1978 Directed by Norman Jewison
Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.
Sylvester Stallone Rod Steiger Peter Boyle Melinda Dillon David Huffman Kevin Conway Tony Lo Bianco Cassie Yates Peter Donat John Lehne Henry Wilcoxon Richard Herd Tony Mockus Jr. Ken Kercheval Elena Karam Joe Tornatore James Karen Stuart Gillard Brian Dennehy Sam Chew Jr. Robert Lipton John Bleifer Frank McRae Rozsika Halmos Earl Montgomery Harry Basch Nada Rowand Chuck Gradi Alphonse Skerl Show All…
FIST, Símbolo de fuerza, P.Ě.S.T, 拳頭大風累, fist, fist - Stalone
52 Years in 52 Weeks 2019: Film #6
Nobody's 100%... Nobody.
Excellent historical drama with one of Stallone's more layered performances. This is pretty classy for a Joe Eszterhas script and it's the first confrontation between Sly and Dennehy, making this some kind of spiritual First Blood predecessor.
Movie is too long, otherwise, I would give it a rating of 4/5 🌟. The last hour should have been summed up in 5-10 minutes.
F.I.S.T. is a 1978 film directed by Norman Jewison from a script by Joe Eszterhas and the film's star Sylvester Stallone which is a thinly disguised account of the life of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Stallone plays Hoffa-alike Johnny Kovak who, following a stand off with his employer over an unfair sacking, rises through the ranks of the fictionalised Federation of Inter-State Truckers union (F.I.S.T.), initially taking a defiant and just stand for his members rights before succumbing to underhand methods, corruption and an unsavoury association with the mob.
Much like 1976's Rocky - Stallone's breakthrough film just two years prior to this - F.I.S.T. spends the first half of its running time exploring the cliches of the poor…
Hot off the success of Rocky, Stallone seems certain he's making another Oscar winner. His ambition repeatedly gets the better of him in this pro-union epic, loosely and too reverentially based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa. Stallone can't act and his script is co-written with Joe Eszterhas, so F.I.S.T. seems fundamentally doomed. He also doesn't know how to write for women, which leaves Melinda Dillon (and the only other two ladies with speaking parts) with little to do except act coy before relenting and marrying the lunkhead.
Fortunately, Norman Jewison's direction is mostly on point and Laszlo Kovacs's cinematography gives this a polished, accomplished feel. Their efforts seem entirely at odds with Stallone. It's extraordinary watching him derail scenes that would've played better with almost any other actor.
F.I.S.T. is interesting. Much better paced and more compelling than Hoffa, for instance. It has an epic quality to its tale of labor unions that is able to flesh out the complication of using flawed means to a noble end. I enjoyed the '30s period piece element more than the flash forward, but Stallone is a much more compelling screen presence as an older, more wizened union leader in the '70s.
So this is fine-to-good. But Melinda Dillon is completely wasted as a love interest that only has a modicum of an impact as a supportive wife at the end, and eventually you realize this perfectly okay movie is 2 and a half hours long. A good long movie is good. A bad long movie is bad. A perfectly fine long movie can start to wear on you, though.
"Wenn wir noch ein oder zwei Tage länger gedreht hätten, wäre es zu einem bombastischen Krach gekommen" (Sylvester Stallone)
Stallone´s erster Film nach seinem Welterfolg mit Rocky, stand in der gesamten Zeit unter keinem guten Stern. Da gab es Streitigkeiten mit dem Drehbuchschreiber Eszterhas (Stallone kürzte das Drehbuch erheblich, nur so bekam der Film vom Studio grünes Licht) - es gab auch gewisse Starallüren die ihn im am Set alles andere als beliebt gemacht haben.
Umso erstaunlicher trotzdem was für ein ordenlicher Film letztenendes dabei rum kam. Die 30er Jahre wurden sehr authentisch eingefangen. Der unaufällige Soundtrack ist wieder von seinem Weggefährten Bill Conti. Insgesamt macht der Film Spass. Die Entwicklung Kovaks (inspiriert von der Realperson Jimmy Hoffa) ist sehr…
Ambitious saga about the rise and fall of a Hoffa-styled union leader, but lead Sylvester Stallone (who also co-wrote) does not quiet have the acting chops to pull off a performance that requires more nuance than he is able to deliver.
Better than I expected due to reviews. Actually thought Sly gave a solid performance. Tad bit long but I never found myself bored.
Back from protesting outside the Brooklyn Center precinct and mostly logging this watch for my dumb completionist streak on this app.
But any movie where Stallone punches cops is good. ACAB.
This also has some very classical Hollywood compositions, big landscapes and total stillness, and then raucous crowd scenes. Good.
I gave this movie five out of five stars because it did a very good job detailing the truths regarding a power struggle that has been going on for years and still goes on today. This power struggle is between man trying to get ahead of each other through the use of force. in this case it’s a common worker who uses force against their employer to get ahead of them because the employer is abusing the common worker. However, intern the employees eventually gain the upper hand against their employer because they outnumber their employer and through power they start to abuse their employer. but this movie doesn’t stop there it involves The mob and Congress, perhaps the two most deadly and corrupt organizations ever to be amongst us.
