F.I.S.T.

You cannot judge Stallone's acting career without seeing this movie. The movie was made during the height of Rocky-mania, and I don't recall it getting much attention on its first run.

Sly plays a blue-collar grunt at the pre-dawn of the organized labor movement in the US. I think the film does a commendable job showing the audience what conditions were like before the work force was unionized. Indeed it depicts what what drove workers to form the original labor unions. Federated Inter-State Truckers or FIST is the union that Stallone's character reluctantly helps organize and lead through the early dark years of violent strikes and lockouts to the later years of labor successes breading union corruption.

I am not a fan of the Rocky series, but did enjoy First Blood 1. I found FIST to be the best film of his career.

This is one of Stallone's best performances as an actor! In all the following movies in the 80's and 90's he is more appreciated for his 'presence' and strength as a person, but in this one he portrays a lifestory of a union worker that rose to greatest fame. Don't lose heart if you feel bored in the beginning of the movie, it gets better and in the second half, when many years have past, it gets really good. It is a grand movie-story and definitely a recommendation for anyone who likes movies about the fate of others.

Don't sell this film short! There are more inaccuracies in this film then I care to mention, but the need for the unions of the day to enlist the underworld (mob) for their protection was real. Law enforcement was on the side of whoever could pay the most back in those days and the big business anti-Union folks had all the money. If you work for a living, you have to pay homage to the unions. If not for them we would all still be working for fifty cents a day!!

This movie does do a great job of showing the good that the unions did and how they succumbed to the corruption that power and greed visit on any entity no mater the good intentions. Everyone who sells their labor to a business should watch this film.

This is a real hidden gem of a film. Thought provoking, intelligent and times indignant, without resorting to sentimentality.

Contrast this,with the commercially lucrative but artistically meaningless "Crash, Bang, Wallop" movies that Stallone became synonymous with in the 1980s.

Stallone can act when he wants to, and FIST amply demonstrates this wasted potential.

Based (very loosely) on the life of the Teamsters boss, Jimmy Hoffa, FIST charts the rise and fall of a Trade Union leader. A cautionary tale of how noble causes can be sullied by ambition and hubris.

I highly recommend it, if only to convince others that Stallone occasionally turned in a credible performance without the promise of a big pay day.

This film is done on a very low budget, and its a great film. Some times, low budget film compensate with good acting. The script, probably has some real life experiences in it, with a few of the scenes, especialy with the apple boxes, and the double cross part in the film. After watching this film, I thought this film is great, and I am happy I spent my time watching a true gem.