F.I.S.T.

F.I.S.T. (stylized on-screen as F•I•S•T) is a 1978 American crime

F.I.S.T.
neo-noir drama film directed by Norman Jewison and starring
Sylvester Stallone. Stallone plays a Cleveland warehouse worker
who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional
"Federation of Inter-State Truckers" (F.I.S.T.). The film is loosely
based on the Teamsters union and their former President Jimmy
Hoffa.[3]

Although the film was Stallone's first post-Rocky film, it was stated
that the title acronym F.I.S.T. was an unintentional play on Stallone's
public image as the boxer Rocky Balboa.

Contents
Plot
Cast
Production
Development and writing
Theatrical release poster
Filming
Directed by Norman
Release
Jewison
Box office
Critical reception Produced by Gene Corman

Accolades Screenplay by Joe Eszterhas

Sylvester
Notes
Stallone
External links
Story by Joe Eszterhas
Starring Sylvester
Plot Stallone
Rod Steiger
At a loading dock in Cleveland in 1937, supervisor Mr. Gant hires a Peter Boyle
new worker, Lincoln Dombrowsky. Gant tells Dombrowsky that he Melinda Dillon
will be paid for his regular shift only even if he must work overtime, David Huffman
and that any merchandise he damages will come directly out of his Kevin Conway
pay. When Dombrowsky drops a few carts of tomatoes, his pay is Tony Lo Bianco
docked and another worker is fired for helping him collect the fallen
merchandise. Resentful of these unfair labor practices, worker Music by Bill Conti
Johnny Kovak leads a riot. The laborers go to the office of Boss Cinematography László Kovács
Andrews, where Kovak believes he negotiates a deal for the
Edited by Graeme Clifford
workers, only to find out the next day that he and his friend Abe
Belkin have been fired. Production Chateau
company Productions
Huron
Productions Inc.
Kovak and Belkin are approached by Mike Monahan, who was Distributed by United Artists
impressed by their leadership. He offers them positions in the
Release date April 28, 1978
Federation of Inter State Truckers (F.I.S.T.), where they will be paid
according to how many members they can recruit. Kovak is given a (United States)
car to use while recruiting, which also allows him to meet and soon Running time 145 minutes
start dating Anna Zarinka. Kovak is successfully recruiting new
Country United States
F.I.S.T. members, which attracts attention from business owners.
When Kovak turns down their offer to recruit new workers to their Language English
non-union trucking firms, the shady owners have him physically Budget $8 million[1]
attacked. Kovak rises into a leadership role through his union
recruiting, causing competition with hothead F.I.S.T. leader Max Box office $20.3 million[2]
Graham.

Soon Monahan, Kovak and Belkin begin working to get the F.I.S.T. members at Consolidated Trucking
covered by a labor agreement. When management refuses to deal with them, the F.I.S.T. workers strike.
They set up camp outside Consolidated Trucking's gates, but are pushed out by strikebreakers and hired
security. Monahan tries to ram the gates in a truck, but is shot and killed. At his funeral, Kovak decides to
"get some muscle" and accepts help from Vince Doyle, a local gangster. Doyle's men attack trucks trying to
make deliveries. Local mobsters and the members of F.I.S.T. join forces to storm the gates of Consolidated
Trucking. The president of Consolidated Trucking finally signs a labor agreement.

Building on this success, Kovak and Belkin travel the Midwest to recruit more workers. Kovak becomes
wealthier and marries Anna. A new crime figure, Babe Milano, comes on the scene and wants a piece of the
action. Kovak meets Milano with Doyle and, although reluctant to involve him in his business, decides it
will be best for now.

By 1957, F.I.S.T. has become a large and important union, with about two million members. When Kovak
visits Max Graham at F.I.S.T. headquarters, he is displeased to see how luxurious the building and Graham's
offices are. Kovak visits with Belkin, now leading F.I.S.T. business on the West Coast, who explains that
Graham has made money unethically off the union. In his investigation, Kovak finds that Graham used his
influence to steer union businesses and funds to shell companies owned by him or his wife, and has used
violence against the wife of a trucking company owner who resisted the union.

Graham is a strong favorite to be elected F.I.S.T. president. Belkin suggests to Kovak that they turn Graham
in to the authorities, but Kovak is too worried about the damage to the union from the scandal. Kovak
confronts Graham with what he knows, convincing him to support Kovak's run for union president.

Now the newly-elected president of F.I.S.T., Kovak is investigated by Senator Madison, who suspects
Kovak of ties with the Mafia through his work with gangsters Doyle and Milano. Belkin urges Kovak to cut
off Milano and make the union "clean again", but Kovak ignores his request. When Doyle later tells Kovak
that Belkin plans to testify against them, Kovak insists that Belkin not be harmed.

Subpoenaed to testify before Senator Madison's committee, Kovak is told that Belkin has been killed and the
senator believes Kovak is responsible. Shocked, Kovak has an emotional outburst and storms out of the
hearing. He returns home to finds Anna and the children are missing. He gets his pistol but is shot and killed
by Milano's men. The movie ends with a shot of a bumper sticker on a truck which reads, "Where's
Johnny?"

Cast
Sylvester Stallone as Johnny D. Kovak
Rod Steiger as Senator Madison
Peter Boyle as Max Graham
 Melinda Dillon as Anna Zarinkas
David Huffman as Abe Belkin
Kevin Conway as Vince Doyle
Tony Lo Bianco as Babe Milano
Cassie Yates as Molly
Peter Donat as Arthur St. Clair
Frank McRae as Lincoln Dombrowsky
Henry Wilcoxon as Win Talbot
Richard Herd as Mike Monahan
Ken Kercheval as Bernie Marr
James Karen as Andrews
Stuart Gillard as Phil Talbot
Brian Dennehy as Frank Vasko
Sam Chew Jr. as Peter Jacobs

Anthony Kiedis, who became the founding lead singer of the band Red Hot Chili Peppers five years later,
appeared in a small role using his stage name Cole Dammett, a tribute to the stage name Blackie Dammett
used by his actor father.

Production

Development and writing

Sylvester Stallone rewrote Joe Eszterhas' script, saying "Joe Eszterhas wrote a script that was nearly 400
pages and was more of a novel than a shootable screenplay. A great deal of work was done by myself, along
with Norman Jewison, to hammer it into shape, but Joe had conceived a great concept."[4] Eszterhas was
reportedly paid $85,000 for the script. Stallone received $350,000 for acting and $150,000 for writing.

Filming

Most of the filming was done in Dubuque, Iowa. Dubuque was chosen firstly because the older sections of
the town looked more like Cleveland of the 1930s than Cleveland did at the time, and secondly because of
the absence of roof-mounted television antennas due to most of the homes having cable television. Because
of the large bluffs, over-the-air television signals had problems reaching homes in the low-lying areas, so a
cable system was developed in the mid-1950s, which was considerably earlier than many other
municipalities.

Some locations used in filming included St. Raphael's Cathedral, Sacred Heart Church, the Fourth Street
Elevator, E.J. Voggenthaler Co. and Dubuque Star Brewery. Filming was also done at the former Caradco
manufacturing company in Dubuque. Portions of the Caradco building were fitted with new windows which
were then purposely smashed for filming. The windows were replaced by the end of filming. Other Dubuque
locations that were also visible in the finished film were the Dubuque County Courthouse and Saint Mary's
Catholic Church.

Some filming was also done in the English city of Sheffield.

Release
Box office

The film was a success, grossing $20,388,920 on an $8 million budget, though it was not as successful as
Stallone's previous film Rocky (1976).

Critical reception

F.I.S.T. received generally positive reviews from film

critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the
film three-and-a-half stars out of five, stating "F.I.S.T. is a
big movie that benefits from the accumulating of small,
ordinary detail than from any particular wit or inspiration
of vision." Another positive review came from TV Guide,
who gave the film three stars out of four. They praised
Stallone's script and acting, saying that "Stallone likes to
depart himself from his muscles, it usually doesn't work.
But, with F.I.S.T. it works well as he cares more about the
character than anything else, something we'd like to see Hugh Hefner at the premiere of Sylvester
more of." Stallone's movie F.I.S.T., 1978

A negative review came from Richard Schickel of TIME

Magazine, who said that the film "stands for nearly 2½ hours of almost unmitigated boredom—a misfired
would-be proletarian epic with Sylvester Stallone misplaying the Jimmy Hoffa part with a self-confidence
that borders on the sublime."[5]

The film holds an 73% "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews.[6]

Accolades

The film was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Music in a Feature Film.

Notes
1. Stallone Wins Heavyweight-Purse Kilday, Gregg. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los
Angeles, Calif] 02 Apr 1977: b6.
2. F.I.S.T. (https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fist.htm) at Box Office Mojo
3. "Screen: 'F.I.S.T.,' Drama of Unionism:Stallone Returns" (https://www.nytimes.com/movie/revie
w?res=9904E0DB1231E632A25755C2A9629C946990D6CF&mcubz=0). The New York
Times. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
4. "Stallone answers December 9th & 10th Questions in a double round - plus Harry's Seen
ROCKY BALBOA..." (https://www.aintitcool.com/node/30932) Aintitcool.com. Retrieved
29 September 2017.
5. Cinema: J.U.N.K. (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919573,00.html),
TIME, May 01 1978
6. "F.I.S.T. (1978)" (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fist). Rotten Tomatoes.

External links
 30th Anniversary Celebration of F.I.S.T. (http://carnegiestout.blogspot.com/2008/08/fist-30th-an
niversary-celebration.html) at Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque, Iowa
F.I.S.T. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077531/) on IMDb
F.I.S.T. (https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v16479) at AllMovie
F.I.S.T. (http://www.tcm.turner.com/tcmdb/title/title.jsp?stid=22946) at the TCM Movie Database
F.I.S.T. (https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/55253) at the American Film Institute
Catalog
F.I.S.T. (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fist.htm) at Box Office Mojo
F.I.S.T. (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fist) at Rotten Tomatoes
F.I.S.T. (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/fist) at Metacritic

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