The new movie “Christy,” starring Sydney Sweeney, is one of the very few movies about women and the sport of boxing. This story is about the boxing career of Christy Martin, who practically started the sport of women’s boxing in 1989. Martin’s career spanned 1989 to 2012 with a record of 49 wins, 7 losses and 3 draws. Martin fought in the undercard of the Mike Tyson undercard (Tyson vs. Bruno II), where her boxing match was the first women’s shown on a major pay-per-view.
Considering the physical challenges of making a boxing movie, including gaining 30 pounds and then having to lose all that weight, I was surprised that someone as relevant in the movie industry as Sweeney would take this role, considering that this is not a widely released big-budget movie.
Christy Martin’s maiden name is Christy Salters, and despite being gay she made the huge mistake of marrying her manager, James Martin, for all the wrong reasons, including worries about the press knowing that she was gay. Worse was that her marriage to her manager was extremely abusive, including a climactic incident where Christy was almost killed and somehow managed to survive multiple stab wounds and even being shot. After watching this scene in this movie, it is a miracle that Christy Martin is alive today.
The boxing scenes were mostly impressive, giving credit to the trainers and the hard work Sydney Sweeney put into making this film. The fight that happened between Martin and Laila Ali, when Martin was knocked out in the 4th round, appeared to be a fight that never should have been sanctioned by the boxing commission due to the 30-pound weight advantage that Ali had over Martin.
The low 66% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are understandable because this movie comes off as too run-of-the-mill, seen this before, even though this is about a true story. For the hard work and good acting in this film, I give it a 72% rating and a marginal recommendation.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 