Horst in Translation ([email protected]) This is one of the most renowned directors of the 20th century finding his style right in front of our eyes. In the early 1950s, Stanley Kubrick shot a handful short documentary films on topics with certain significance for American culture back then. Before moving on to priests and seafarers, he started with a 16-minute documentary on the unusual profession of prizefighters. This is the very first film by the mastermind.Now imagine, you wake up in the morning. And there's Stanley Kubrick in your bedroom pointing a camera at your dozy face. This is exactly what happened to professional prizefighter Walter Cartier (admittedly Kubrick was still a nobody at this point) who is accompanied the whole day of his fight. Kubrick delivers the pictures and renowned television journalist and Emmy Award nominee Douglas Edwards tells the story.I would say that this is only for you if you're really into boxing, especially the early years or a Kubrick completionist. While some parts are good, mostly the actual fight sequences towards the end or the introduction to the topic in the first 4 minutes, some scenes are quite the opposite, like the "last look in the mirror"-scene which could have been found at a MST3000-episode as well.

Irie212 The Day of the Fight is rarely seen, but essential viewing for anybody who takes cinema, or Kubrick, seriously. It encompasses one day in the life of a boxer in New York City in 1951, and is beautifully filmed (Kubrick at the camera) and structured, with the audience knowing throughout that the day will end in a fight, so there is built-in tension about that upcoming bout, and who will win. The voice-over is tightly written by Kubrick, and his writing is only one of many suggestions of the scope of the filmmaker's gifts. Two examples: A scene where the fighter is at home playing with his dog while the voice-over talks about the brutality the man employs in the ring-- terrific contrast in moods. And the audio is perfect: the only time Kubrick films with sound is when the boxer enters the ring-- then you hear crowd sounds, announcers, everything. Until then, it's a documentary with voice-over. It really is a minor work of an important genius.

bob the moo The first short film by Kubrick, it follows a boxer through the day-long wait for an evening fight.I watched this out of interest as I watch the majority of Kubrick's films. However this is the only appeal that I can see for watching this.The short follows the boxer through his routines on the day, the heavy narration talks us through the whole thing. In theory the short is meant to give us an insight in the boxer's thoughts and feelings however it really only shows us what he eats and who he talks to.This is interesting if you are a Kubrick completist but other than that it is of limited appeal.

Geofbob Unlike the earlier Day of the Fight in which one can see inklings of Stanley Kubrick's later achievements, this film is a minor piece of hackwork with little to be said in its favour. Indeed, the most telling feature is that Kubrick, who would later be known as an obsessive perfectionist, here displays indifference. Almost all documentaries are set up to some extent, but here it would have been clear to the slowest of the audience that the episode of the padre flying a mother and sick baby to a hospital was acted out specially for the film. The clumsiness is compounded by the narration, which goes out its way to inform us that the episode was spontaneous and shot as it happened. With a little more inventiveness, Kubrick could have made the sequence at least partially convincing. (This assumes that Kubrick was responsible for the commentary; perhaps he wasn't, and this was an early lesson for him on what producers can do if you don't insist on full control!)