One of the history-making stories at the 2012 London Olympic Games was the addition of women’s boxing to the competition. The United States, which had struggled for decades to win any medal in the boxing category, won the first gold medal awarded in the 75 Kg Middle Women division, thanks to 17-year-old Flint, Michigan resident Claressa Maria Shields. Shields would win a second gold medal at the 2016 games in Rio, becoming the only American boxer to win two golds in the sport.
If you haven’t heard, or don’t remember Shields, that tracks with the theme of “The Fire Inside,” a film that came and went quickly in a “blink and you missed it” release by Amazon MGM Studios at the end of December. Shields, one of the marquis names in professional women’s boxing today, didn’t receive the accolades, recognition, or any of the lucrative post-Olympic endorsements some athletes receive when they return from the games adorned with gold hardware. This bio-pic on Shields’ life seeks to ask and answer those questions.
“The Fire Inside,” written by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins and directed by Oscar-nominated cinematographer and first-time director Rachel Morrison, offers most of the time-honored plot devices audiences come to know and expect in a boxing movie. Boxers typically come from rough and tumble beginnings, and Shields’ road to the Olympics is not glamorous. We get the classic trainer/boxer dynamic, as Shields, played to great effect by Ryan Destiny Irons, and her trainer Jason Crutchfield (a superb Brian Tyree Henry, fresh off his Oscar-nominated performance in 2023’s “Causeway”) go through all the motions of a volunteer neighborhood coach who starts out not wanting to train a girl to box, but will eventually become her biggest champion and surrogate family. And Shields is the girl who’s faced more adversity than any child should, channeling her anger and rage into her leading talent, her boxing abilities.
Again, we’re not talking about breaking any new ground with this movie. We’ve seen this story dozens of times, yet as the film producers in the 1991 movie “Barton Fink” reminded the Fink, the boxing picture is a proven formula. Yes, we know what we are going to get, right down to the training montage leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, yet the story is engaging enough to keep viewers interested. History tells us Shields wins gold, so no surprise is coming. Still, director Morrison finds ways to build up the tension, and there are some thrills in the authentic boxing sequences.
Other aspects of the film don’t play out as smoothly. Morrison, the successful cinematographer of films like “Black Panther,” “Mudbound,” “Fruitvale Station,” and “Cake,” delivers a rather bland-looking movie. Shot in digital, the translation to a gritty, hand-held documentary feel falls flat. The film would have benefited from a 16mm film look or some visual style to give it a more cinematic treatment that the story calls out for and deserves.
Shields’ complex home life and the struggles of her single mom aren’t fleshed out enough. The film trades in a few cliched scenes of a neglectful mom, but we’re never given a character with any depth. It’s understandable, as this story is focused on Shields, but the edges of her story are incomplete. To rise above the standard boxing story, I’m looking for more reasons than just “It’s a true story” to compel me.
The most interesting aspect of “The Fire Inside” happens in the film’s third act, after Shields wins the gold medal in London. She returns to Flint, Michigan, and nothing about her life changes. Well, it does change, but in one worse way: she’s locally famous for achieving something the people in her impoverished neighborhood can only dream about, but the dream is unfulfilled. Where are the endorsements, television interviews, commercials, and lucrative marketing deals? Where is Shields’ exclusive line of Nike boxing shoes? And when the U.S. Olympic Association finally comes knocking to invite her to train at their facility in Colorado, why is it their offer comes with a stipend two-thirds less than those of her male counterparts, counterparts that Shields correctly points out, may not have won anything, or may ever win a medal?
This part of the story isn’t fleshed out nearly enough by the film provided, yet it is the one that raises the most interesting questions. When we live in a time in our country where three initials are under attack for ridiculous reasons, this film reminds audiences that diversity, equity, and inclusion were always three values America lagged behind. The reality for Claressa Shields was that she was a Black girl from the poorer-than-poor Flint, Michigan, excelling in a sport that, until trailblazers like herself changed the perception, was thought of as “males only.” In this film, Shields discovers that she has to fight more battles than just in the ring in order to achieve the rewards she deserves. It is a fight that so many women before her, and will continue after, must fight. And judging by the early actions of the current administration, it will be a tough battle that will only be won one agonizing round at a time.
“The Fire Inside” is available to rent on-demand.
James Kent is the publisher’s assistant at The Mountain Times and the co-host of “Stuff We’ve Seen.”
