F.I.S.T.

F.I.S.T. is a 1978 drama starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by Norman Jewison, based on a story by Joe Esterhaz. It's also notable for being Stallone's first feature-length movie after the success of Rocky.

The film is about the rise and fall of Johnny Kovak, a worker who becomes the boss of the Federation of Interstate Truckers. It is loosely based on Teamsters president, Jimmy Hoffa.


 * California Doubling: The factory scenes in the first parts of the film were shot in Southern England. Apparently, not many period facilities remain in the US.
 * Most of the filming was done in Dubuque, Iowa. Dubuque was chosen firstly because the older sections of the town looked more like Cleveland of the 1930s than Cleveland did at the time, and secondly because of the absence of roof-mounted television antennas due to most of the homes having cable television.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: The management of Consolidated Trucking. However, the higher ups of F.I.S.T. start acting a lot like them.
 * Downer Ending:  Considering it's based on Jimmy Hoffa, it's not that surprising.
 * Expy: Johnny Kovak is a rather clear one of Jimmy Hoffa.
 * Fun with Acronyms: The Federation of InterState Truckers.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language: Johnny occasionally slips back into Hungarian. Justified in that he was born in Hungary before immigrating to America.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Over the course of the film, F.I.S.T. starts acting a lot like the Corrupt Corporate Executives from the beginning. Something that Johnny becomes all too aware of as he sticks to his own principles.
 * Initialism Title
 * Ironic Echo: Max Graham (the original president of F.I.S.T.) claims that Johnny is "going to sell out". Later on when it turns out that Max himself sold out, Johnny reminds him of what he said earlier.
 * Law Enforcement, Inc.: The "Law and Order League" are the personnel thugs of Consolidated Trucking.
 * The Mafia: F.I.S.T. is forced to ally with the mob in order to counter Consolidated Trucking's "Law and Order League". This leads to unfortunate consequences later on.
 * Smash the Symbol: The climax of the Trucking strike is when F.I.S.T. tears down the Consolidated Trucking sign.
 * Time Skip: While the initial parts of the film are set around The Great Depression, it eventually fast forwards a few decades.
 * Token Good Teammate: Over the course of the movie, Johnny Kovak increasingly finds himself in this position compared to much of F.I.S.T.'s higher-ups, who start behaving like the Corrupt Corporate Executives he fought against in the first place.