THE BLEEDER

Any serious boxer needs a decent nickname for the ring. Elvis can call himself "Kid Galahad", for example, while Robert de Niro, alias Jake LaMotta, is "The Raging Bull". Liquor-store employee Charles Wepner from Bayonne, New Jersey, is often called "Chuck", but is also less affectionately known as "The Bayonne Bleeder" because he often loses a lot of blood at his boxing matches. It's no wonder that Wepner hates this nickname. After all, he's the heavyweight champion of New Jersey in the mid-1970s. When the opportunity arises to fight Muhammad Ali, Chuck sees his shot at fame, even if his defeat seems certain. He receives professional training for the first time — and makes it through 15 rounds with Ali. It almost doesn't matter that Chuck loses the fight: he is a hero. And he learns that his story is to be turned into a motion picture by a certain Sylvester Stallone. Based on the true story of Chuck Wepner, the inspiration for ROCKY, Philippe Falardeau has filmed a biopic that shares a theme common to so many boxing movies: recognition. Chuck has a role model in losing: REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962) (showing in the Open Air series on Monday, July 2 at 10 p.m.) with Anthony Quinn as Louis "Mountain" Rivera is his favorite movie. Mountain has reached the end of his boxing career and is in danger of losing all remaining dignity by becoming an exhibition wrestler. Chuck is buoyed up by media hype following Rocky, but he, too, is offered to do wrestling — apparently a low point for any boxer. The self-styled champion lurches through life, with drugs and affairs pulling his marriage off the rails. Liev Schreiber and Elisabeth Moss deliver a few subtly played duels. And the question remains: How might the life of the real Chuck Wepner, now 79 years old, be changed by this second film about him?