The story behind the story – The background story?
Director David O. Russell’s The Fighter is about Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), a boxer living in the shadow of his famous big brother Dicy (Christian Bale), who gets his shot in the ring. None of that plot is essential to the topic at hand.
During the movie two scenes occur outside Micky’s home. Both involve family and relatives quarreling loudly, sometimes physically. This happens right on his porch in clear view for the neighbors and passersby to see. This is depicted in the gif above and the bonus still below. The film shows these two heated arguments and then cuts to the reaction shots of today’s featured stills.
The first time the fight occurs the film cuts to the older woman walking her adorable dog. Let’s call her Mary. She sees the fighting from the gif above and stops to gaze. This is a perfectly human moment; when seeing something shocking there’s a tendency to stop and spectate. By cutting to Mary’s reaction the film is essentially cutting to the audience. Both Mary and the audience are staring in awe at the Ward family drama. I imagine Mary coming back from her walk to tell “Frank” what she saw. The story progress and another argument occurs at same place (image below). This time it’s Frank’s turn to walk the doggo and he stumbles upon the verbal fight. These two small shots add to the intensity of the main plot. Frank and Mary’s reaction make the main characters more human and make the world/setting they inhabit more tangible.
This isn’t the first time that background details have added depth to the main plot. A similar series of stills occured in Shrek that told the tale of Mama Bear.
I unfortunately couldn’t decipher the names of these two actors. Hopefully they’re credited as woman on the street and man on the street as listed in the full credits. Lots of well known local Lowell, MA in The Fighter, including former mayor Rita Mercier (who might be Mary?), but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were left out from the credits. For the full video check out scene with “Mary” and scene with “Frank”.
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Bonus argument still:
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