One of the smaller films that hit theaters this weekend has nothing to do with celebrating a new year, babysitting children or uncovering spies; this little film is about men who settle stupid arguments the old fashioned way, with their bare fists. Ian Palmer’s decade spanning documentary, titled KNUCKLE, is about feuding Irish travelling clans who settle their scores through bare knuckle boxing, think of Brad Pitt’s character, the Pikey, in Snatch. More specifically, the film follows James Quinn McDonagh, an undefeated fighter and his brother Paddy “The Lurcher” Joyce as they both fight for their family’s reputation and honor, despite how silly the feuds might be.
The movie, which features 12 years worth of film and various technological changes, gives us an inside look at the normally private lives of Irish Travellers and how feuding between family members initially began and still drives them all to fight today. What started out as a bar fight gone wrong turned into fight challenges via video tape has now become a cyclical affair with fair fights being initiated because families want to fight for the name and be the best. The crazy part about all of this is that a large majority of the clans we are introduced to are actually related; they are fighting and spilling their own blood.
It’s hard not to respect these guys for what they do, no matter how stupid the subject of the feud may be because it is clean and is a temporary way to calm everybody down. Imagine today if you could solve your problems with a fair fight and that would be the end of it, we would save so much time and money because people would stop bitching and suing each other. Plus, then people would know how to fight and then maybe the pussification of the world might decrease..
While the documentary itself is quite an impressive feat for the fact that it is the culmination of 12 years worth of work for Ian Palmer, it has one flaw that sucks a little bit of its entertainment value dry and that flaw is repetition. While some repetition makes sense in that the Travellers are trying to drive a point into your potentially thick skull, it eventually feels like Palmer is beating a dead horse with the amount of times we here how ridiculous the reasons the fights are and how people keep finding the need to keep instigating in order to take down the McDonaghs and each other. While many believe they are fighting for honor and respect, money definitely seems like the stronger hidden desire for at least the McDonagh’s.
One other problem with the movie is that Palmer interviews the Joyces and we learn all about Paddy “The Lurcher” and his angry temper. He seems to be the instigator of many of the fights, seeing as how James never challenges anybody, and since he is also a relative of James it would seem to make sense that we would learn a lot about his point of view. The film focuses on the McDonagh’s but much of the engaging story is a result of James and Paddy’s ideology and their view of the fights and feud history. Palmer loses his grip on the audience a little more than half way into the feature and it’s because he ends up focusing on the rest of the McDonaghs, where the repetition comes into play. At least we are able to see how crazy Paddy is when we see old men old men coming out of retirement to fight each other, that’s where you learn that the fighting is actually pathetic.
The build up to the final fight and finale of Knuckle is a bit disappointing. We see Paddy, James’ younger brother, get a rematch with a guy who he lost to ten years ago and when it ends it seems like a truce has been made when, in reality, another fight will happen in probably seven months with the same families involved. What the film does is show that it is actually the spectators that instigate, as I, along with the people in the crowd on film, wanted to see an exciting fight. So really, maybe the end wasn’t disappointing, it’s just our perspective on how we feel a film about fighting should end.
Overall, Knuckle is a unique film because it gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of Irish Travellers and the culture of bare-knuckle boxing that has now been deeply engrained in their society. There are no boxing gloves, not pretty people putting on a show, just men willing to destroy themselves for the sake of their family’s name. It’s a cool documentary for those interested in the subject matter, but if fighting or learning about cultures isn’t your thing, then maybe you should give this one a pass.
Rating: A haymaker of a documentary but without its share of bumps and bruises (6.5/10)
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