I am doing a school project on illegal sports involving animals. I am looking for a movie that would have a scene in it that has cockfighting in it. Any movies you could think of would be a huge help. Also, it would also be helpful if I could find out a movie wiith a dogfight in it. Thanks
If you live in certain parts of the country and know where to go, you can watch first-hand both cock-fights and dog-fights on weekends, sometimes at the same venue.
The highly under-rated writer Charles Willeford wrote a novel entitled Cockfighter that has lots of information on fight protocol, bird preparation, gambling and the like. Your library might have a copy.
I don’t know of any movies that might help you.
Anyway reading is better.
Monte Hellman’s terrific movie Cockfighter is now on DVD, with some interesting commentary from the director, who talks at length about the cockfighting scenes (several of which weren’t staged and which involved actual bird deaths) and the larger cockfighting subculture of the South. Also, a magnificent performance from the great unappreciated actor of the 70s, Warren Oates.
As for dogfights, the Mexican film Amores Perros is still out on the arthouse circuit and has dogfighting as a central plot device (although these were all staged with no dogs being injured). It will be a while before it’s out on video, I suspect.
Another movie with an illegal animal sport is The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery, which features a sport where they throw a dog in a pit with a lot of rats and time the dog to see how many it kills in X number of seconds (not sure what the practice is called). The film takes place in the 19th century and the DVD director commentary also has a few things to say about this “game” (these scenes were also not staged and involved actual rat deaths).
Charles Willeford also wrote the screenplay for the film Cockfighter.
Thank you ArchiveGuy. To find there’s a movie version of Cockfighter available, with Warren Oates to boot, just about makes my week, and it’s still Monday.
Let me add to the list one of the worst movies ever, Skin Deep, starring John Ritter. However, the cocks fighting in this movie don’t have feathers.
I’ve seen * Cockfighter* and it’s well done.
A beautiful song written about cockfighting is Tom Russell’s * Gallo del Cielo*, sung by Joe Ely on his album * Letter To Laredo*. The lyrics can be found here.
I would also point you to the Cheri Caffaro classic movie “Too Hot to Handle” (1976), which has a great cockfighting scene.
I’m thinking that Zorba the Greek had a cock fight in it, but I’m not positive. Rent it anyway - it’s a good movie.