Tim Blake Nelson Lands a Massive Punch in “Bang Bang”
The sport of boxing makes for excellent film fodder. There’s something romantic about the ring and forcing a camera to be confined within the ropes. These films come as close as humanly possible to capturing emotional highs and lows as sweat flies and the wind is knocked out of an unlucky pugilist who couldn’t manage a block. From Rocky to Million Dollar Baby, boxing movies have put two people with the weight of the world on their backs into a small ring, forced to duke it out for pride, money, fame, a way out, you name it. Vincent Grashaw’s Bang Bang is what happens after the boxing movie ends, but the world keeps going.
Bernard Rozyski (Tim Blake Nelson) is better known as Bang Bang. There was a time in his life when he ruled the ring. He’s a once-famous prizefighter from Detroit who hasn’t set foot in a gym in decades. Something from that time in his life haunts him, but he isn’t willing to talk about the ghost that’s chasing him. His grumpy, isolationist lifestyle is interrupted by the arrival of his adult daughter (Nina Arianda) and his teenage grandson, Justin (Andrew Liner). His daughter got a job in Chicago and she’s going to move Justin there too, once she gets on her feet. For now, she’s entrusting him to the care of Bang Bang. Unsure of how to bond with this teenage kid, Bang Bang takes him to the ring.
courtesy of Vertigo Releasing
Running parallel to this Odd Couple-esque dynamic of Bang Bang and Justin is Bang Bang’s dislike for mayoral candidate Darnell Washington (Glenn Plummer). The two have a boxing history together, with one monumental fight that Bang Bang hasn’t gotten over. Since that fight, their lives have wildly diverged. Where Bang Bang lives in a falling-apart apartment, Darnell has a mansion. Bang Bang could never get enough signatures to make it on the mayoral ballot, let alone win, while Darnell seems to be the favorite. Bang Bang shows the way this divergence has played out with both men. The anger and resentment they still hold for one another and how that guided them to where they are now.
From the first introduction, the audience feels a small attachment growing to a man who is nothing but rude and angry. That’s thanks to Blake Nelson, who wholly commits to this banged-up, beaten-down boxer who refuses to go away. When you’ve built your entire life refusing to budge, how do you handle the world changing around you? Some of Bang Bang’s most interesting moments come from cultural clashes between Justin and his grandfather. Justin sees fighting as a last resort, and instead focuses his efforts on trash cleanups to better his city. Bang Bang sees that as a waste of time, but by the end, they start to understand where the other is coming from.
The biggest gut punch of Bang Bang is one of the postscripts that likely served as inspiration to make this film. “The American Association of Ringside Physicians will tell you that the highest number of mortality rates are from fighters whose fathers are in their corner.” Our parents can be our biggest supporters or our largest detractors. It’s up to them to decide the role they want to play in their child’s life. Bang Bang is not about the moments in the ring, but the tougher moments that come after. When the spotlight’s off and the blood has dried, what kind of person will you be?
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