Fighting Tommy Riley
Encyclopedia
Fighting Tommy Riley is a 2005 American independent film
that tells the story of Tommy Riley and Marty Goldberg, a boxer and his trainer, as they work to secure a title shot for Tommy. Their plans are complicated by the unrequited feelings Marty develops for Tommy. When a big-time promoter seeks to acquire Tommy's contract, Tommy endangers his future career because of his loyalty to Marty. Marty, seeing only one way to free Tommy to take his shot, takes his own life.
Directed by Eddie O'Flaherty, the film was written by J. P. Davis
, who sold the script only on the condition that he himself would play Tommy. It also stars Eddie Jones
as Marty, Christina Chambers
as Stephanie, Diane Tayler as Diane Stone, and Paul Raci as Bob Silver.
Fighting Tommy Riley opened in limited release
on May 6, 2005 to generally positive reviews, with Jones's performance as Marty frequently singled out for praise.
) stands in boxing gear in a dingy dressing room. There is a knock at the door and a voice calls out, "Are you ready?"
The film flashes back
seven months. Tommy is a former boxer who almost made the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team
as a middleweight
. He works laying computer cable and earns money on the side as a sparring
partner in a local gym. His lack of motivation has led his girlfriend Stephanie (Christina Chambers
) to move out.
Marty (Eddie Jones
) is a former boxer, now a high school teacher and boxing trainer/manager who had previously coached a fighter to a title shot, only to have the fighter leave him just before the fight. Marty and his business partner Diane (Diane Tayler) arrive at the gym where Tommy spars to scout his sparring partner. The fighter's manager instructs Tommy to make his fighter look good, but after he suffers a low blow, Tommy knocks the fighter out with one punch. The manager and the gym's owner angrily order Tommy from the gym but Marty and Diane chase after him, inviting him to train with Marty.
Tommy's reputation and news of his return to the ring spark interest from promoters. After training some time, Marty and Diane set up a fight so that promoters can see him in action. He wins the fight but the promoter at ringside shows no enthusiasm.
Diane gives Marty a tape of Tommy's 1999 Olympic trial fight. Tommy was ahead after two rounds but quit before round three because of a hand injury. Marty realizes that Tommy faked his injury because of the poor coaching and abuse coming from his stepfather, who was serving as his cornerman
. Marty and Tommy talk about Tommy's stepfather and Marty's former fighter. Marty tells Tommy that boxing is a team sport and that Tommy will never be alone in the ring. Tommy's renewed motivation as a fighter leads to a reconciliation with Stephanie.
Leroy Kane (Don Wallace
), the fighter who went to the Olympics instead of Tommy, wants a "tune-up" fight before his fight for the middleweight title. His scheduled opponent is injured and Diane sets Tommy up for the bout instead. The fight is in four weeks, so Tommy and Marty go to Marty's cabin in the woods to train without distractions. After several days, during a rubdown following a workout, Marty touches Tommy inappropriately. Tommy reacts strongly negatively and Marty apologizes. They agree to ignore the incident but return to the city ahead of schedule.
On the night of Tommy's fight with Kane, Tommy and Marty plan to force Kane to exhaust himself pursuing Tommy until the seventh round and then put him away. The plan works and Tommy knocks out Kane in round seven. After the fight Marty plans to take everyone out for a celebratory dinner but Bob Silver (Paul Raci), a big-time promoter, has watched the fight and, impressed, invites them all out. Marty declines and goes home, but later that night is taken to the hospital. Tommy rushes to the hospital and finds Diane there. He asks if Marty is in the hospital because of what happened at the cabin. Diane tells him that when Marty was a fighter, people threatened to expose Marty's homosexuality
, so he ended his career by putting his hand through a window and damaging it. He became a teacher and his influence led Diane to make herself a success. When Marty is released, Tommy moves in with him temporarily to help him recuperate.
Bob summons Tommy, alone, for a meeting. Bob offers him a million dollar three-fight contract on the condition that he leave Marty. Marty, Bob says, has a "tainted rep" in the fight game and represents an "element" that boxing will never be ready for. Tommy refuses the deal if it means leaving Marty. Diane and Marty both advise Tommy to take the offer but he still refuses. Stephanie and Tommy argue about the offer and Tommy drives Stephanie away.
Marty tries to alienate Tommy by ignoring him during training and becoming verbally abusive. After Marty slaps Tommy several times during a training session, Tommy attacks him, yelling that if Marty ever puts his "faggot-ass hands" on him again, he will kill him. Later that night Tommy goes to Marty's place to apologize and to tell him that Marty can't make him go away. Marty refuses to take him back. Tommy reduces himself to offering himself to Marty sexually. Marty explodes at him, furious that Tommy would think that of him after all they'd been through.
The next morning, Tommy rushes back to Marty's house where he and a distraught Diane find Marty's body. He has committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Tommy calls Stephanie to apologize and to tell her of Marty's death.
The film returns to the opening scene. Tommy breaks down in tears but stops crying when, upon catching sight of a mirror, he sees the image of Marty standing behind him. He finishes dressing for the fight and, as he walks to the ring, hears Stephanie calling to him. He turns to her; they smile. He resumes his walk to the ring and the camera pulls back to reveal that he is dressed in Marty's old ring robe in tribute.
was inspired to write the script after observing an older trainer working with a young boxer in a Brooklyn
gym: "I watched the guy spar. You could tell he wasn't going anywhere, but you could never convince the trainer. He's almost a caretaker. He's watching out for you completely. You could see the devotion involved." Drawing upon material originally created for his critically acclaimed one-man off-Broadway show "Dreamer Awakens," Davis completed the script in 1999 and moved to Los Angeles
.
Unrepresented by management, Davis sent his script out unsolicited to agents and studios over the course of the next three years. Davis secured representation through his efforts and received a number of studio offers, but, in a story reminiscent of Sylvester Stallone
's experience with Rocky
, he refused to sell the script unless he was signed to play the title role. He also resisted demands that Marty be made heterosexual. While Davis and director O'Flaherty honed the script, Davis trained as a boxer to add to the film's authenticity. The film was shot in Los Angeles on high-definition digital video on a budget of $200,000 and was O'Flaherty's feature debut.
The part of Marty was originally to be played by Rod Steiger
, but Steiger died in 2002, before filming could begin.
When asked to name that year's notable indie films and directors, famed film critic Roger Ebert stated “First-time director Eddie O’Flaherty was able to work outside the system to make Fighting Tommy Riley, a film that I think can play in any theater or any multiplex. And yet it’s a boxing picture that is quite different from any formula boxing picture you’ve ever seen. In the final analysis, it’s not even really about boxing.”
Variety
gave the film an overall favorable review, citing Jones in particular for "personally push[ing] the movie to a higher emotional plane." Davis and Tayler are also praised, the former for "grow[ing] into [the] role" and the latter for her "pro job at playing counterpoint" to Jones. Collectively the cast, but especially Jones, is said to elevate the picture above being a "standard drama on the sweet science with the usual tropes."
The San Francisco Chronicle
largely agreed, calling Davis "a Van Damme
who can act" and Jones "never less than convincing" as well as praising director O'Flaherty for "coach[ing] solid performances from his small cast and mak[ing] the most of the handful of up-close, well-choreographed fight montages." The Los Angeles Times
was even more effusive, citing Jones as "unforgettable" and "in such command of his acting skills that Marty's every gesture, look and movement is expressive and revealing," Davis' script as "exceptional" and his performance "no less fully realized" and O'Flaherty's direction as "subtle...intense and convincing." Tayler and Chambers are also lauded, Tayler for creating a "well drawn" character and Chambers for delivering an "effective" performance. Sports Illustrated
called the film "stylish and well-paced" despite its limited budget and echoes others' praise for Jones's "nuanced, intense performance," but (without mentioning the plot point of Marty's sexual advance) pinpoints the retreat to Marty's cabin as when the script "starts to look and sound like beginners' work."
Strongly dissenting was the Village Voice, calling the film "[o]utrageously sentimental and retrograde" and in need of "serious vetting by [LGBT media watchdog organization] GLAAD." The Voice compared Marty's fate to that of other cinematic "self-loathing homosexuals" like Martha Dobie of The Children's Hour
. However, writing for the LGBT-interest Advocate
magazine, gay film researcher David Ehrenstein
praised the film for "speak[ing] volumes about those whom the gay rights revolution never touched and about the lives of older gays and lesbians in general."
Cinematographer Michael Fimognari won the Kodak Award for Cinematography at the 14th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival
. Fighting Tommy Riley was an official selection of the 7th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival and of the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival
.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
that tells the story of Tommy Riley and Marty Goldberg, a boxer and his trainer, as they work to secure a title shot for Tommy. Their plans are complicated by the unrequited feelings Marty develops for Tommy. When a big-time promoter seeks to acquire Tommy's contract, Tommy endangers his future career because of his loyalty to Marty. Marty, seeing only one way to free Tommy to take his shot, takes his own life.
Directed by Eddie O'Flaherty, the film was written by J. P. Davis
J. P. Davis
J.P. Davis is an American screenwriter and actor. Born and raised on the upper West Side of New York City, Davis attended The Berkshire School and then graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Davis's first screenplay was Fighting Tommy Riley. The script was written with...
, who sold the script only on the condition that he himself would play Tommy. It also stars Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones (actor)
Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...
as Marty, Christina Chambers
Christina Chambers
Christina Mae Chambers is an American actress and model.-Private life:Chambers was born into a family of academics, both parents holding doctorates . She is the next-to-youngest of four siblings...
as Stephanie, Diane Tayler as Diane Stone, and Paul Raci as Bob Silver.
Fighting Tommy Riley opened in limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on May 6, 2005 to generally positive reviews, with Jones's performance as Marty frequently singled out for praise.
Plot
Tommy Riley (J. P. DavisJ. P. Davis
J.P. Davis is an American screenwriter and actor. Born and raised on the upper West Side of New York City, Davis attended The Berkshire School and then graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Davis's first screenplay was Fighting Tommy Riley. The script was written with...
) stands in boxing gear in a dingy dressing room. There is a knock at the door and a voice calls out, "Are you ready?"
The film flashes back
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
seven months. Tommy is a former boxer who almost made the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team
Boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics
The boxing competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was held over a period of sixteen days at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour...
as a middleweight
Middleweight
Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...
. He works laying computer cable and earns money on the side as a sparring
Sparring
Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts. Although the precise form varies, it is essentially relatively 'free-form' fighting, with enough rules, customs, or agreements to make injuries unlikely...
partner in a local gym. His lack of motivation has led his girlfriend Stephanie (Christina Chambers
Christina Chambers
Christina Mae Chambers is an American actress and model.-Private life:Chambers was born into a family of academics, both parents holding doctorates . She is the next-to-youngest of four siblings...
) to move out.
Marty (Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones (actor)
Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...
) is a former boxer, now a high school teacher and boxing trainer/manager who had previously coached a fighter to a title shot, only to have the fighter leave him just before the fight. Marty and his business partner Diane (Diane Tayler) arrive at the gym where Tommy spars to scout his sparring partner. The fighter's manager instructs Tommy to make his fighter look good, but after he suffers a low blow, Tommy knocks the fighter out with one punch. The manager and the gym's owner angrily order Tommy from the gym but Marty and Diane chase after him, inviting him to train with Marty.
Tommy's reputation and news of his return to the ring spark interest from promoters. After training some time, Marty and Diane set up a fight so that promoters can see him in action. He wins the fight but the promoter at ringside shows no enthusiasm.
Diane gives Marty a tape of Tommy's 1999 Olympic trial fight. Tommy was ahead after two rounds but quit before round three because of a hand injury. Marty realizes that Tommy faked his injury because of the poor coaching and abuse coming from his stepfather, who was serving as his cornerman
Cornerman
A cornerman, or simply corner, is a combat sports term for a coach or team mate assisting a fighter during the length of a bout. The cornerman remains outside the combat area during the fight, but in proximity, and can assist the fighter through instruction...
. Marty and Tommy talk about Tommy's stepfather and Marty's former fighter. Marty tells Tommy that boxing is a team sport and that Tommy will never be alone in the ring. Tommy's renewed motivation as a fighter leads to a reconciliation with Stephanie.
Leroy Kane (Don Wallace
Don Wallace
Donald Allen Wallace is a former Major League Baseball player. Wallace played 23 games with the California Angels in the 1967 season. He had six at-bats, without a hit. He attended Oklahoma State University....
), the fighter who went to the Olympics instead of Tommy, wants a "tune-up" fight before his fight for the middleweight title. His scheduled opponent is injured and Diane sets Tommy up for the bout instead. The fight is in four weeks, so Tommy and Marty go to Marty's cabin in the woods to train without distractions. After several days, during a rubdown following a workout, Marty touches Tommy inappropriately. Tommy reacts strongly negatively and Marty apologizes. They agree to ignore the incident but return to the city ahead of schedule.
On the night of Tommy's fight with Kane, Tommy and Marty plan to force Kane to exhaust himself pursuing Tommy until the seventh round and then put him away. The plan works and Tommy knocks out Kane in round seven. After the fight Marty plans to take everyone out for a celebratory dinner but Bob Silver (Paul Raci), a big-time promoter, has watched the fight and, impressed, invites them all out. Marty declines and goes home, but later that night is taken to the hospital. Tommy rushes to the hospital and finds Diane there. He asks if Marty is in the hospital because of what happened at the cabin. Diane tells him that when Marty was a fighter, people threatened to expose Marty's homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, so he ended his career by putting his hand through a window and damaging it. He became a teacher and his influence led Diane to make herself a success. When Marty is released, Tommy moves in with him temporarily to help him recuperate.
Bob summons Tommy, alone, for a meeting. Bob offers him a million dollar three-fight contract on the condition that he leave Marty. Marty, Bob says, has a "tainted rep" in the fight game and represents an "element" that boxing will never be ready for. Tommy refuses the deal if it means leaving Marty. Diane and Marty both advise Tommy to take the offer but he still refuses. Stephanie and Tommy argue about the offer and Tommy drives Stephanie away.
Marty tries to alienate Tommy by ignoring him during training and becoming verbally abusive. After Marty slaps Tommy several times during a training session, Tommy attacks him, yelling that if Marty ever puts his "faggot-ass hands" on him again, he will kill him. Later that night Tommy goes to Marty's place to apologize and to tell him that Marty can't make him go away. Marty refuses to take him back. Tommy reduces himself to offering himself to Marty sexually. Marty explodes at him, furious that Tommy would think that of him after all they'd been through.
The next morning, Tommy rushes back to Marty's house where he and a distraught Diane find Marty's body. He has committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Tommy calls Stephanie to apologize and to tell her of Marty's death.
The film returns to the opening scene. Tommy breaks down in tears but stops crying when, upon catching sight of a mirror, he sees the image of Marty standing behind him. He finishes dressing for the fight and, as he walks to the ring, hears Stephanie calling to him. He turns to her; they smile. He resumes his walk to the ring and the camera pulls back to reveal that he is dressed in Marty's old ring robe in tribute.
Cast
- J. P. DavisJ. P. DavisJ.P. Davis is an American screenwriter and actor. Born and raised on the upper West Side of New York City, Davis attended The Berkshire School and then graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Davis's first screenplay was Fighting Tommy Riley. The script was written with...
as Tommy Riley - Eddie JonesEddie Jones (actor)Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...
as Marty Goldberg - Christina ChambersChristina ChambersChristina Mae Chambers is an American actress and model.-Private life:Chambers was born into a family of academics, both parents holding doctorates . She is the next-to-youngest of four siblings...
as Stephanie - Diane Tayler as Diane Stone
- Paul Raci as Bob Silver
- Don WallaceDon WallaceDonald Allen Wallace is a former Major League Baseball player. Wallace played 23 games with the California Angels in the 1967 season. He had six at-bats, without a hit. He attended Oklahoma State University....
as Lenny Kane - Scot Belsky as Freddie Holt
- Michael BentMichael BenttMichael A. Bentt is a film and television actor and retired heavyweight boxer. Of Jamaican lineage, he was born in East Dulwich, London, but raised in the Cambria Heights section of Queens in New York City...
as Mosley
Production
J. P. DavisJ. P. Davis
J.P. Davis is an American screenwriter and actor. Born and raised on the upper West Side of New York City, Davis attended The Berkshire School and then graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Davis's first screenplay was Fighting Tommy Riley. The script was written with...
was inspired to write the script after observing an older trainer working with a young boxer in a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
gym: "I watched the guy spar. You could tell he wasn't going anywhere, but you could never convince the trainer. He's almost a caretaker. He's watching out for you completely. You could see the devotion involved." Drawing upon material originally created for his critically acclaimed one-man off-Broadway show "Dreamer Awakens," Davis completed the script in 1999 and moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Unrepresented by management, Davis sent his script out unsolicited to agents and studios over the course of the next three years. Davis secured representation through his efforts and received a number of studio offers, but, in a story reminiscent of Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
's experience with Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
, he refused to sell the script unless he was signed to play the title role. He also resisted demands that Marty be made heterosexual. While Davis and director O'Flaherty honed the script, Davis trained as a boxer to add to the film's authenticity. The film was shot in Los Angeles on high-definition digital video on a budget of $200,000 and was O'Flaherty's feature debut.
The part of Marty was originally to be played by Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
, but Steiger died in 2002, before filming could begin.
Critical response
Fighting Tommy Riley received generally positive reviews, with Eddie Jones frequently singled out for his performance. SF Weekly, in making the unavoidable comparison to Oscar-winner "Million Dollar Baby", praised the film for "rope-a-doping viewers with familiar moves, and then, like the Eastwood film, veers off in an unexpected direction" adding "Jones inhabits the character in an outstanding, unheralded performance that, along with Michael Fimognari's superb cinematography, makes director Eddie O'Flaherty's debut superior to Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. "When asked to name that year's notable indie films and directors, famed film critic Roger Ebert stated “First-time director Eddie O’Flaherty was able to work outside the system to make Fighting Tommy Riley, a film that I think can play in any theater or any multiplex. And yet it’s a boxing picture that is quite different from any formula boxing picture you’ve ever seen. In the final analysis, it’s not even really about boxing.”
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
gave the film an overall favorable review, citing Jones in particular for "personally push[ing] the movie to a higher emotional plane." Davis and Tayler are also praised, the former for "grow[ing] into [the] role" and the latter for her "pro job at playing counterpoint" to Jones. Collectively the cast, but especially Jones, is said to elevate the picture above being a "standard drama on the sweet science with the usual tropes."
The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
largely agreed, calling Davis "a Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
who can act" and Jones "never less than convincing" as well as praising director O'Flaherty for "coach[ing] solid performances from his small cast and mak[ing] the most of the handful of up-close, well-choreographed fight montages." The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
was even more effusive, citing Jones as "unforgettable" and "in such command of his acting skills that Marty's every gesture, look and movement is expressive and revealing," Davis' script as "exceptional" and his performance "no less fully realized" and O'Flaherty's direction as "subtle...intense and convincing." Tayler and Chambers are also lauded, Tayler for creating a "well drawn" character and Chambers for delivering an "effective" performance. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
called the film "stylish and well-paced" despite its limited budget and echoes others' praise for Jones's "nuanced, intense performance," but (without mentioning the plot point of Marty's sexual advance) pinpoints the retreat to Marty's cabin as when the script "starts to look and sound like beginners' work."
Strongly dissenting was the Village Voice, calling the film "[o]utrageously sentimental and retrograde" and in need of "serious vetting by [LGBT media watchdog organization] GLAAD." The Voice compared Marty's fate to that of other cinematic "self-loathing homosexuals" like Martha Dobie of The Children's Hour
The Children's Hour (1961 film)
The Children's Hour is a 1961 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the 1934 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman...
. However, writing for the LGBT-interest Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
magazine, gay film researcher David Ehrenstein
David Ehrenstein
David Ehrenstein is an American critic who focuses primarily on issues of homosexuality in cinema.-Life and career:Ehrenstein was born in New York City. His father was a secular Jew with Polish ancestors, and his mother was of African American and Irish descent. His mother raised him in her...
praised the film for "speak[ing] volumes about those whom the gay rights revolution never touched and about the lives of older gays and lesbians in general."
Cinematographer Michael Fimognari won the Kodak Award for Cinematography at the 14th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to provide a forum for independent filmmakers from around the world to express their vision. The Festival is traditionally held for five days in mid-October in theatre venues from Montauk to Southampton and attracts roughly 15,000 visitors annually...
. Fighting Tommy Riley was an official selection of the 7th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival and of the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival
Los Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...
.