Shadow Boxers

Starring:Michael Bentt, Lucia Rijker
Director: Katya Bankowsky
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

Why do women fight? This riveting behind-the-scenes look into the world of the female combatant takes us from manicures to knockouts! It turns our attention to the woman who is widely considered pound for pound the most dangerous fighter of any time, undefeated boxing sensation Lucia Rijker (Rollerball, TV's "Thunderbox"). She reveals the stages of physical, mental and spiritual growth while smashing opponents and preconceptions. "Shadow Boxers" exposes the beauty and brutality of the sport through the eyes of the introspective fighter while showing what's really at stake when women enter the ring.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful, Strong , Sensual.......2003-12-15

Lucia Rijker, the female boxer who is the star of Shadow Boxers is liquid steel. She is gorgeous, powerful, intelligent and incredibly charismatic. The director has done for female athletes what Bruce Weber did for male athletes - she has aestheticized a powerful elite female athlete in a way that makes her look as gorgous and sensual as a Calvin Klein model while she dances around the ring gracefully anihiliating her opponents. Bankowsky shoots and edits with such creative beauty that both Rijker and the sport are elevated to the level of high art.

groove to the beat of hip hop and hard punches.......2003-09-19

this movie will blow you away !!!!! i had never seen such a powerfull combination of emotion, strenght and beauty combined with the best sound track EVER .

if you are into women's boxing Get THIS movie if you are not, Get it anyway!!!! you'll love it, I guarantee!

Absolute poetry, stunning!.......2002-05-11

This movie is a rare combination - it is beautiful, poetic, witty and also brutally real. SHADOW BOXERS takes you inside the boxer's world and pulls no punches. It is the best, most original documentary I have ever seen.

Powerful,exciting and uplifting...it's one of a kind!.......2002-04-19

I was truely impressed by this film. I'm not even a boxing fan, but I heard so many good things, I had to check it out for myself. I was hooked from the minute it began. The film is beautifully shot and edited and the music is both soulful and pumping, like the movie itself which switches from the harsh realities of the sport to the poetic underside. And the women portrayed in Shadow Boxers are so unstereotypical, they are smart, thoughtful, sometimes funny, honest and most surprising of all, great boxers, especially the champion Lucia Rijker. These women are not who I expected to see when I thought of women's boxing. I want my daugthers and my son to see Shadow Boxers because this movie has a positive message that I find rare in movies today.

My hat's off to the director for having the guts to make a movie with a strong, positive message and to depict these women especially the stunning knock-out artist Lucia Rijker, with such dignity and power. There is not a weak character in this film, and that's a refreshing change. I know I will never even get close to the ring, but after Shadow Boxers, I found myself dancing around my kitchen and throwing punches in the air.
Even if you never have dreams of stepping into the ring, as long as you have dreams of any kind, this movie will inspire you.
-Peace

More a promotional piece than a documentary.......2002-04-06

Recently, more and more women are entering the sport of boxing, competing with vigor on a turf that was formerly restricted to men. A rising star in this arena is Dutch boxer Lucia Rijker and this film focussed on her. We see her training. We hear accolades from important people in the boxing profession. And we listen to her philosophy -- "Because you can get hit, because you can get hurt, because you can get knocked down. It's like real life."

Most of the film shows her in matches and the audience sees her extraordinary strength and focus over and over again, almost feeling those powerful punches. We can appreciate the breakthroughs she and others like her have made and see that the sport of women's boxing is growing. For this view into this special world, the film succeeds. However, I found myself bored. Even a documentary needs dramatic tension and that was lacking here. I couldn't root for her because it was obvious she was winning every fight. And, except for a brief interview with her and her Dutch-speaking mother, we really did not get to know her. In this way the film seemed more of a promotional piece than a documentary.

Ms. Rijker speaks perfect English and expresses herself well. She now lives in Los Angeles but I yearned for some more background. With her dark hair and slightly African or Indian features, I found myself thinking about her ethnic heritage and hoped for a few words about that. Basically, I wanted more depth because the highlights of one boxing bout after another just doesn't do it for me. The film is short, only 72 minutes. It needed more time to explore and intrigue. If you are particularly interested in women's boxing, you might like this film. But I can only give a lukewarm recommendation to a film that literally put me to sleep.

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