Frederick Wiseman is one of our greatest documentary filmmakers. In more than 40 years, he has directed 37 movies depicting the cruelty of an insane asylum, the glory of a sports arena, the beauty of a park, the discipline of ballet, to name just a few. His latest, "Boxing Gym," which opens today as part of the Webster University Film Series, looks at boxers and boxing–and the world–through the prism of a small gymnasium "behind the Goodwill building," in Austin, Tex.
Wiseman is an observer. Unlike, say, Michael Moore, he isn't seen, doesn't speak, seems to have no agenda beyond his editing bench. The brilliant John Davey, his cinematographer, provides pictures that speak without words, and Wiseman weaves them together. There are no interviews. Wild sound and snippets of conversation are sufficient to provide insight into his subjects and their surroundings.
Richard Lord, a wiry little man with a rattail hanging down his back, runs a democracy in a serious, conversational, autocratic manner. If you sign up for Lord's Gym membership, at $50 a month, you can show up at almost any hour of the day or night, use whatever equipment is there, stay as long as you like, work as fiercely or as gingerly as you prefer, accept tips on how to live and how to box, bring your child or your dog, leave when you think the time is right.
It's a well-used, well-loved facility. Heavy bags are almost covered with duct tape, light bags reverberate with a proper rat-a-tat-tat sound that provides background music. The slap-slap of jump-ropes, the thud of punches being received on headgear, the small explosive sounds of exhalation all add to the rhythm of the place.
Young and not-so-young boxers work on balance by jumping on old truck tires. Others pound sledge hammers into similar tires, feeling the rebound of the hammer.
The patrons are serious, mostly worldly. Some are there to fantasize about a future, but most are realistic. They want to get into better physical shape, or to properly respond to a bully. Women, more serious than men, keep an eye on a child in a basket while they pepper the punching bag. Davey's magical camera catches a dog chomping happily on a bone while boxers spar in the ring above him.
There are people from everywhere. Some talk about the Virginia Poly shooting, agreeing that this sort of event is bound to be a continued, picked-upon scab on the American psyche, its culture of violence. They sadly agree it will never end, a chilling comment in the wake of the Tucson shooting. Most are happy to be following a dream, and watching them spar, or practice their footwork, or rattle the chains of the various bags, makes one understand why the 18th-century English boxing writer, Pierce Egan, called it "the sweet science." The term was subsequently picked up and used (and properly credited) by A. J. Liebling, whose collected magazine stories about boxing, under that title, probably is the finest book about boxing ever written. The movie is darn good, too.
Boxing Gym opens tonight as part of the Webster University Film Series and will play at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus nightly through Sunday.
—Joe
Comments
2 responses
I couldn’t find Lord’s Gym on http://stlouisgyms.net. Is it not located in St. Louis?
Ummm…you know this is fiction, don’t you?