Day of the Fight (1951)

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writer:

Robert Rein (narration script)

Release Date:

26 April 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Short | Sport

Plot:

Based on Kubrick's pictorial for Look Magazine (January 18, 1949) entitled "Prizefighter," "Day Of The...

Plot Keywords:

Look Magazine | Boxing | Narration

Cast

Douglas Edwards

...

Narrator (voice)

Runtime:

16 min | 13 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

If you look closely, at times you can see Kubrick operating a film camera.

Quotes:

Narrator: In these hours he can feel his body tightening, but it's a tightness that does not come from lack of confidence, it's the pressure of the last waiting. Here in a place where the walls are so close a man can barely move his body around. If only the fight would come, then everything else would not be so bad -- not really bad at all.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Raging Bull (1980)

Interesting for completists but no-one else

The first short film by Kubrick, it follows a boxer through the day-long wait for an evening fight.

I watched this out of interest as I watch the majority of Kubrick's films. However this is the only appeal that I can see for watching this.

The short follows the boxer through his routines on the day, the heavy narration talks us through the whole thing. In theory the short is meant to give us an insight in the boxer's thoughts and feelings however it really only shows us what he eats and who he talks to.

This is interesting if you are a Kubrick completist but other than that it is of limited appeal.