The first image the audience sees of a young Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (played by in early scenes by Kylee D. Allen and Jazmin Headley) is of her running to a boxing gym in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. Although the facility has a strict rule that it only trains boys, Claressa traverses halfway across town each day for her chance to prove herself. The inextinguishable flame that fuels Shields’ drive towards her goals is prevalent throughout Rachel Morrison’s powerful feature directorial debut The Fire Inside.
Instead of following the standard rags to riches blueprint that plagues so many modern sports biopics, Morrison’s film offers a riveting look at what is on the other side of the mountain peak. The first half of the film focuses on how a 15-year-old Shields (Ryan Destiny) and her volunteer coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) rose from the local gym to the top of the podium at the 2012 London Olympics.
Displaying a natural talent and confident swagger in the ring, Shields became a beacon of hope for a country whose Olympic prospects in boxing had long been dark.
Achieving Olympic glory was not without its challenges inside and outside of the ring. The young phenomenon had to navigate family conflicts, heartbreaking defeats, teenage hormones, an estranged father, and more along her historic journey. As Morrison’s film captures, the young boxer believed that a gold medal around her neck would be the ultimate ticket to a new tomorrow. It could be a magic keycard that would unlock a better life for her impoverished mother (Olunike Adeliyi) and siblings. However, those doors remained firmly shut even after Shields made history with the first Olympic gold medal win for women’s boxing.
As The Fire Inside’s script, which was written by Barry Jenkins, effectively captures, there is a double standard that comes with women’s sports. Unlike their male counterparts, female athletes are expected to be both competitive and, most importantly, always display a soft femininity. Being a boxer, and the fact that corporations rarely view Black female athletes as marketable commodities, meant that Shields did not get offered the endorsement deals other athletes, some of whom barely displayed a fraction of her talents, received.
Struggling to pay her mom’s bills, let alone afford diapers for her younger sister’s baby, Shields found herself in the same position that she was in before the Olympics. Through Morrison’s skilled hands, the audience feels the weight of responsibility placed on the teen’s shoulders. She was not only trying to uplift her family, but she also carried the expectations of a community that saw her as proof that it was possible for anyone to move beyond their impoverished surroundings.
While Morrison’s camera makes Flint, Michigan an important unspoken character in the film, one that embodies hardship and a sense of community, the performances by Destiny and Tyree Henry are the key here.
Destiny gives a star-making turn as the fierce boxer, displaying the mixture of toughness and vulnerability that makes the athlete so endearing. Conveying the challenges and expectations laid on the teenager, the actress brings a sense of gravitas to the role while always keeping the boxer’s humanity at the forefront. Destiny’s natural charisma matches perfectly with the subtle, but effective, turn by Tyree Henry. What makes his work as Crutchfield so engaging is that the coach’s passion and optimism are always present even when the character is jumping without a parachute.
Much like his determined pupil, Crutchfield is presented as a man who believes in the American dream and the perceived pathway to success that the Olympics provides. Wearing multiple hats, including that of a father figure and unofficial manger, the unpaid boxing coach quickly learns that the glass ceilings are vastly different heights depending on the athlete. While his intentions always remain in a good place, even he must come to terms with his own limitations when it comes to trying to secure Shields endorsements.
A moving and engaging look at one of the all-time great boxers, The Fire Inside finds inspiration in the fighting spirit that refuses to be extinguished.
