighter

source: Cockfighter

I always knew Warren Oates was a great "thinking man's" actor - huge dynamic range, believable in an amazing range of roles - but it took seeing "Cockfighter" to make me realize how exceptional he actually was. This is an amazing performance that absolutely carries the movie. (Everyone here is good-to-great, in fact). I was interested in seeing "Cockfighter" because I am a fan of Charles Willeford, and I wanted to see what someone did with this (even though I've never managed to snag a copy). And I have to say - this is practically an "art house" film. It tackles the presentation of a seemingly un-filmable story, breathes life into it, and makes the viewer a part of the proceedings. It seems at least as much of a character study as anything else, and of a quirky, broken man who pursues his seemingly pointless goal with the dedication of a Catholic martyr. Now the problematic part: if you have a problem with cruelty to animals, I don't see how you're going to be able to watch this film. There is a lot of *-fighting staged here, and the violence and death seem quite real. (I'm sure there was some wrangling and makeup involved, but there's no way all of this could have been faked.) This isn't gratuitous - the attitude of the characters towards the birds is woven into the fabric of the story, and faked, sanitized violence wouldn't have worked. But it does make the movie hard to watch at points. Your choice. I tried to watch with the intention and POV of the people it portrays and found it a fascinating slice of life and culture.

But this movie shows * fighting to the death and Hollywood gets a pass? Also it's actors who Partook? Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in this????? The movie is inhumane

This is a great movie and should be remade with new casting. I don't think it would be better but would reintroduced a wonderful industry to the world. The real cockfighting is awesome and is fun to watch. the slow motion is perfect. Although some of the people in the movie are not fancy and refined, there are some good honest folks in the movie. Just like real life the there are good and bad people in the cocking industry. I own this movie and would love to have a new copy on DVD. The VHS tape is worn out. I hope to find it somewhere. Most folks in the south have seen this classic. Grab a bucket of popcorn and a large drink and rent this one for the family.

I really have a sympathy for the kind of film-making this film aims at. I respect the intentions, i am always able to live in the environments films like this try to create. But when this sort of film fails, it's never a glorious failure, nor an interesting one. The thing slides to fields of boredom and emptiness. For what concerns direction and, to me, acting, this film fails totally. Not because it's incompetent, simply because it's not engaging, there is not a visual idea Hellman tries to explore. This is his only film i've seen so far; here he connects his narrative to the character, the actor (who apparently starred in many of his other movies). It is what certain film writers define as "character study". Well, i think that may be done, if the character is interesting, and that depends on whether the actor is interesting as an actor and as a person. So this drastically reduces the possibilities of success in such a kind of film. I didn't think Warren Oates was interesting enough for me to follow him willingly. This made the film as uninteresting in its content as the life of the straightforward * trainer. But something redeems all these flaws. the cinematography is unobtrusive and beautiful in many ways. Almendros was one of the cinematographers who could masterfully move away from protagonism and yet build a worthy mood we want to get into. Pairing with Truffaut, he gave us some exquisite moments of minimal photography, in the sense that he transcends through an apparent "naturalism". Striking... If you watch this film you may be led to believe, like i did, that some of it was bureaucratic work Almendros had to do to narrate the boring character Hellman proposes, but other moments are shining and worth watching. Among those are the * fights. the * close-ups are beautiful, and the careful editing allows the fight scenes to be really tough. The inner sets, when associated to intimacy, are also cozy and mood evoking. Apart from those, you'll want to see a certain scene: it's by a lake, the protagonist and his lover caress each other, and talk about their life and relation. The shot starts as a close-up of their faces, over a totally white background. Than the camera slowly zooms out, reveals the environment, and that's when we get the lake. All this is done with a subtlety which is really hard to see. This shot will be with me for a long long time. My opinion: 3/5 watch it, for the cinematography, only. http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

The reviewer that states "Warren Oates gives the performance of his career" lol wow what a crap career he must have had then because here he plays a moron who can talk but refuses to and wastes his life COCK FIGHTING hahaha. I actually like Oates when he is 2nd 3rd or 4th billed as someones ugly but good natured buddy like in Race With the Devil but this whole movie is just stupid. If you want to see dozens of roosters actually fight to the death then this is for you! SIDE HACKERS is better than this hell most MST3K movies are.

I`ll be quick and to the point without going into details about the film itself. I caught this a few years back for the first time on one of the movie channels and became immediately engrossed in it. A terrific character study with a performance by the late-great Warren Oates that consumes the screen. The kind of film most people don`t have the attention span for anymore....and that`s a shame. If you`re familiar with Hellman`s work, and appreciate it, it`s a must see. 8/10

It's really about much more than cockfighting, but it does have an authentic, quasi-documentary feel to it. If I'm not mistaken those are actual chickens actually killing each other, which is an almost mind-bending concept in 2005 film-making. PETA and the ASPCA must really gnash their teeth over this movie. The script is terse, due mostly to the fact that Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) has taken a vow of silence until he wins the 'Cockfighter of the Year' medal handed out by some caricature of a southern Senator. But the story flows, would you really expect any Roger Corman-produced movie to get too bogged down, and largely because you're never more than twenty minutes away from another bloody cockfight. Warren Oates is really feeling his... (no, I won't do that to you). He plays a guy totally driven by cockfighting, something that I find sort of brutal and more than a little boring, but his skill as an actor and the authenticity he brought to the role really drew me in. None of the other actors are really given a chance to make an impression. Ultimately I only watched 'Cockfighter' to see where it fits into the Rednexploitation genre, movies such as 'Moonrunners' or 'Walking Tall.' I'd say it's near the top of that heap and it's moderately enjoyable as a slice of life and for Oates' acting, but really if cockfights are one of those traditional forms of entertainment replaced by the Gameboy then I'm not so sure it was a bad trade.

I'm just glad I saw this movie on an empty stomach. The cockfighting scenes are too graphic and made me nauseous. It's not clear whether Hellman sees these guys as heroes or idiots. Maybe both. Still, I thought Warren Oates was amazing. He's the only actor I can think of who can make a mute, borderline-retarded cockfighter seem poignant, without being exploitive or gimmicky. He's one of the great character actors from the 1970s and 1980s, and he has good chemistry here with Harry Dean Stanton. Piece of trivia: The videostore guy told me that Hellman rented rooms to hold the cockfights but neglected to tell hotel management about it.

Unlike everyone here (except one) one of the best parts of this movie is the cockfighting scenes. Cockfighting is a truly amazing thing. Unfortunately, if you don't know how to follow it, it just looks like two birds flailing. Here the director films in perfect slow motion a real cockfight and you see the intelligent strategic way roosters fight. They duck each others attacks and counter attack and fight from the bottom. People need to get over themselves and realize that poultry chickens (the ones you eat) live much worse lives then these gamecock, so enjoy it for what it is, an amazing display of real nature! This movie, besides the cockfighting, is also brilliant. The silent main character puts on a hell of a performance without saying a word. All the praise for the actual movie has already been said here, I just wanted to emphasize that in fact one of the best parts of this movie is that its probably the only place you'll ever see one any film cockfighting with any respect for whats actually going on. In short clips in news or TV about cockfighting, theyll film it from far away so you cant actually understand whats going on. Its almost as if they're afraid if people actually could see the action they might actually enjoy it. Everyone who hates cockfighting will hate it even more if you see it up close. For those with an open mind, see what its all about.