'Fat City' is one of the great, under-seen '70s films

Fat City, the 1972 comeback film for legendary director John Huston, is unlike any other boxing genre movie I've ever seen.

It's not uplifting like Rocky, nor does it plumb the depth of the human soul like Raging Bull.

It's an amiable film but it's not the least bit lightweight. It sort of shuffles along but with an understated power. Basically, it's a perfectly evocative 1970s film.

Seventies movies are often rich with ambiguity, they can be less plot driven and more about mood, and their heroes can be so self destructive they almost invite contempt.

Fat City possesses all of these elements. It's not about one big fight, or any fight in particular. It instead focuses on two characters that might gently be described as losers.

One at the very least has some prospects, that would be the character played by Jeff Bridges. He meets the Stacy Keach character by chance at a run-down local gym, then there stories separate for a time only to converge later.

Keach is a marvel in a performance that shockingly did not earn an Academy Award nomination. He doesn't act drunk, he genuinely appears to be in scenes. He had a lovely, lopsided smile and he can be both petulant and tender in a tour de force performance.

The film is full of these little asides that create such a rich tapestry. Bridges has a hilariously uncomfortable scene opposite Candy Clark playing his girlfriend, where she probes him to compare her sexually to his previous lovers. Another terrific moment comes from an aging black field worker who tells an amusing story of how his ex caught him cheating. These scenes don't necessarily push this languid movie forward, but they feel strangely authentic.

Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges in 'Fat City'

And I can't say enough about "Earl", a no-nonsense character played by Curtis Cokes that isn't in the film much but has such a memorable presence, that he looms throughout, even when off-screen.

But what is the movie about? It could be about crushed dreams or the nobility of blissful ignorance. The film has a haunting final scene that I think is open to interpretation, it has a quiet grace that is so rare in movies today.

Fat City is also a profoundly funny film. The characters are boozy and blustery, they shout because they are so low on the totem poll, that very few people really listen to them. The ramshackle town where the movie takes place, Stockton, California, is also a character in the film -- its decrepit and seedy vibe really serves the story.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: they sadly don't make movies like this anymore. As much as I enjoy special effects extravaganzas, there is nothing more compelling than stories about real people in a relatively realistic situation. You get to hang out with and get to know the characters of Fat City, and yes, you pity them, but you are never bored by them.