Foxcatcher Review

Foxcatcher begins with a short clip of a fox hunt. It appears authentic as the hunters mount horses and a team of perhaps a hundred blood hounds nose the scent of a doomed fox. We see a fox released and know that he or she has little chance-to call it a sport is as absurd as calling water boarding an Enhanced Interrogation Technique. I thought immediately of how cruel and speciesist we are. But the opening of Foxcatcher, directed by Bennet Miller, invites some consideration.  Is the opening simply providing a context for the name of the film? Or does it suggest foreshadowing or an analogy?  

The film is based on true events.  Having enormous wealth, John du Pont, played with a mixture of social ineptitude and leering creepiness, is able to get whatever he wants without having really to work for it--the affliction of the rich.  So he lures Mark Shultz, played by Channing Tatum to the du Pont estate, Foxcatcher,  to train him, but it is clear that du Pont has no idea how to wrestle or how to train. He has money and that’s about it. It is why he is tolerated.  Carell plays du Pont as a despicable and disgusting person. He is quite good. 

However, the real strength of the film rests in the relationship between Mark and David Schultz, Mark’s older brother. David Shultz is played by Mark Ruffola and conveys through his performance his deep love and affection for his brother. It is affecting and sad. 

The film mines familiar familial territory—the younger brother lives in the shadow cast by his older brother. But this is hardly David’s fault—he loves his younger brother and when Mark starts acting oddly, David is genuinely concerned. Mark resists initially David’s counsel, but David loves his brother and simply will not be shut out. Eventually, Mark comes to the estate to train after initially refusing, causing Mark resent him.  This leads to a confrontation between David and du Pont, which the film intimates was the catalyst for du Pont’s coldblooded murder. 

The rich du Pont wants to satisfy his mother, played with diffidence by Vanessa Redgrave, and so funds the Olympic team. But he also wants admiration, respect, deference from his wrestlers: he deserves none. He wants what the Schultz brothers worked so hard for, but without any of the work.  When du Pont yells “why don’t you like me,” at David as he shoots him, in front of his wife, we understand that du Pont’s nothing more than a vacuous person with emotional child and mentally ill. The film paints a glum picture of the wealthy.