The Fire Inside Review

Before watching The Fire Inside, I did not know much about boxing at all, let alone about the hardship and struggles in female boxing specifically. This was soon to change as the film not only functions as an accurate portrayal of the main character’s life but it also paints a very realistic picture of what professional boxing looks like for female athletes involved in the sport.

The film tells the real-life story of Claressa Shields (Ryan Destiny) as she goes on to become the first woman in the United States to ever win an Olympic medal for boxing. From her rather humble start in Flint, where the sport is a hobby rather than a job for everyone in town including her coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), to the 2012 London Olympics. But the movie also shows us the highs and lows of Claressa’s life even after winning gold at the Olympics rather than stopping at her initial success.

From the very beginning, the structure of the film stood out to me. Where most sports movies focus exclusively on an athlete’s highs and lows in the sports world, with an ultimate triumph that usually involves the Olympic games – or any other high-stakes game or match their sport might involve – Morrison’s film goes in another direction entirely. Both the Olympics and the box itself are still very much a key part of the film, but the entire second half, which is admittedly much stronger and more unique, focuses on what happens after the Olympic Games, something that the audience rarely gets to see in these films. This is not only particularly interesting to watch, but it also adds an important commentary on gender-based discrimination in sports at large and, more specifically, in a sport which is very much male-dominated like boxing. As it goes on, the movie makes it clear that winning an Olympic title sadly doesn’t solve everything in the protagonist’s life, but also focuses on how unfair that is especially given the way other (male) athletes are instead treated after winning even less prestigious titles in other more commercialised disciplines.

Related Post: Watch video interview The Fire Inside Ryan Destiny & Rachel Morrison (director)

The way the movie approaches boxing is equally fascinating. Most of them are filmed in first person shot from the protagonist’s point of view, which allows the audience to experience the boxing first hand, and therefore Claressa’s emotion during each fight. Equally, the film does an excellent job of making each fight scene different enough for all of them to be memorable. Similarly, this also allows it to avoid repetitiveness, which is the problem many sports films often end up falling into, by distinguishing every fighting scene in terms of acting, narrative, and stakes. Both the director, Rachel Morrison, and the main actress, Ryan Destiny, learned to box for this film in order to ensure a realistic portrayal of the fight scenes. This works exceptionally well as the fight scenes are some of the most successful and narratively important in the whole movie.

The fact that some of the key scenes of the movie are filmed on location in Flint, Michigan also adds to the realism of the story. A big part of Claressa’s personal story and upbringing is rooted in her hometown, so it is especially nice to see the movie pay tribute to this and truly represent Claressa’s life in the most real way possible, despite being a fiction film rather than a documentary. This is perhaps where we can see the attention to detail that the filmmaking team put into this film and how much work has gone into portraying the real people in Claressa’s life and Claressa herself as people rather than just characters who push the plot forward. In fact, the movie does not split in characters into heroes or villains: instead, they are just people who may make mistakes and have their own faults but are all the more real and relatable because of their flaws.

Overall, The Fire Inside is a beautiful film with a powerful message. With a very interesting structure that is not typical of sports films, the movie’s beating heart is ultimately in its third brilliant act which makes the entire film worth it and may very well be the most original and fascinating part for the audiences to watch. Despite the slower start compared to the tight pace of the rest of the film, it manages to keep the tension alive through Claressa’s various matches while also making the stakes very clear for those of us who may not be familiar with the protagonist’s story, or boxing as a sport at all, thanks to its brilliant writing and beautiful filmmaking.