This content is protected From what I've seen I don't think the accuracy will be the best, though without seeing the scenes in context I don't want to be too firm about judging them. There's certainly enough holes to fill in that they can have some creativity, but eh. It also seems like a lot of it will be based on Boxiana, again eh. That said I think it looks like it could be a pretty good film, and I can't not be excited about a film about Jem Belcher. That said, I'll take a good movie with accuracy issues, over a more accurate and worse film. I can take it as historically inspired fiction
The style of fighting shown in the trailer doesn't look like what I'd imagine those bareknuckle fights actually looked like. The way I imagine it they were a lot more cautious, at least the top guys, the stances/footwork too modern, no feints shown, and the way they are throwing punches to the head in the trailer looks too risky, easy to break hand.
Honestly, at no point did I ever think them getting technique accurate was ever going to happen. Films have enough trouble getting modern boxing looking realistic, let alone boxing from over 200 years ago, with no film to work off of. There was a film called Eddie the Eagle about a Ski Jumper who competed in 1988, and they couldn't even get the stuntmen to use the style that was used for jumps at the time.
Yeah it was more wrestling from the waist up, head shots were carefully time in to not break hands, ete.
I thought his relation to Jack Slack was an unsubstantiated myth, but it looks like they really ran with it here. Maybe there will be a plot twist halfway through the movie where we learn that Russell Crowe isn't actually Jack Slack, since he died in 1768 (or 78) and Jem was born in 1781. The training methods look a little too modern, and I doubt there will be any choppers thrown at any point in the movie; but it's cool that someone took it upon themselves to give these legends some much needed screen time. They should do a mini-series on Mendoza if this one exceeds expectations.
Several people replied to my post about this movie at one Russian site saying that they have watched it a couple of days ago, but despite Russell Crowe's presence it doesn't sound to be very popular in Russia, as one of them wrote that he and his wife were the only people in the auditorium.
Great stuff. Yes, it looks like it may be lacking the caution, throws and straight shots that was championed, but hey, it's a big bare-knuckle release! I suppose they could have tried to get someone who looked a bit more like 'The Napoleon of The Ring' though.
