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Neglected Virtues Film Review Booklet #001: Cockfighter (1974)

Director Monte Hellman is considered one of the finest auteurs to emerge from American independent cinema in the 1970s. He is perhaps best remembered by contemporary moviegoers, however, as the producer of Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Nevertheless, two of his four films made as director with actor Warren Oates stand as amongst the finest counter-culture achievements of that most invigorating and adventurous of American film decades, the 1970s. This duo, Two Lane Blacktop (1971) and Cockfighter (1974) are accomplished works, critically acclaimed even today. But although Two Lane Blacktop in particular has gone on to major cult recognition, Cockfighter remains something of an obscurity despite addition to the American Film Institute [AFI]. Hellman himself faced problems on set – inept crews, limited post-production scheduling – but part of the ill repute into which the movie drifted was due to the subject matter and the supposed use of actual cockfights for dramatic effect, something which angered animal rights activists, though are beautifully edited by Lewis Teague, who split the editing with Hellman due to time constraints. So too, it reportedly even offended the public, who stayed away from the film, making it at the time one of the few box-office failures to emerge from the auspices of legendary exploitation producer Roger Corman. Even audiences in the American South, where the film premiered and was expected to do brisk business, took little notice of the film’s release. Following poor box office, producer Roger Corman had the movie retitled and re-released (with extended sensationalistic scenes) several times – as Born to Kill and Gamblin’ Man – but to no avail. Its reputation fared better in Europe, however, although the explicit animal cruelty resulted in the film being banned in England. Nevertheless, whatever moral objections may be leveled against the authenticity, Cockfighter remains an unforgettable film, and Warren Oates’ most accomplished work, outside of his professional relationship with Sam Peckinpah, which peaked in the equally extraordinary Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Following a subsequent split with Corman, Hellman found difficulty raising the money for subsequent films, making a scant few: three over the subsequent years.

Of all the low-budget filmmakers to work with Corman – then at American International Pictures (and later at New World) – Hellman is considered the most “existential”, his obsessive hero Oates priding himself solely on his sense of professionalism, albeit wrapped in a transcendental drive he can barely (if at all) comprehend. Indeed, Hellman later stated that: “I’ve always been attracted to the myth of Sisyphus, and I think there’s a little bit of Sisyphus in all my films, the idea of an action that is repeated over and over again.” So too, his concern for ethnographic authenticity in setting and performance (which alternate with deliberately theatrical approaches) makes his films additionally interesting as period artifacts. Sadly, Hellman was unable to develop his emergent themes, nor his authenticity-laden style, often sparsely set mythification, with a work that resonated beyond the small cult audience and independent film critics that had responded to his Corman films. For that retrospective circle though, Hellman’s low budget creativity, reflexivity and subjective/objective near ethnographic tensions underline a sub-cultural scrutiny without ethical judgment. It’s this that makes Hellman’s subjectivity the perfect accompaniment to the silent, poverty-stricken Oates protagonist of Cockfighter as he bets his all-or-nothing personal quest for the title championship on a fighting rooster in a bloodsport then illegal in 48 states. Or, as was suggested during promotion / marketing as a potential tagline (but not used): “He came into town with his cock in hand and what he did with it was illegal in 48 states!”