“As long as I’m boxing…I’m going to be ok.”
Boxing legend Claressa Shields has a stellar nickname, bestowed upon her since the age of 11. She often goes by “T-Rex” due to her childhood skinny frame and short arms, which she used to swing about without much control. That is until she was trained by her coach, Jason Crutchfield, who aided in Claressa’s growth from amateur to Olympic champion at just 17 years old.
Claressa Shields might be known these days as one of the greatest female boxers ever to live — scratch that… some would say one of the greatest living boxers to date. That’s because she’s fought hard since she was a teenager to close the gender pay gap in the sport while attaining multiple Olympic gold medals and breaking records that even men in boxing still haven’t been able to come close to attaining.
“The Fire Inside” tells Claressa’s story from 11 years old to the present time, with help from actress Ryan Destiny (“Grown-ish”), who embodies the boxer throughout much of her burgeoning sports career. Directed by Rachel Morrison in her feature directorial debut after years working as a cinematographer on projects like “Black Panther” and “Mudbound” (she was the first woman nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar for the latter), this film is based on Claressa’s true life story of struggle and breaking barriers, and Morrison pulls no punches.
The film divulges much about Claressa’s poverty-stricken life in Flint, Michigan, helping to raise her siblings under the roof of a single mom constantly making bad decisions. A survivor of molestation from a young age, Claressa fights every battle with vigor and tenacity, and not always in the ring. Taken under Crutchfield’s (Brian Tyree Henry) wing, she has an unlikely ascension from competing in Nationals to Olympic trials, all the way to the 2012 Olympics in London.
But the film isn’t primarily about Olympic glory and how she became the only American (male or female) to take home a gold medal in boxing in the past 20 years. After winning at the Olympics, Claressa is surprised and bitter to realize that there are no endorsements to be had for female boxers, no recognition with the money to prove it, and a life reduced to paying her mother’s bills by signing autographs at the local bowling alley.
Driven by anger, spite, determination, grit and the fire inside her soul that does not admit defeat, she chooses an alternative route for her second go at the Olympics in 2016. Claressa is a fighter, after all, and she begins a journey of battling the male-dominated status quo to fight for equal pay and an equal opportunity to be seen and heard by the powers that be. It isn’t easy, and she resorts to some awful actions before finding her voice that carries her to a different kind of goal. A goal to make sure women’s sports are not only considered but paid equally to men’s.
“The Fire Inside” is a monumental achievement for the talented cast and director Rachel Morrison, who never wavers in her commitment to showcasing a stalwart overachiever in Claressa Shields. Marked by a stunning performance from Ryan Destiny and the stoicism of Brian Tyree Henry, the film is a winner from its first frame to its last. The post-Olympics sequences are what sets this movie apart from similar movies of the genre like “Million Dollar Baby,” as we witness the fight of Claressa’s life in her braveness to go with the fuel that drives her ambition.
Written by Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”), the film’s greatest moments come from the subtle ways in which Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry take their true-to-life characters to new heights in collaboration. Their characters’ found relationship models a new path for true story sports dramas due to the often disregarded color barrier and gender pay gap. The actors give this story the heart it needs without taking away from the history it provides.
