Giant
Pierce Brosnan gives a standout performance as the trainer of boxing champ Prince Naseem Hamed.
Lords of the ring: Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan
Image courtesy of True Brit Entertainment.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
Boxing dramas provide a cinema genre primarily associated with America but nevertheless there have been a number over the years made in Britain (even Ealing Studios gave us one, although 1953’s The Square Ring is not among their celebrated titles). The latest such piece is Rowan Athale's Giant which is centred on two figures notable in British boxing history. One is Naseem Hamed who was born in Sheffield but of Yemedi stock in 1974 and the other is the man who trained him from the age of seven, Brendan Ingle. In Athale’s film ‘Prince’ Naseem Ahmed as he became known is played by Amir El-Masry and Ingle, who died in 2018, is portrayed by Pierce Brosnan. It is the latter’s performance which is the most notable aspect of Giant but the piece is made with sufficient assurance to please fans of tales centred on boxing (it is surely not entirely by chance that Sylvester Stallone is credited as one of the film’s executive producers).
Shot in widescreen by Larry Smith, Giant tells us at the outset that Hamed retained his title as WBO World Featherweight Champion in 1997 when on his very first fight in America he defeated Kevin Kelley by a knockout at Madison Square Garden. Having started with that preview of things to come, the film then goes back to tell us how Ingle, an Irishman who had settled in Sheffield, came into contact with the seven-year-old Naz as he was known (Ghaith Saleh). Ingle was running a local boxing gym and was encouraged to help get boys into the ring and off the streets so that any aggressive instincts they had could be more usefully applied. All told Ingle would in time train four world champions but Athale has chosen to concentrate on his relationship over the years with Naseem Hamed and their story is now told in chronological order.
Not least because Hamed's 1997 triumph has been the film’s starting point, the expectation is that Giant will follow the traditional pattern of being a boxing tale in which the boxer is indeed the hero albeit that his trainer is also an important figure (even when Clint Eastwood made Million Dollar Baby in 2004 and played a trainer himself the key focus was on the female boxer whose career it followed). In the case of Naz Hamed there is an additional feature that encourages the idea that he should be seen as the giant of the title. That’s because in addition to coming from nowhere to achieve international fame he was a Muslim who had to overcome racial prejudice. It is indeed the case that in the film talk of his rise in the boxing world prompts a comment that on climbing close to the sun he will cast a giant shadow. Yet, in spite of this, the film’s structure is such that it plays as a tribute to Brendan Ingle as well as to Naseem Hamed and does so in a way that honours Ingle rather more than Hamed.
It is in its second half that the film develops in this way. The first hour or so is conventional in portraying how the training by Ingle enabled Hamed to bring out his skills so that both of them are central to the tale. However, it is already the case that, although we meet Naz’s brothers including Riath (Arian Nik), we see more of Ingle’s home life than of Naseem’s (Katherine Dow Blyton appears as Brendan's wife, Alma, and on occasion we also see his sons John and Dominic). Furthermore, whereas Brendan Ingle comes over sympathetically, Naz’s cocky persona and his assertions of just how great he is reduce his appeal to the viewer. That tone may have helped to get him noticed and may have pleased his promoter, Frank Warren (Toby Stephens), but when reproduced in this film one feels that, however skilled, a young boxer cannot carry it off in the way that Muhammad Ali would come to do. It means too that Ghaith Saleh and Ali Saleh, who both appear as Naz in his younger days, are more engaging than the talented Amir El-Masry when he takes over the role.
The second half of Giant decidedly changes the emphasis since it is concerned with the time after Ingle had walked away from Hamed following disagreements and disputes (not only were the terms of the contract between them an issue but Hamed felt that his talent came from God and took Ingle to task for claiming too much credit). When the 1997 fight glimpsed at the start of the film returns, it is not as one might suppose a sign that the film is reaching its conclusion. Instead, we move forward to two further sections set respectively four years later and then another two years after that and the only boxing match featured is one viewed by the Ingle family on television when in 2001 Hamed lost to Marco Antonio Barrera. The attitude of the two men to each other is central here as is the possibility of some kind of reconciliation. If Hamed’s weak points have been made clear, there is also now the suggestion that Ingle in encouraging Naz to be aggressive in relation to his boxing failed to realise that he was affecting his character outside the ring as well. But, if that is potentially a criticism of Brendan Ingle, there is still no doubt but that Giant is a celebration of him and, while the film also undoubtedly pays tribute to Naseem Hamed, the admiration for him feels somewhat muted by comparison.
It is perhaps an open question whether Rowan Athale, who also wrote the screenplay, has given us a film which plays out exactly as he intended it to or not. Either way, Giant is a watchable movie and all the more so because in the role of Brendan Ingle Pierce Brosnan plays with a conviction that makes this his strongest performance in many years.
Cast: Pierre Brosnan, Amir El-Masry, Toby Stephens, Katherine Dow Blyton, Olivia Barrowclough, Arian Nik, Connor Porter, Ali Saleh, Ghaith Saleh, Samir Arrian, Aron Yacobi, Mehdi Mangoli, Kelvin Ade.
Dir Rowan Athale, Pro Stuart Ford, Mark Lane, Kevin Sampson and Ross Williams, Screenplay Rowan Athale, Ph Larry Smith, Pro Des Felix Coles, Ed Laurence Johnson, Music Neil Athale, Costumes Jasmin Ada Knox.
AGC Studios/Bondit Media Capital/Balboa Productions/True Brit Entertainment/Tea Shop/White Star-True Brit Entertainment.
110 mins. UK/USA. 2025. UK Rel: 9 January 2026. Cert. 15.
