Bleed For This tells inspiring tale of perseverance

Towards the end of Bleed For This, a 2016 biopic focusing on the car accident and recovery of ‘90s boxing champion Vinny Paz (played by Miles Teller), his cornerman and coach Kevin Rooney (played wonderfully by Aaron Eckhart) gives him a speech that is cut over a montage of Paz working to get back into the ring.

“We started in a basement!” shouts Rooney as shots of Teller struggling to bench press with the Halo brace screwed into his skull, the only sound being that of fists hitting training gloves.

This sequence proved to show the greatest strength of the film, its editing and use of sound.

To backtrack however, Bleed for This follows the rise of (then) former Lightweight champion Vinny Paz whose career is in a downturn. He’s linked up with Mike Tyson’s former trainer, Kevin Rooney, who was known to have a persistent drinking problem. In the first training sessions with Rooney, he tells Paz to bump up all the way to Light Middleweight (and eventually Super Welterweight) due to Paz’s struggles with maintaining his fighting weight.

The switch in weight classes sees success for Paz that is tragically cut short by a car accident that injures his spine. What follows is Paz’s choice to undergo a medical procedure which allows for him to still have the opportunity to box if his recovery process of six months goes well, but at worst it would result in Paz never being able to walk again.

Perhaps it’s telling of how immersive the role was, or maybe how little I’ve seen of Vinny Paz, that I can say that I associate Vinny with Miles Teller following the viewing of this film. His portrayal didn’t leave much room for character as Vinny was a strong personality to begin with. He was known as a smart-aleck from his numerous pre-fight press conferences as well as a raging bull in the ring, as prone to punch himself (in an effort to pump himself up) as he was to cave in the face of his opponents.

Coming out of the film, the weakest part of it had to be its’ female characters. The women in the film don’t serve as much more than background pieces to further the story of Paz, or show the backstory of his family life. His girlfriends are shown to be shallow and static characters.

All in all, Bleed for This, fails where more successful 2010 boxing films like Creed succeed yet still makes for an enjoyable watch.