Chuck - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Chuck

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Out of all the boxing legends and sports stars who’ve had a movie made about them, I was honestly surprised to see that they were making a movie out of Chuck Wepner. Wepner was a bit of a cult superstar back in the 70s, as he was the living legend that was known as “the bleeder”, and the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky character. The boy wasn’t the greatest fighter on EARTH, but he was in the top 10 fighters at the time, and went 15 rounds toe to toe with Ali himself after George Foreman got his butt handed to him in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” fight. Chuck is a solid movie about a solid fighter, but it takes a little bit of a different approach, and leaves most of the fighting on the sideline, instead focusing on the demons OUTSIDE of the ring that he was forced to battle. Mainly his own problems with wine, women and illicit substances up his nose.

I remember stories of Chuck Wepner from my father about what a boxer he was. Wepner was legendary for being a human meat sack, taking punch after punch without hesitation, and dishing it out once his opponent got tired. Well, this telling of his life happens JUST before he’s about to step into the ring with Ali after Foreman gets creamed. Chuck (Liev Schreiber) is a lovable guy to everyone around him, but he’s got his problems. He cheats on his wife Phyliss (Elisabeth Moss), he gets drunk WAY too often, and he’s got a problem with substance abuses. When Ali defeats Foreman, Chuck thinks that his shot at the title is over with, as his promoter had him down as NEXT on Foreman’s chopping block. However, fate has different ideas about the issue, and Don King gives Chuck’s promoter Al (Ron Perlman) a call as he wants to make the fight about race. Since Chuck is the only white guy in the top 10 he sort of wins the pick by default.

This is a HUGE thing for Chuck, and he goes toe to toe with the legend for 15 rounds, losing to a technical knockout with only 19 seconds on the clock left. This is a major win for the boxer, even though he loses the fight. It opens up more opportunities for the boxer and even paves the way for Rocky, in which Chuck is involved with, even going for a small part in Rock II a couple of years later. The sad thing is that Chuck is fighting more outside of the ring than inside. He can’t seem to get a handle on his drug addiction, nor for his tendency to go out and party at the club with his friends and sleep around with the groupies. Phyllis leaves him multiple times, and the more the drug and sex addicted star does in the limelight, the more he drives his family away. Even his own daughter pretty much disowns him, leaving him to finally get caught by the police and locked up for possession with intent to sell.

Chuck isn’t an inspiring tale about a legend coming into his own. It’s not a tale like Rocky, but rather a sobering vision of a man who lived and died through boxing, and ended up battling his own inner demons more than he ever did a living being. Chuck is a likable scumbag you might say. He’s a womanizer, a druggie and a cruddy friend, but he does so with the best intentions, and a sobering realization that he’s destroying himself. The take on the cult icon is one of kindness yet firmly planted with the knowledge that he’s not someone to idolize. Instead it’s a very human take on what happens when fame and glory goes to someones head and so many vices are open to his every whim. The pain and suffering that he caused in his life is palpable and visceral, and you almost start to really empathize with him, even when he’s in the midst of another bender.

The actors really sell the pitch, as the film can sometimes be a bit sluggish despite the 98 minute runtime. Liev literally vanishes into the role of Chuck Wepner, becoming the New Jersey boxer in a way that I didn’t expect. Perlman is fantastic as his fight promoter friend Al, and Naomi Watts (that girl makes my knees knock) is almost unrecognizable as the bartender Linda. They just soak in the feel of the 70s, exuding the personality, the language and the traits of growing up in that era. While I understand that the film is more about Chucks INNER fights rather than his physical ones, I did think the boxing choroegraphy was a little weak. Nothing big, just a personal grumble about a very solid film otherwise.




Rating:

Rated R for language throughout, drug use, sexuality/nudity and some bloody images




Video:

The film has been stylistically graded to appear very authentically 1970s in nature, and while I couldn’t find out any information about the shoot itself, it does LOOK like classic 16mm film. Now whether this was shot digitally and graded that way, or shot USING 16mm film, I do not know, but some of the shots do look more like noise than natural film grain making me very suspicious that this was a post grade on digital stock. That being said, the image displayed on screen is very nice looking and captures the rough texture of the time, as well as the man himself. Daylight shots can be a bit blown out with the highlights, and the burnished colors give it an authentic vibe. Blacks are a bit murky and the noise spikes during some of the neon splattered club sequences, but it’s a very solid representation of a 16mm lookalike film source.




Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is good and faithful, but it really doesn’t stand out as anything special. Dialog is firmly planted in the center channel, and usually quite intelligible (except for some of Liev’s mumbling), and the surrounds get some play with the boxing match and the scratchy score. Talking about the score, it seems that they also graded the score to sound very much like it was coming from a phonograph, and it does sound a bit scratchy and has a few pops here and there. LFE can be punchy and perky, but it’s not a wildly active track, as most of the activity is in the main three speakers up front.
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Extras:

• All About Chuck: Behind the Scenes

Final Score: ​

Chuck is a compelling drama about a man who’s most famous battles happened outside of his fighting career. Boxing is nothing but a pretext for the drama, and the gritty and sobering look on Chuck Wepner’s rise and fall is quite impressive. There’s some dull moments during the center of the flick, but overall the movie is quite fascinating to watch. Parmaount gives us a stylistic video encode for the period piece film, and a slightly mediocre audio track, but the real sadness is realizing that there is only one ting featurette on the disc to watch about the REAL Chuck Wepner. Still worth it as a very enjoyable watch.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber
Directed by: Philippe Falardeau
Written by: Jeff Feurerzeig, Jerry Stahl
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 15th, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never heard of this movie prior to reading the review. I will add this to my watch list.