As far as the sport of boxing is concerned, I just can’t say the words used so many times by Servio Schultz on the television program Hogan’s Heroes: “I know nothing – NOTHING!”
And yet I wanted to watch the movie “Cinderella Man” and I saw more boxing than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. This does not seem to me to be a happy joke; yet millions of men have participated in or followed boxing since the days of ancient Greece and Rome, so that my opinion is of little importance as to its happiness.
The movie “Cinderella Man” is a 2005 drama named after the nickname of heavyweight James J. Braddock. It was directed by Ron Howard. The story, which is based on Braddock’s life, takes place in 1930 New York. Much of the plot revolved around Braddock’s home life and the devastation that the family and the entire country was facing at the time due to the Great Depression.
Intricacies
Braddock (Russell Crowe) was an up-and-coming boxer who experienced some physical ailments that interrupted his career. He is a devoted family man who loves to mentor his wife Mae (Renee Zellweger), and their three children; but finds this very difficult in economic times. With no boxing income, Braddock takes every opportunity that arises to achieve manual labor, and yet at one point he finds it necessary to pass his hat around to boxing moguls for donations money in order to keep his family together He also subscribes to and receives public assistance which he finds very difficult to receive.
An unusual circumstance occurs that allows Braddock to accept a signed match for one boxer where he is expected to lose, but the $250 fee offered makes it worth his while to accept the match.
Braddock unexpectedly wins and is finally shot at the heavyweight championship that was held by Max Baer at the time. Baer is said to have killed two boxers in the ring, so there is a great deal of trepidation on the part of Mae Braddock’s wife, and it appears that Braddock is probably more than a little concerned about surviving even though the film is not working. that.
The time for the contest is drawing near.
Will he fight? So if it will survive? and if he fights and overcomes, will he overcome? watch movies to find out!
In the end
“The Cinderella Man” is as much, if not more, about Braddock’s personal life as it is about his boxing career.
I really liked the emphasis placed on Braddock’s character: his dealing with the situation when his son stole food (“We never steal, do we understand?”; piety to his wife and children; communication with friends; whatever he wanted, he wanted to feed; he was neither complaining nor quiet , and his courage for all that was needed, survived.
He saw a deeper understanding of my people who lived through the years of the Great Depression.
My in-laws had no house and no money for rent, so they lived in a tent in central South Dakota. At that time. It always seemed to me that they never got over their fear of being broken, which affected them in many ways in their lives.
My parents had a house in a small town in Dakota. they were able to provide food for their family because my father had a business and supplied chicken and eggs to us. the table They had a huge garden and my mother was into canning and preserving. Also, my brothers were avid hunters and fishermen a big help. A joke runs in our family that my father once gave my brother 10 shotgun shells. My brother brought home eight pheasants, and my father was a bit sad that my brother wasted two bullets! Times were tough!
I had many touching moments in the film as I observed the hardships of people living in the city versus those in small communities during the Great Depression – those living in the city had no readily available source of food and the environment was very prompt to say the least. .
I also liked more about the boxing and behind the scenes action of the organizers in Madison Square Garden.
This movie never took off at the box office, but both the action and the story time satisfied me. I wasn’t looking badly spent. out of 3.5 out of 5. Rated PG-13.
Click here for more chapters by this author.
Other reviews of the movie by R.C. Johnson: Amadeus; Unbelievable; codicil Slumdog Millionaire; Dr. Horrible’s Sing-through Blog; WALL-E; Gran Torino; He who is to be king, the prince’s bride; Mission; Top gun; Crocodile Dundee; Handmaiden to the Order; On the shores; Indian in the closet; Brother, where are you? Be the witness, of the gods; Flywheel, Against the Giants and Fireproof.
Sources for updates on actors and directors:
wikipedia.org, Cinderella Man (film)
wikipedia.org, Russell Crowe (James J. Braddock)
wikipedia.org, Renee Zellweger, (Mae Braddock)
wikipedia.org Paul Giamatti, (Joe Gould, Braddock manager)
wikipedia.org, Ron Howard, director
