Maziun
This is Stallone's first movie after "Rocky" . Obviously a tough act to follow. Sadly , this and "Paradise alley" didn't even came close to match the quality of John G. Avildsen sport drama. It doesn't mean however , that they are not worth watching , just for the fact to see Stallone in a dramatic role.FIST is a fictional biopic of a fictional organized labor leader very loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa. F.I.S.T stands for the "Federation of Inter State Truckers". It tells a story about a struggling blue collar worker back in the 1930s of USA. Soon he becomes an organizer for Labour Unions. "FIST" shows his rise to power and fall from grace."FIST" ignores the communists part in creating the formation of the unions, which is mistake on the movie part. On the plus side it shows well how corruption infected big unions. It's sad story about working class betraying itself.Good performance by Stallone , however the rest of the cast is rather mediocre and doesn't leave impression. Watch out for Brian Dennehy (sheriff from "Rambo first blood").The screenplay written by Stallone and Joe Eszterhas ("Basic instinct") is not bad , if not slightly cliché and predictable . Bill Conti's music is nice , so is the photography by Laszlo Kovacs. The direction by Norman Jewison is solid.Good pseudo biography that towards the end runs out of steam and loses the clarity and effectiveness of the early sequences. It is still a nice little drama how noble causes can be sullied by ambition and hubris. It's sad that it was unappreciated back then and seems forgotten now. I give it 6/10.
muzafar.h.bokhari (amraampk)
This is in my opinion an almost forgotten kind of film which is itself is marvelous and unique in a way that for the first time it really showed the metal of Stallone 's inside acting talent which was later faded due to his personification of roles like Rambo , Rocky etc. Some how Sylvester Stallone really managed to throw some power performance in his serious complex character of this movie. I with very difficulty found this film , but before watching an old clip at the you tube i truly understood that it would be the movie containing Stallone s original acting capabilities. Now i wonder why Stallone did nt get any academy award nomination for his performance. Those who are his critics now must realize that Sly always had capabilities of being an actor , the thing happened was being labeled and stamped as a pure action hero after appearing in full action flicks like Rambo ,demolition man ,tango & cash.
skullislandsurferdotcom
During the depression, unions were important, being that there weren't many and workers were exploited. And that's what this movie shows from the first minute to the last, all within a two-and-a-half hour epic that needed more humanity than plot: that is, the moments between the strikes and hardships were too few and far between, never really getting to know the characters as actual people.Sylvester Stallone, fresh from his breakthrough in ROCKY, is hit-or-miss. His sometimes mumbling, other times voracious character moves up the ladder, from put-upon factory worker to spokesman for a trucker's union, way too fast. And the side-characters, including Peter Boyle and Rod Steiger, serve only as fuel to entice or enrage Stallone: who's fighting for a real cause... but it's all too heavy, and goes on way too long, to be genuinely effective.
bluesman-20
F.I.S.T. Is not your normal Stallone movie. In this early one he actually get's a chance to ACT and create a role that is not even remotely like Rocky Balboa The Story is simple enough Johnny Kovack is a dock worker in the middle of the depression and he is a disgruntled worker who does not like being used or being taken advantage of. When Kovack leads a worker staged revolt on the warehouse dock he meets the Big boss and lays the conditions down that they want met. Kovack and the boys lose their job however the local union federation of interstate truckers F.I.S.T. is interested in hiring Kovack. HE it seems has a gift of Gab and he's a strong leader they hire him as a union organizer and Kovack begins organizing the Truckers all around the state. However Kovack creates a strike at one of the toughest businesses in Cleveland and Tragedy happens. Kovack angered and grief stricken turns to the mob to get a little extra push to secure good contracts and break companies that want to strike break or break unions. Kovack accepts the mobs help in return he gives them little favours. And that's the story more or less The story starts in 1938 and ends roughly around 1959-60 with the racketeering investigation by the senate. Rod Steiger portrays a crusading senater out to clean up the labour movement and burn the mobs out and Johnny Kovack the charismatic and powerful leader and president of F.I.S.T. is his next target. The movie is a grand and Epic film the kind we wish were made more today but are not. Stallone has clearly his best role as the Jimmy Hoffa influenced Johnny Kovack. The movie didn't really go anywhere when it was released and it fed the rumors that Stallone was only really able to act if the movie was a Rocky film later to be just Rocky and Rambo films but here Stallone burns very brightly as a good but not great actor taking his first steps in a movie that should have done much better and a role that should always be long remembered as one of his greatest roles even more then Rambo. This is a movie that shows us there are no unscarred heroes just scarred men fighting to survive in a world that does not care about them.
AD
