The documentary that inspired The Fighter, now streaming for free.

If you've seen The Fighter — perhaps even if you haven't — you know it's about Lowell boxer Micky Ward and his trainer and half-brother, Dicky (sometimes "Dickie"), a crackhead who once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard. The film's narrative is framed by an HBO documentary being made about Dicky, High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, which actually exists. Now it's being streamed for free online courtesy of SnagFilms, a sort of Netflix for documentary films — without the snail-mail component — that was founded by Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics (and which just completed an equity offering of $10 million). Watching this hour-long doc is eerie, if you've seen The Fighter. Scenes, and exact dialogue, were lifted from here, and if you recognize trainer Mickey O'Keefe it's because he plays himself in The Fighter. Then there's Dicky himself, who's boisterous enough that I almost regret writing that Christian Bale acted with "a slight case of early-onset Pacino syndrome."

Fair warning: There are a lot of missing teeth here, and not due to boxing.

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