FOXCATCHER
US, 2014, 134 minutes, Colour.
Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall, Guy Boyd.
Directed by Bennett Miller.
Foxcatcher has been very well reviewed and nominated for many awards. It certainly is a very interesting and well-made film, worth seeing for its characters, power plays, American wealth and a film about Olympic wrestling.
There is an opening scene with people riding to hounds in pursuit of a fox. There is both realism and symbolism. Foxcatcher is the name of a company, set up by John Du Pont, the heir to the du Pont business millions. It was a company for the training of wrestlers, with the intention of training athletes for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Team Foxcatcher.
At the centre of the film is a young man, Mark Schultz, quite a single-minded young man, intent on his wrestling. He is something of a loner, goes to training in a gym and is managed by his older brother, Dave. The two brothers had won Olympic called at the 19th 84 Los Angeles Games.There is a certain rivalry but Dave is a more assured man, happily married with children.
Into their lives comes John du Pont, multimillionaire, with an interest in wrestling and especially in Mark Schultz and a summons to his Pennsylvania estate, plane ticket and helicopter reception provided. He makes Mark an offer which he cannot and does not refuse, coming to Pennsylvania, joining Team Foxcatcher, working with a number of elite wrestlers. While the film is about wrestling and there are quite a number of sequences which illustrate techniques, this is not solely a sports film. Soon John du Pont is inviting Dave Schultz to join the group. He is reluctant but is finally persuaded.
While the director, Bennett Miller, won the best director award at the 2014 Cannes film Festival, this is very much an actors’ film. Channing Tatum is quite intense as Mark Schultz, one of his best performances, a serious young man, not relating very well to others, finding in John Du Pont not only a sponsor but something as a father-figure. Mark Ruffalo, a fine actor in many a film, is certainly very good as Dave Schultz, happy to work with his brother, wary of John du Pont, yet working within the Foxcatcher Team, only to be the victim of the intensity.
The surprise is the performance of Steve Carell, best known as a comedian, often zany and loopy, but here very serious as John du Pont. His make up, especially his nose, given great prominence and often filmed from a low angle, suggest, at times, a bird of prey. Humour is not one of his qualities. Everything is serious, everything is intense, including his exercise of power to persuade athletes to join his Team, his joining in in their training, fancying himself as one of them. He is not only a father figure for Mark but also a sinister mentor.
The Du Pont family traced its lineage back to the War of Independence, with pictures and other mementos in their mansion. John du Pont takes wealth for granted, has a range of assistants who do his bidding, summoning people to meetings, enforcing his regimes. He has a strong and strange relationship with his dominant mother, played by Vanessa Redgrave, who considers wrestling a lowly sport, herself very involved with horse breeding and training.
But, it becomes all too much for John Du Pont, leading, for those who do not know the true story, to a surprising and jolting ending.
While the film is a picture of the sport of wrestling in the United States, it is also a significant piece of Americana, the status and power of the wealthy, exercise of dominance, with tragic results.
1. Awards and acclaim? Critical success?
2. The title, the foxhunting sequences, the portraits in the two point house, the horses on the property? The title of the wrestling company? US wrestling? The catch cry?
3. Audience interest in wrestling, Olympics wrestling, competitiveness? Mark and the opening sequences, his training with the dummy, the bouts, going to the office, his relationship with his brother, Dave? Dave and the training, his own achievement at the Olympics? The focus on wrestling and the details, the moves, seeing them in action, hearing the explanations? Wrestling terms and competition? Mark and Dave, the interest of Du Pont, his own interest in wrestling, his being in the bout and competition (and the payment allowing him to win), the award, talking to his mother and her disapproval? The success of the sport? The routines? At national and international level? Audiences seeing wrestling, understanding, learning? The success of the film as a wrestling film?
4. The film as drama? The portrait of Mark Schultz, bodybuilding the fight with the dummy, his gold medal at the Olympics, his talk to the children, at home, a loner, his meals, the shops, no women in his life, no explanation? The sexual implications? His being interviewed and the screenplay supplying information about his background, his parents, growing up? The bond with his brother, training, hard, giving his brother the blood nose? Both winners?
5. The importance of Dave, his success, his love for his wife and children, at his centre, the officials visiting, training his brother, his care for the younger brother? The good man?
6. Mark receiving the call from Du Pont, the invitation, the plane, the helicopter, meeting Du Pont, the interview, Du Pont as odd and sinister, his look, his manner, his words? Du Pont inviting Mark to join him, Mark’s acceptance, the house, Mark’s quarters, the training area? The gradual building up and revelation of the bond between the two men? Some mutual dependence? The discussions, the training, Du Pont and his idea, the Foxcatcher team? The men joining, ambitions, the squad and their lifestyle, the training and the manoeuvres, success?
7. John as a character, the background of Valley Forge and the revolution, Washington, the portraits in the house, the sense of history? The background of armaments, the Du Pont wealth? John and his age, a loner? The sexual implications? The dominance of his mother, her care for the horses, the interview with her and her being against wrestling? Her later visiting and seeing one of the bouts?
8. The glimpse of Mrs Du Pont, with the horses, her age and experience, will, wrestling being an inferior sport? Her watching? The impact of her death and John going to her funeral?
9. Mark and the effect of the experience, training, values, his memories of his Olympic medals? With the team, John’s support, Mark seeing him as a father figure? Changes, the regime, training, performing, bouts, Du Pont’s treatment of Mark?
10. Dave, his work? The Olympic medal? His refusing Du Pont? Change, his arrival? Traning?,
11. Du Pont, the team, his imagining he knew more about the sport, the exercises, the bouts? Yet his introversion, sitting alone? The falling out with Mark, treatment?
12. Mark, his reactions, the binge? His having to return to training? Weight? The challenge?
13. The Summer Games, preparations for the 88 Olympics, the different bouts, DuPont? and his presence and involvement, manic?
14. The fights, Mark and his success, the tension? Leaving, going his separate way?
15. Du Pont, the reaction to Dave, His arrival? Shooting him? His wife and children watching?
16. Du Pont and his entourage, bodyguards, protectors, business managers and consultants, pilots?
17. Du Pont his madness, going to prison, his death in prison? Dave and his being installed in the Hall of Fame? Mark, his subsequent life – and his being
consulted the film?
