By Ed Symkus

It may be shot in B&W, but Day of the Fight is not a retread of Raging Bull — though Joe Pesci is present.

Day of the Fight is written and directed by Jack Huston. It’s screening at the Boston Common 19.

Michael Pitt and Ron Perlman in Day of the Fight. Photo: Jeong Park

Boxing movies have never been very high up on the to-do lists of producers or movie studios. Sure, they’ve reaped Oscar gold (The Champ, 1931, Best Actor; Rocky, 1976, Best Picture, Best Director; Raging Bull, 1980, Best Actor; Million Dollar Baby, 2004, Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director; The Fighter, 2010, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.) And one of them pretty much saved a studio (Rocky had a $1 million budget, and scored a Worldwide Box Office take of $225 million for United Artists). Still, aside from a slew of Rocky sequels and offshoots, dramas about duking it out in the ring have not been a Hollywood priority.

One of the genre’s built-in problems is its reliance on formula. You can switch up the sex or the age or the skin color or the cultural background of the protagonist but, with rare exceptions, it all comes down to a down-on-his-luck fighter, the intense training, the grueling climb up through the ranks, and the cathartic “big fight” at the end.

So, what makes this tale of a down-on-his-luck fighter who undergoes intense training and battles his way through the ranks to reach the “big fight” stand out from the pack?

In his first time out as writer-director, actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), has made sure that Day of the Fight is not just another boxing movie. There’s a bit of ringwork sprinkled throughout, culminating with a slobberknocker of a battle in the final reel. But the narrative is determined to be much more of a character study. This is time spent with a fellow who appears to be one of life’s losers, a guy who made a terrible mistake that caused grief to others. He is now looking for redemption, but he’s going to have to travel a mighty long road to find it.

For cineastes wondering if it’s a remake — or a stretching out — of Stanley Kubrick’s 1951 short Day of the Fight … no, although Huston is obviously familiar with that film. Kubrick aficionados will spot a couple of nods to it (check out the earlier film on YouTube for comparison). Both efforts share the same strategy: they’re not about a fight, but about what’s going on in the lives of their main characters on the day of a fight.

“Irish” Mike Flannigan (Michael Pitt) is a former middleweight champ who has just finished a lengthy jail sentence. He is hoping for more than just a return to the ring; he wants to show people he hasn’t been in touch with for a long time that they should see him for who he is, not who he was.

But, for reasons not revealed until near the end of the film, that’s not going to be a walk in the park. Rather, it’s a walk – and at times a subway ride – through his old Brooklyn neighborhood, where he meets up with old friends, visits his ex-wife (Nicolette Robinson), stares at the now 13-year-old daughter he didn’t see grow up, and looks for guidance from a boyhood friend who is now a priest (John Magaro), visits his estranged father (a heartbreaking, wordless performance from Joe Pesci), and gets in some time at the gym that’s run by his old trainer, Stevie (Ron Perlman, pitch-perfect in the part).

What all of this leads to is a surprising turn of luck for Mike. After a decade away from the game, Stevie has managed to get him on the card at Madison Square Garden, in a bout to regain his middleweight belt. And – one more time – it’s the day of the fight. A long, busy, draining, emotion-filled day.

Some of the elements that make this usually quiet, often contemplative little movie shine include: It’s shot in moody B&W; it’s clear that the troubled main character has a good heart, and you have no choice but to root for him; a series of two-hander scenes – Mike and the priest, Mike and his ex-wife, Mike and his father – are sensitively written and delivered; and Huston’s inspired placement of music at just the right points and situations. Songs include “Crucify Your Mind” by Sixto Rodriguez, “Blues Run the Game” by Jackson C. Frank, and “The Book of Love” by The Magnetic Fields.

In a wonderful art-imitates-life scene, Mike plays a beautiful ballad from a fictional album for his helpless, health-ravaged dad. What we hear is “If I Ever Lost You,” sung by Joe Pesci, a track from his 2019 record Still Singing. Yet, it’s another musical bit that is even more memorable: Nicolette Robinson, seated at a piano in a small club, playing and singing a lovely, spare rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”

When Huston’s cameras eventually reach the Garden’s boxing ring, everything takes an intense, exciting turn. But that’s at the one-hour, 20-minute mark. Up until then, Day of the Fight is a gritty, melancholy, and somehow tender film.

Ed Symkus is a Boston native and Emerson College graduate. He went to Woodstock, interviewed Tommy Smothers, Ray Bradbury, Joan Baez, and Robert Altman, and has visited the Outer Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands, Anglesey, Mykonos, Nantucket, the Azores, Catalina, Kangaroo Island, Capri, and the Isle of Wight with his wife Lisa.