• Post category:Movies
  • Post last modified:January 10, 2022

Cinderella Man

ONE MAN’S EXTRAORDINARY FIGHT TO SAVE THE FAMILY HE LOVED. 

When the Depression hits America, renowned boxer Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) loses his privileged life and scrapes by working on the docks… but he gets a second chance. The story about Braddock is a real-life “Rocky” tale, perfect material for the movies. Gripping portrayal of the poverty facing the Braddock family and the final fight against Max Baer is thrilling (in the style of Scorsese’s work on Raging Bull); as punches were thrown, I ducked in my seat. Crowe is very good as the proud prizefighter, but Paul Giamatti is even better as his tireless agent. Very nicely recreated 1930s environs, but turning Baer into a simple-minded brute is false and unnecessary.

2005-U.S. 144 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall. Directed by Ron Howard. Screenplay: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman. Cast: Russell Crowe (James J. Braddock), Renée Zellweger (Mae Braddock), Paul Giamatti (Joe Gould), Craig Bierko, Paddy Considine, Bruce McGill.

Trivia: At various points, Penny Marshall and Lasse Hallström were reportedly considered for directing duties; Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg for the part of Jim Braddock. 

Last word: “Russell had brought the project to me not so long after we had finished ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ And I knew about Braddock. I knew about his story a little bit, because my father, you know, raised in Oklahoma during the Depression, had been a lifelong fight fan and the first fight that had been deemed important enough for his father to load, you know, his then five- or six-year-old son into the truck and drive to the pool hall, ’cause they didn’t have a radio themselves to listen to the fight, was ‘Cinderella Man’ Jim Braddock fighting Max Baer for the heavyweight championship of the world. So my dad had vivid memories of the fight and he always held Braddock up as a kind of a shining example of, you know, strong character carrying the day.” (Howard, NPR)

 

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