An unforgettable Warren Oates stars in Monte Hellman’s brutal, haunting, and Southern-fried existential meditation as a bird trainer who loses his money, his belongings, and his girl in a bad bet, setting him on a rambling path under a self-imposed vow of silence until he can win the barbaric sport’s top prize. Adapted from the novel by Charles Willeford by the author himself, Cockfighter is an indelible, uncompromising, and underseen masterwork of New Hollywood cinema, featuring a powerful performance from its star, a strong supporting cast (Harry Dean Stanton, Troy Donahue, and more), and striking visuals from cinematographer Néstor Almendros.
“Hellman embraces, with visual nuance, a world of back roads and forests, grim motels and ramshackle arenas, and he approaches the intricacies of the subculture – the blend of intuition, experience, and method shared by a band of hustlers staying a step ahead of the law – with a cool Hemingwayesque moralism.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
