I’ve never thrown a punch at anyone in my life, but I do enjoy a good boxing movie. Sure, it might be a rather ridiculous “sport” but when there is so much emotion that goes into every single punch, jab, or hook, it certainly makes it entertaining to watch. I grew up watching the Rocky films (and in my opinion, all of them are great), while the follow-up franchise, Creed, is pretty damn good too. There is certainly no denying Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull is a masterpiece, Cinderella Man and The Fighter, along with Southpaw, are also amazing examples. Rather than the typical “hero’s journey” structure, there’s The Harder They Fall, The Hurricane, Million Dollar Baby, and dare I say Real Steel. On the Indian side of things, Mukkabaaz, Sarpatta Parambarai, and Irudhi Suttru have tackled politics in sports, casteism, and sexism, and fared quite well in this sub-genre. Boxer, the Polish Netflix film, aims to show yet another aspect of boxing but ends up being full of every cliche you can think of.
Boxer, a film directed by Mitja Okorn and written by Ivan Bezmarevic, Okorn, and Lucas Coleman, starts in 1995 with Jedrzej reflecting on his life in his uncle Czesiek’s gym. Clocks rewind to 1971, where Edwin, Jedrzej’s father, is filmed fighting an astonishing match and winning it while joyously celebrating with his family. Edwin’s life is turned upside down when two menacing gentlemen out of nowhere offer Edwin an ‘epoch-making’ deal concerning his future fights. Offers to make him the next boxing superstar. This was the reason behind Edwin’s subsequent estrangement with Czesiek which resulted in Edwin’s retirement from boxing and in consequence, the dreams of Jedrzej’s boxing career. Edwin leads a mundane life as a coal miner, eventually passing away shortly after. During this period, Jedrzej seizes the chance to take boxing lessons under the tutelage of Czesiek. Along the way, he meets and falls in love with a woman named Kasia. The scenario changes drastically for the worse due to the Polish Crisis which forces the people, including Jedrzej and his wife, into poverty. Ultimately, Jedrzej decides to abandon the plans to sustain Poland and bring his career to England where he hopes to finally achieve the long overdue success he desires.
Then you have the same old story of ‘corruption of the soul due to greed’ you’ve heard a hundred times before.
Pretty sure Boxer wraps up with the observation that “In the 1980s, more than a million people left Poland for other countries as a result of poverty or persecution. They took the risk.” Then we are shown a montage of Polish sports champions who made it on the world stage. It makes me puzzled why the two-hour and thirty-two minutes long film I just watched was not about them. It’s clear the writers make almost no mention of The Polish Crisis. The consequences of the Polish government on the Polish people are completely ignored so that we can have a by-the-numbers rag to riches-to-back-to-rags-to-redemption story. Everything after Jedrzej and Kasia land in England is so predictable that I can tell where the story will go just by closing my eyes. The main themes revolve around sex, drugs, money, loyalty, infidelity, and children following in the footsteps of their parents. The Polish Crisis only exists to provide a context. After a while, it doesn’t matter that the characters have fled Poland. They could have come from space and the outcome would not change.
It’s simply irritating that the movie Krzystof Nowak keeps reminding us of his character, a winning player in the Poland of repressive years because that sounds much more interesting than the story we have to endure.
It is clear that Okorn’s direction in Boxer could use some work, especially in the boxing scenes. I feel like the fighting scenes in Raging Bull which is a movie from the 1980s, in case you didn’t know are a million times better than whatever pathetic attempt these “filmmakers” are making in a 2024 “film” that is trying to pose as a tribute to ’80s films. I get that there are a few moments of “dirtying the lens,” but without some form of authentic emotion or even decent character development, it seems more like a sucky Jedrzej-kid act rather than an expression of Jedrzej’s internal conflict. The film has just one journalist, and to my surprise, she is sexualized to a ridiculous extent. The misogynistic portrayal of Jedrzej and Kasia that Okorn gives is very annoying. While I am aware that Polish films tend to have this “artsy” and progressive connotation, a couple of contemporary Polish films should suffice to prove that the majority of them are quite mainstream and, well, gross. I am disgusted, although not surprised. Usually, I do not mind a film’s run-time, but having to sit through (or, more accurately, suffer for) 152 minutes of what I can only describe as mind numbingly terrible, is torture.
How did the entire group fail to recognize that there was nothing novel or particularly engaging in the narrative, and tell Okorn to perhaps trim some elements so that it does not become the utter waste of time that it is?
Looking at the performances, I have to say they are all fine. I am supposed to hate Jedrzej, but oddly, Eryk Kulm ensures that there is not a moment where he does not make his character utterly unlikable. I am not sure if that was the plan. I presume that during the “honeymoon phase”, there should have been some attempt at evoking sympathy, but there was none. Adrianna Chlebicka is also a victim of the film’s terrible writing, but she shows that she is indeed talented enough to fight back even in a testosterone-infused circus. Eryk Lubos displays effortless mastery over Czesiek’s tragic arc. His character is so multifaceted considering the passion he possesses for his family or the world of boxing. Adam Woronowicz does get to play quite a run-of-the-mill antagonist, but does he deliver? Of course. Waleria Gorobets had to perform all sorts of bad things while looking spectacular on screen and she is indeed successful in minimizing the journalism aspects of her role.
So, give us applause in her support, right? Kwok One and Anna Fam are fine as well, given how little time they had on screen. The rest of the supporting cast is fine too. I believe the people in this movie are all decent. Having said that, I wonder why Magdalena Walach has been labeled the Mother of Jedrzej. A two-hour and thirty-two-minute film Okorn made with two other writers had no name for the woman. That feels weird.
The most recent 2024 Olympics showcased numerous athletes’ stories, most of which came from nations ripped apart by war or had governments that offered no financial help. That goes to show that even though as a species we claim to evolve, there is no tangible sign of an advance. Genocide is happening. Entire nations are going bankrupt. Internal country politics are destroying the lives of potential legends who, under different circumstances, would have entered the history books. And if executed correctly, we could’ve drawn so many parallels between Boxer’s tale and the sordid reality around us. But since that is not the case, I do not recommend the film. You pay for your Netflix account after all, and do get to have autonomy on how to utilize your energy and time freely. So feel free to watch and regret your choice. But like I stated earlier in the article, there are so many better boxing films out there and I can vouch that your time spent will not be wasted.
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