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 "Bleed for This," shown at the Toronto Film Festival this
week, tells the true story of American middleweight Vinny
Pazienza's successful return to the ring just 13 months after
fracturing his neck in car crash in 1991.
Pazienza, played by "Whiplash" star Miles Teller, went on to
become a five-time world champion despite being told by doctors
he would never box again. He now goes by the name Vinnie Paz.
The movie, along with another Toronto festival film, "The
Bleeder," follows last year's critically acclaimed "Creed," Jake
Gyllenhaal's "Southpaw" and Robert De Niro's new movie "Hands of
Stone," about legendary Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran.
"To me it isn't a boxing movie," said Bruce Cohen, producer of
"Bleed for This."
"It's about belief, it's about faith, it's about family, it's
about all these themes that ran through Vinnie Pazienza's life
that allowed him to make this extraordinary comeback," Cohen
added.
Aaron Eckhart, who plays Pazienza's coach, Kevin Rooney, said it
was not a traditional boxing movie.
"Movies are about people," Eckhart said. "We like to watch
people that have circumstances similar to our own, so you're
going to see a family up there that loves each other and worries
about each other and believes in each other."
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"The Bleeder," charts the life of U.S. heavyweight Chuck Wepner, who
is said to have inspired the "Rocky" films starring Sylvester
Stallone. Wepner, played by Liev Schreiber, was plucked out of
obscurity to fight Muhammad Ali in 1975 before his career fell part
and he served 18 months in prison on a drug conviction.
Philippe Falardeau, the Canadian director of "The Bleeder," is best
known for smaller, intimate movies like Oscar-nominated "Monsieur
Lazhar" and "The Good Lie."
"On paper you wouldn't think I would be the one directing a boxing
film," Falardeau said. "It is interesting for me to see that the
boxing event occurred at the end of the first half of the film, and
after that it was completely something else.
"This film is about instant fame and what you do with it when you're
completely ill-equipped," he said.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Rollo Ross for Reuters Television;
writing by Jill Serjeant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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