Cockfighter
| Cockfighter | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Monte Hellman |
| Produced by | Roger Corman |
| Written by | Charles Willeford |
| Starring |
Warren Oates Harry Dean Stanton Richard B. Shull Ed Begley, Jr. Laurie Bird Patricia Pearcy Steve Railsback |
| Music by | Michael Franks |
| Cinematography | Néstor Almendros |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures (theatrical) Anchor Bay (DVD, 2001) |
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Release date
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Running time
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83 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cockfighter (also known as Born to Kill) is a 1974 film by director Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton and featuring Laurie Bird and Ed Begley, Jr. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
The plot begins in medias res with a mute Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) locked inside a trailer preparing his best cock for an upcoming fight. He slices the chicken's beak slightly so that it looks cracked in order to increase the betting against him in the upcoming fight. He bets his trailer, girlfriend, and the remainder of his money with fellow cocker Jack (Harry Dean Stanton). Mansfield loses the fight (ironically because of the cracked beak), almost all of his belongings, and is set on a rambling path to win the Cockfighter of the Year award.
Frank visits his home town, his family farm, and his long-time fiancée Mary Elizabeth (Patricia Pearcy). Mary Elizabeth has long grown tired of Mansfield's cockfighter ways and asks him to settle down with her. Frank decides in favor of cockfighting, leaves Mary Elizabeth, sells the family farm for money to reinvest in chickens, and starts a partnership with Omar Baradinsky (Richard B. Shull). The partnership takes them all the way to the cockfighting championships.
Willeford adapted the novel to the screen himself and made several major plot changes among many smaller changes in detail. The author indicated that Cockfighter is based loosely on the structure of the Odyssey, so it is most significant that the author removed the entire subplot with the beautiful widow Berenice, perhaps the Calypso character. Removing this character also excluded the protagonist's short-lived music career from the plot, although the movie does show Mansfield plucking a guitar at one point. Two other significant characters in the novel are also missing from the movie: Doc Riordan (a pharmacist / inventor who supplies Mansfield with conditioning medicines for his chickens) and the Judge who sells the Mansfield farm. The final scene of the movie also presents a dramatic shift from the end of the book: Mansfield claims that Mary Elizabeth loves him as she walks off, whereas in the book he realizes the relationship is over and he is free.
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