Fighters - Real Money Ron Peck

Directed by Ron Peck
UK 1991, 1996

FIGHTERS follows the struggles of a group of young East End boxers as they take their first steps up the professional ladder under the wing of legendary trainer Jimmy Tibbs.

REAL MONEY is a hard-edged gangster drama set in and around the East End boxing community – and acted entirely by local boxers, ex-boxers, trainers and their families, and mainly scripted by the boxers themselves.

Excerpt from the Second Run website located HERE

DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Second Run (2-disc) - Region 0 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Second Run DVD - Region 0 - PAL
Runtime	1:41:00 + 1:14:57
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.53 + 6.24 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Fighters
Bitrate: Real Money
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Second Run Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Extended featurette 'The Night of the Fight' (1:02:50) • Behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage from REAL MONEY (21:55) • Interview with Ron Peck • Rehearsal footage from the unfilmed proposed third film in the trilogy, GANGSTER; • Stills gallery; • Booklet essays by director Ron Peck and boxing writer Harry Mullen DVD Release Date: November 10th, 2008 transparent Keep Case Chapters: 14 X 2

Comments:

These are two films on two separate SD-DVD discs.

The image quality belies the lean production roots of both works. Fighters shows minor interlacing but Real Money appears to be progressive. Any inferiorities in the image seem quite suitable considering the neo-realistic content (of Real Money). Although detail is not particularly strong I found both very watchable.

Both disc are dual-layered and I expect they give a fair, if not stellar, representation of the original presentations. One thing is for sure - you probably won't see this on DVD looking any better than this. Both are in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratios and there are no subtitles offered. Audio is unremarkable but close, I'll wager, to the way it was produced. Good news again that I don't see excessive manipulation and the image is fairly clean... if very hazy at times. Real Money is the better looking of the two but they aren't that far apart in visual appearance as the screen captures below might indicate.

Supplements are very good and can really bolster appreciation of the films especially the hour-long extended featurette 'The Night of the Fight' and the interview with Ron Peck on the 2nd disc. The DVD inferiorities don't take away from these efforts - reminding me quite a bit of UK 'kitchen-sink' films. These are gritty and honest and if you have any inkling to view - I'd like to encourage that you to indulge. We've been given another highly interesting package, with clandestine content, from our friends at Second Run.

Gary W. Tooze

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Fighters