“The boxer is someone with an unstable personality,” Testa said. The first is the personal struggle a boxer experiences inside and outside the ring. Nevertheless, among more contemporary American boxing films, there are common themes that still attract audiences. The commercialization of boxing meant that the forbidden appeal declined, though a level of eroticism has remained. Furthermore, Testa added: “Individual combat is part of the appeal.” Compared to other sports, no one else is there in the ring to help the boxer win.
Other sports, like football and baseball, were legal, already popular, and usually had well-hidden criminal activities. While it fell behind other sports in terms of popularity around the 1980s, a part of its appeal was the fact that it was forbidden therefore, boxing films began as a kind of “sports pornography.” “What you weren’t allowed to see in person, you could see in the movies,” said Testa. “The world of boxing was a great opportunity for filmmakers, because it had such a powerful spectacle.”ĭue to boxing’s proclivity to be brutally violent, it was illegal until the 1920s. “ the 1900s, the two most popular genres… were boxing films and Jesus movies,” Testa explained. The Varsity sat down with an associate professor at U of T’s Cinema Studies Institute, Bart Testa, to get an understanding of why boxing and movies are a match made in heaven.īoxing films have a deep and rich history. Elsewhere, at UFC 285, Jake Gyllenhaal was spotted filming several boxing scenes for his upcoming movie, Road House. More recently, Creed III was released and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. In September 2022, The Varsity published a list of the five best sports films - three of them are about boxing. Boxing is a very appealing sport for filmmakers.
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