Amateur Hour

Featuring Olympic Bronze medalist Darren Sutherland, Saviours documents 18 months in lives of three boxers training in North Dublin’s St. Saviours boxing club.

Directed and produced by Ross Whitaker and Liam Nolan

Cast includes Darren Sutherland, Abdul Hussein, Dean Murphy, John McCormack

Cert PG
Running Time 81 mins
Release Date 3 October 2008

This is a film with a lot of potential. Ross Whitaker and Liam Nolan have found a subject with real meat for their debut movie. St. Saviours Olympic Boxing Academy on Dorset St is home to three young boxers who have not only amazing talent, but amazing stories as well. These tales are played out over 18 months and 2 Irish Senior Championships.

Dean ‘The Yank’ Murphy is a local lad who has grown up in the club. He calls boxing his first love and says he loves everything about it, even the smell of the gym. Boxing has brought Dean respect in his community. Not an Al Pacino kind of respect through fear, more the respect that comes through being a young man from the inner city who is doing something genuinely possitive with his life. Dean’s abilty is never in question, the main job for his coaches is keeping his head in the game.

Abdul Hussain brings heart and a sharp emotional edge to the picture. He was forced to flee his homeland when his uncle, the Deputy President of Ghana was assasainated. He spent three years locked up in Germany’s immigration system, followed by six months in England, before arriving in Ireland where he is seeking asylum. A week after hitting our shores he began training in Saviours and has become one of the shining lights at the club. Abdul’s status as an asylum seeker leaves him unable to work, study or do just about anything other than box. The club are the closest thing he has to a family, and they do all they can to help him gain a permanent place in Ireland.

The club’s biggest star is Darren ‘the Dazzler’ Sutherland. Darren struggles to strike a balance between college and boxing, and for the first half of the film it is school is ahead on points as he decides to watch the 2005 Irish Senior Championships from the stands. Darren’s love of boxing gains some momentum and wins out in the end though, and he goes on a tour of Europe where he collects a succession of medals culminating in victory at the 2006 Senior Irish Championships. Darren then goes on to win a bronze medal at the Olympics.

The documentary may be about the boxers, but it is John McCormack who is the real star of the show. Johnny is their trainer and offers words of wisdom to the boys, including “even if I drop dead outside, you keep watchin’ your man”. He acts as a father figure for the lads, and in his exchanges with the camera you can tell that he is genuinely proud of all of them.

Unfortuneately, this film does not reflect the greatness of the characters who star in it. This is not the fault of anyone involved. Ross Whitaker and Liam Nolan had to make their film on a shoestring budget because documentaries are just not supported in Ireland. As a result the fights in Ireland only have two camera angles, Darren’s fights in Europe look like grainy old file-footage, and his Olympic victory is not shown because there wasn’t enough money to get anywhere near Beijing.

The back-stories and build-ups are filmed well but when it comes to the actual action of the boxing matches, the viewer is let down horribly. There is no point in building huge tension if the release is going to be so dull. Saviours looks like a decent amateur fighting a proper professional when compared documentaries shown on channel 4, so it will look like it is punching a few divisions above its weight when it is shown on the big screen.

Great stories. Well told. Lack of a budget will prevent it from being a hit. Frustrating.