Cockfight: A Fable of Failure

There is no shortage of loaded — and often gendered — symbolism in the sport of cockfighting. And this becomes a starting point for author Kier—La Janisse (who broke new ground in film criticism with her 2012 book House of Psychotic Women) to investigate the themes of obsession, competition, mobility and nobility that dominate the hyper—masculine world of Monte Hellman's existential and controversial film, Cockfighter (1974), based on the 1962 novel by crime writer Charles Willeford (Miami ...