Miles Teller in Bleed for This. Photo courtesy: Verdi Productions
Movie-goers love a real-life comeback story, especially if it’s about a boxer. The American cinema has a rich history of films in the boxing genre, Rocky being the most iconic, and writer/director Ben Younger’s new film, Bleed for This, starring Miles Teller and Katey Sagal, continues the tradition.
Based on the life of Vinnie Pazienza (Teller), a champion boxer who shattered his neck in a near-fatal car accident in 1991, the film highlights the American dream of achieving victory in the face of overwhelming obstacles.
Despite having the well-documented true story as a blueprint for his screenplay, Younger (Boiler Room, Prime), admits he made a substantial structural error in the script. It wasn’t until the producers showed the film at test screenings that he realized where he went wrong.
“I made a huge error in the script-writing process. I put the car crash at the midpoint. In the script it’s page 60 and we shot it like that,” says Younger.
Traditionally, screenplays set up the characters and story in the first act, then around page 30, the protagonist enters a “whole new world,” establishing act II, with the mid-point to follow 30 pages later. But Younger found the real Pazienza family and story so rich and entertaining, he held the crash until the middle of the film. Test audiences responded unfavorably.
Photo courtesy: Verdi Productions
“We showed it to people with the first half of the movie being all this great stuff about Vinnie gambling, Vinnie with women, more family-life stuff. People loved it until they got to the crash. In retrospect, they said, ‘Why did you waste an hour of our time? As colorful and great as the first hour was – the crash [and Vinnie’s recovery] is what we’re here for. We want to see this.’”
Understandably, Younger panicked since the movie was already shot.
“I thought, ‘Oh shit, I blew it.’ I thought I’d reinvent the wheel and it didn’t work. I ended up having to cut everything out of the first half of the movie to move the crash up to minute 34. It used to happen an hour in. It was a huge error and it killed me in the editing room.”
Luckily, Younger had plenty of post-crash footage in the can, claiming he shot seven to eight pages a day. “I might have cheated on the margins in Final Draft. I made them tighter, so really, I think we shot a 150-page script. There’s so much good stuff that didn’t make it in.”
It’s become a cliché that filmmakers despise test screenings, but for Younger, it was a godsend.
Miles Teller in Bleed for This. Photo courtesy: Verdi Productions
“The test-screening process saved me. If 95 percent of people in a room tell you the same thing, I don’t care how smart you are, or think you are, you should probably make that change.”
The other question Younger had to answer was whether or not to put a title card at the beginning of the film, clarifying that it was based on a true story. Younger resisted adding the card, but again, the test screening saved him.
“I’ve realized that people really do love movies based on true stories, even though these people don’t go to see documentaries. There’s something that grabs their imagination – or lack of imagination. I don’t really understand it. I didn’t want to put ‘Based on a true story’ in front of the film. There’s so much archival footage in the movie, I thought people will just know. Then, Black Mass came out and they tested it with putting, ‘Based on a true story’ and without it.
Younger was shocked by the results.
“The test score for Black Mass jumped up like 12 points with one title card. That was the only difference!”
Needless to say, Younger added a title card to his film making it very clear it is based on a true story. Sometimes, the audience knows best.
Bleed for This opens in theaters Nov. 18.