Gladiator

Tommy moves to the south side of Chicago because of his father's debts. When it becomes clear at school that he can fight, a local promoter puts him into illegal boxing matches. Lincoln, who ends up in the same ring, is not fighting for money but to support his brother. The subject is not boxing but two young men being sold to the same man. The promoter is using both, and the real fight at the end is not with the opponent but with the system that put them in the ring. The form follows the youth drama template of the late eighties and early nineties: dark gyms, street scenes, loud music. The fights work less as realism than as steps in the narrative. The production is one of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s films immediately after Boyz n the Hood and coincides with his rise at the time. Brian Dennehy plays the promoter. It left no mark at the box office but is remembered for placing class and race inside the sports film template. Rowdy Herrington directs. James Marshall plays Tommy and T.E. Russell the other fighter. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties boxing and youth drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a realistic sports narrative; the logic of the bouts bends to the script and the final section ties off too easily.