Top 5 Hollywood fight films of all time

Rocky will always be fondly remembered by fight fansOver the years, professional fighting has played a major part in Hollywood. There are some undeniable parallels between fighting and movies. From the drama they create to the range of emotions they bring out, there is a strong link between the two.With all the tension and high stakes action involved fights, it is no surprise that many a movie has desperately tried to capture the glitz, glamour and glory of the sport along with the agony and pain of defeat. While there have been several that have fallen flat, there have been just as many hugely successful, highly popular fight films.We look at the top 5:

#5 Warrior

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This is the only MMA movie on the list. Tom Hardy stars as an ex-marine recently returned from war and Joel Edgerton plays his estranged brother and father of two.

Both of them have a difficult relationship with their father, played in a powerhouse performance by Nick Nolte. When a rich fight promoter puts together a winner-take-all 5 million dollar MMA tournament called Sparta, both brothers enter the competition for different reasons.

Littered with guest appearances from professional fighters like Rashad Evans and Anthony Johnson, Warrior is an excellent depiction of the mental and physical aspects of MMA. Even if you’re not an MMA fan, watching the complex relationship between the two brothers and their father unfold is worth the price of admission.

Warrior is officially being remade in Bollywood as ‘Brothers’ starring Akshay Kumar and Siddharth Malhotra in the lead roles. We’ll have to see whether the Bollywood remake can live up to the lofty heights set by the original.

#4 The Fighter

Bale won an Oscar for his performance in ‘The Fighter’

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale star in this inspirational docudrama. The film centres around the life of professional boxer Micky Ward, played by Wahlberg, and his older brother and trainer Dicky Eklund, for which Bale won the supporting actor Oscar.

Dicky is a former boxer who never made it big. His life is on a downward trajectory, having issues with drugs and being constantly in and out of jail. Micky is an average boxer, not as good as his elder brother, but he lives a clean life.

A tumultuous relationship unfolds as Dicky sees Micky rise to ranks he never thought he would. Micky begins to fulfil the potential that Dicky once had, but with Dicky constantly getting into trouble, Micky has to decide whether he wants to keep him around or cut him out and risk alienating the rest of his family.

Brilliantly shot by veteran director David O. Russell, if the movie has any problems, it is leaving out the trilogy of fights Micky Ward had against Arturo Gatti. That’s a bit like making a movie on Sachin Tendulkar and leaving out the 2011 World Cup. However, despite that rather gaping flaw, the movie is a highly entertaining one.

#3 Rocky

The ultimate underdog story, Rocky is such an important movie in the history of cinema that the city of Philadelphia has a statue of the lead character on the famous steps that feature at the end of his iconic training montage.

Rocky is the story of a down on his luck boxer who gets booked in a fight against the dominant heavyweight champion of the world. The match is meant to be a publicity stunt for the champion, Apollo Creed, but Rocky, who never quite made it, puts up the fight of his life.

He may not have won, but Rocky inspired a generation. Widely regarded as the greatest fictional sports character ever, there isn’t a professional athlete today who has not been touched by this movie on some level. The sixth sequel to this movie, ‘Creed’, will be released soon, depicting an elderly Rocky and the son of his great rival Apollo Creed.

#2 Raging Bull

This is the movie that won Robert De Niro his Oscar and should have won one for Martin Scorsese as well. Raging Bull is the true story of legendary boxer Jake LaMotta - the movie chronicles his life inside and outside the ring.

The opening credit sequence is widely regarded as one of the best ever made. A black and white video of De Niro, as LaMotta, shadow-boxing in a robe in the ring with old school camera flashes going off in the background and haunting music adding to the tension make for an unforgettable sequence.

Most of the movie is shot in black and white to capture boxing during LaMotta’s time. The legend's rivalry with Sugar Ray Robinson plays a part in the movie, but it’s his fight outside the ring - a fight to overcome his demons, that is perhaps more compelling.

LaMotta struggles to lead a normal life outside of boxing. Jealousy, rage and mistrust plague him all his life and affect those around him. The relationship with his brother Joey LaMotta, played by Joe Pesci, is the axis around which this iconic movie revolves.

#1 Bloodsport

The iconic final kumite in Bloodsport

The Original fight film - a blue print for what would become modern MMA. In Bloodsport, Jean Claude Van Damme fights in a ‘kumite’ (street fight) tournament. What was so great about the movie was that it pitted different fighting styles against each other - grapplers against strikers, boxers against kickboxers, karate against Muay Thai, etc.

Unlike many other fighting movies, this one made sure that it was technically correct, and even the purists of the respective martial arts could appreciate what the characters were doing. At times there is nothing more infuriating than watching a fight scene in a movie and seeing the actors make mistake after mistake without their character being punished for it. That isn’t a problem this film has to worry about. It is strongly evident that everyone in the movie has trained in a martial art of some sort.

Van Damme wins the tournament, defeating a blood-thirsty rival who uses underhanded moves like spraying chalk in his opponent’s eyes, in the final. The movie tells the story of Van Dam’s character fulfilling a promise to his master, which becomes the driving point of the plot.

Friendship, love and fighting - this movie has it all, and should be at the very top of every fight fan’s movie library.