The Cut
Not a boxing movie per se but a gritty parable about the anguish people are willing to endure to chase the prize. Starring Orlando Bloom.
“The Cut” isn’t really a boxing movie.
Oh, there are some scenes inside the ring as two men with gloves pummel each other into oblivion. And it’s got that familiar “Rocky” dynamic featuring Orlando Bloom as an over-the-hill boxer given an improbable shot at the title, with a lady love who alternately inspires him and moans about the enduring damage he could do to his body and soul.
But really, it’s a parable about the anguish people are willing to subject themselves to in order to chase the prize. Bloom gives a gritty, believable performance as the never-named “Boxer,” a former champion known as the Wolf of Dublin, famed for having the highest ratio of knockouts to wins.
He’s now long past his glory days, running a sketchy gym for budding fighters back in Ireland along with Caitlin (Caitríona Balfe), his girlfriend and trainer. As we see in flashbacks, during his last fight he had the other guy beaten but found himself hesitating, in a place where a killer instinct is the only acceptable way of being.
So then the oldest cliché in boxing movies comes to pass: a championship fight has been set up one week hence in Las Vegas, but the contender had to drop out. Donny (Gary Beadle), the utterly mercenary promoter, needs any kind of plausible figure to fill in. And our guy, who finds himself disrespected even by the young mooks in their gym, finds himself hungry for one last shot.
The screenplay is by Justin Bull, based on a story by Mark Lane. At first it might seem like just a lineup of familiar tropes, though the movie is not concerned with the big fight, but what happens leading up to it: extreme weight cutting.
Boxer has kept up with his regimen, but he’s older and heavier now. He fought as a super-welterweight, which means he has to be154 pounds or less. He claims to currently weight 175 pounds… but cops to 180 when pressed. Is it possible to lose 24 pounds in less than a week? Caitlin thinks it can be done, though it’ll be hell — until they get to Vegas and he pops on a scale and is actually 186.
To accomplish the impossible, another trainer is brought in: Boz, played by John Turturro. Boz is known for doing everything within the rules and safe limits… and then doing a whole bunch more. Sweat-soaked workouts, no eating or drinking of any kind, even illegal pills and, if necessary, quite literally draining the blood out of the fighters.
“I’m gonna squeeze you,” Boz growls.
Needless to say, Caitlin is not happy with the situation, clashes with Boz and tries to convince Boxer to drop out. Boz says he’ll do absolutely anything to win, and thinks Boxer is secretly the same on the inside. He believes in “no rip cord” — because if you’ve got a fallback, you’re not fully committed.
The ensuing ordeal — repeated saunas, wearing garbage bags, etc. — leads to days of hallucinatory flashbacks to a rough childhood in Ireland, and especially his relationship with his mom (Clare Dunne), a prostitute who crossed lines between the IRA and British. His body is sucked dry of every ounce of hydration — but it still may not be enough.
A secret that Boxer has been hiding from everyone is that he’s become bulimic. He’s taken to gorging himself on fatty foods and then forcing himself to throw it all back up. So his hunger to be in the ring is not just metaphorical — he literally has cravings he cannot reconcile between mind and body.
If the idea of losing over 10 percent of your body weight in a few days seems like filmmaker B.S., you don’t know about the dark side of competitive athletics. A number of athletes, particularly in the blood sports like Boxing and UFC, have died while cutting weight. There’s an entire culture of chat rooms and YouTube videos surrounding it.
It’s even more common in bodybuilding and in Hollywood. Stars like Hugh Jackman and Henry Cavill dehydrate themselves to the point of passing out to display superheroic physiques of sculpted muscles and popping veins. Never mind that they’re closer to death than peak performance.
Ironically, Orlando Bloom must’ve had to do a lot of this stuff himself for this movie. He starts out fit but ordinary — he even pooches out his stomach to make himself look flabbier. By the end he looks positively wrung out, like somebody stuck a straw in him and sucked out all his vital juices.
It may sound nuts, but when all of your chances at glory are tired to emaciating yourself, people like Boxer and Boz will do anything to reach that goal. “The Cut” is about what a man will do, including what parts of himself he’s willing to let go, in order to feed the hunger inside.
In some ways, it’s more terrifying than the prospect of having your head beat in.