Bleed for This

Plot

On November 1988, Vinny Pazienza (Teller) fights versus Roger Mayweather for the WBC World Light Welterweight Title. He arrives late to the weigh in, being on the bicycle to get exactly the weight limit and finally weighs in at 140 pounds even. Afterwards, instead of resting for his fight the next day, he spends the night at the Casino. He eventually loses his bout versus Mayweather. His boxing manager Lou Duva (Levine) causes a scene by attempting to go after Mayweather but he is punched by Mayweather. Following his loss, Duva tells the media that Vinny should retire from the career, causing Vinny's father Angelo (Hinds), who serves him as a coach, to confront Duva. Vinny wants another fight and hires Kevin Rooney (Eckhart) as his coach.

Angelo receives a confirmation that Vinny will fight against Gilbert Dele. At the ring, Vinny wins via technical knockout in the second round, now holding the WBA World Light Middleweight Title. Some days later, Angelo tells Vinny that he will be fighting Panaman boxer Roberto Durán sooner but Angelo is anxious about his loss against Durán. Vinny is then picked up by his friend Jimmy to get some coffee. On their way, they are hit by an incoming car. Jimmy survives with less injury but Vinny is critically injured, breaking his neck. At the hospital, upon regaining consciousness, the doctor informs Vinny that he might never walk again and would certainly never fight again. Four days after the accident, as recommended by the doctor, Vinny had to wear Halo, a medical device in which a circular metal brace is screwed into the skull in four spots and propped up with four metal rods. Despite the injuries, Vinny is convinced that he will fight again but the notion is rejected by Kevin.

Disobeying the doctors' advice, Vinny begins to work out at his basement with only Kevin knowing about it. When Angelo finally discovers this, he confronts Vinny for not informing him. Six months after the accident, Vinny chooses to endure the pain of removing the screws of Halo without taking any sedatives. In his comeback match, it is confirmed that Vinny will fight against Durán. In 1995, at the ring, held in Las Vegas, in the first six rounds, Vinny is apparently overpowered by Durán but eventually Vinny — inspired by the car accident, the Halo, and working out since the accident — lands a good punch in the last round. Vinny wins via 12-round split decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113).

In the final scene, Vinny is interviewed by a journalist about the biggest lies that they told him, to which he says that the biggest lie he was told about boxing was that "it's not that simple".

Cast

Production

In September 2010, it was announced Angelo Pizzo had signed on to write the film, with Chad A. Verdi, Noah Kraft, Glen Ciano producing while Michael Corrente would direct the film. In September 2014, it was announced that Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Amanda Clayton, Ciarán Hinds, and Katey Sagal had joined the cast of the film, with Ben Younger directing from a screenplay he wrote, while Martin Scorsese and Emma Koskoff Tillinger, Bruce Cohen and Pamela Thur-Weir serving as producers. In December 2014, Tina Casciani joined the cast of the film. Aaron Eckhart gained a reported 45 pounds for the role of Kevin Rooney.

Filming

Filming began on November 10, 2014, in Warwick, Rhode Island. On December 10, filming took place at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island. On December 16 and 17 filming took place at Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.

Lawsuit

On July 27, 2017, Vinny Paz filed a formal lawsuit against filmmakers Ben Younger and Chad A. Verdi, citing forgery and failure to pay $125,000 of the promised $300,000 payout for the rights to his life's story.

Release

In February 2015, the first image of Teller was released. In May 2015, Open Road Films acquired distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the 43rd Annual Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016, before screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Originally, the film was scheduled to open in a limited release on November 4, 2016, before opening wide on November 23. In October 2016, the film was re-scheduled to have a wide opening on November 18, 2016, forgoing a limited release.

Box office

Bleed for This opened alongside Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Edge of Seventeen, as well as the wide expansions of Moonlight and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and was initially expected to gross around $5 million from 1,549 theaters. However after grossing less than $900,000 on its opening day expectations were lowered to $2–3 million; it ended up debuting to $2.4 million, finishing 8th at the box office. In its second weekend the film dropped to 17th at the box office, grossing just $949,898 (a drop of 59%).

Critical response

Bleed for This received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 71%, based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bleed for This rises on the strength of Miles Teller's starring performance to deliver a solid fact-based boxing drama that takes a few genre clichés on the chin but keeps on coming." Metacritic gives the film a normalized score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.