CINDERELLA MAN
I have an axiom. It’s not unique. To most people it might seem obvious, but it’s not the kind of thing one ponders. Put simply, people’s response to a movie has as much to do with their own personal history as it does with the content of the film. Every movie can affect some people differently for the same reasons or have the same effect for different reasons. Some people may laugh or cry at certain scenes. Others might be indifferent and wonder what all the commotion is about. Everyone reacts in their own peculiar way to the volley of sights and sounds that the filmmakers hope will connect with them on some emotional plane. I responded to “Cinderella Man” with a wealth of emotions I did not expect. It resurrected long forgotten memories - some fragmented - others crystal clear - of my aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my mother’s side of the family, telling stories about how it was during The Great Depression. Many came from Eastern Europe and settled in Brooklyn just before WWI. They knew hardship. My father was from the South. He was in the three Cs. All the men talked a great deal about boxing. They spoke of Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey. In some strange way - strange because as in “Cinderella Man” - both topics - the Great Depression and boxing - are forged in my thoughts like two inseparable pieces of steel. Did I always feel that way? Or is it because of director Ron Howard’s uncanny ability to cast his spell with an unobtrusive style of story telling that made me think I did? And just who is this “Cinderella Man” whose story made those old stories I heard in my early youth come to life in a far different way than the Great Depression era saga, “Seabiscuit”? - A wonderful movie in its own right. James Braddock, who defeated Max Baer for the Heavyweight Championship of the World on June 13th in 1935 is “The Cinderella Man.”
Russell Crowe is James Braddock. He imbues the “Bulldog of Bergen” - a son of New Jersey - with the soul of a man who will do anything to keep his family together. Rene Zellweger matches Crowe’s performance every step of the way as Braddock’s wife Mae. She is like the Rock of Gibralta, unswerving in her love, loyal to their ideals, and wise enough to take the necessary steps to weather the storm of The Great Depression. Her Mae is a woman who knows what she has and what is in danger of being lost. She and her husband understand the meaning of love in the truest sense of the word.
The troubles inflicted by the Depression test Jim and Mae Braddock to the breaking point. Director Ron Howard and his creative collaborators bring the Depression alive through their experiences. A broken right hand compromises Braddock’s talent and his judgment. He fights anyway because he needs the money. The head of the Boxing Commission revokes his license for a poor performance. Braddock conceals his injury to get work on the docks. He manages to keep his secret with the help of coworker and new found friend Mike Wilson (Paddy Considine) who later becomes a union organizer. Still, there’s never enough money. The absence of simple things like electricity, and hot water are life threatening. People live and people die. Braddock’s story is one of survival. If he has to go on Public Relief, so be it.
Screenwriters Cliff Hollingsworth, Aviva Goldsman, and director Ron Howard trace Braddock’s life from his early days as a bruiser in the ring, the injuries that resulted, his struggle to make enough to eat, the fights with his wife, the love that sustained them, the promises to his kids, the back breaking work on the Jersey docks that helped him rebuild his injury plagued body, and the lucky break that would put him back in the ring and on the road to the championship years later when everyone was convinced he was beyond his prime.
The crowd pleasing boxing matches that lead to Braddock’s rags to riches victory are thrilling, but the most important scene occurs at the lowest point of his life Everything Braddock feels internally is externalized by Russell Crowe’s body language - the look in his eyes - the inflection of his voice. Braddock humbles himself by going to the promoters on their home turf to beg for enough money to meet his basic needs to keep his family intact. A prolonged silence goes on forever like a high pitched sound that only the most sensitive men hear. With an acute sense of irony, one or two of the men may have their own hard luck story to tell but they’re not talking, like Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) Braddock’s official manager and closest ally. He has to keep up appearances to stay in the fight game.
Gould’s facade pays off when an unexpected break gives him a chance to put Braddock back in the ring. A fighter backs out of a bout with a heavyweight contender named John “Corn” Griffin. Joe sells , Jimmy Johnston (Bruce McGill), the head of the Boxing Commission on the idea of using Braddock as a last minute replacement. There’s money to be made and nothing will be lost if Braddock loses. Johnston agrees. Much to everyone’s surprise, Braddock wins.
The world of championship boxing is vividly brought to life with Braddock scoring one upset after another through sheer tenacity and a killer left hook. Columnist Damon Runyon christens him The Cinderella Man because of his meteoric fairytale rise in the rankings. The actors who play the reporters, announcers, and pros working the circuit look and sound like the real deal. Craig Bierko plays the fearsome Max Baer to the hilt, loud mouthed, insulting, and overconfident. He towers above everyone around him. He hands are the size of hams. Baer can kill a man with one mighty blow to the head - and did. He is a Goliath who needs to be slain.
My ignorance of boxing history made the fight scenes in “Cinderella Man” all the more exciting. Ron Howard put his camera in the ring, up close and nasty. Every punch, jab and body blow had an immediacy that seemed to raise my blood pressure. Even with the outcome of the Braddock/Baer match as a given. I found myself wanting to jump out of my seat with the cheering crowd at Madison Square Garden.
Ron Howard follows all the excitement on screen with a postscript as a reminder that Braddock was first and foremost a family man who not only honored his profession but also his country. He was a WWII veteran and a role model for all who knew him until his dying day. “Cinderella Man” is a terrific movie that entertains, informs, and reaffirms a faith in traditional family values.
Copyright 2005
A word on some Heavyweight Championship fighters of the thirties
1929: Braddock loses a lightweight championship fight to Tommy Loughran
1930: German Max Schmelling beats defending heavyweight champ Jack Sharkey
1930: Max Baer kills Frankie Campbell with a fatal blow to the head. He beats a manslaughter charge.
1932: Jack Sharkey wins the title back from Schmelling
1932: Max Baer knocks out Ernie Schaaf in the 10th round
Later: Schaaf dies after a bout with Primo Carnera due to injuries attributed to his fight
with Baer.
1933: Primo Carnera defeats Jack Sharkey for the Heavyweight title.
1933: Max Baer defeats Max Schmelling in 10 rounds
1934: Braddock defeats heavyweight contender John “Corn” Griffin as a replacement.
1934: Max Baer defeats Primo Carnera for the Heavyweight Championship title on the same night Braddock beats Griffin.
Braddock beats light heavyweight John Henry Lewis(A Boxing Hall of Famer).
Braddock beats contender Art Lasky (winner of 14 out of 15 fights) in 15 rounds.
1935: Braddock defeats Max Baer for the Heavyweight Championship title in 15 rounds by a unanimous decision. It is considered on of the greatest upsets in boxing history.
1936: Max Schmelling knocks out Joe Louis in the 12th round.
1937: 24 year old Joe Louis knocks out 32 year old James Braddock in the 8th round to become the heavyweight champ.
1938: Joe Louis scores a first round knockout against Max Schmelling
1938: James Braddock defeats Tommy Farr. Braddock decides not to pursue the title held by Joe Louis. Braddock retires from boxing to spend more time with his family.
Boxing biographies
The Joe Louis Story (1953) - This is not a great movie but it did attempt to put the life of heavyweight champ Joe Louis in perspective. It came out three years after “The Jackie Robinson Story.” Jackie, of course, was the Brooklyn Dodger who was the first to break the color line in Major League Baseball.
“Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956) Dir. Robert Wise - Paul Newman stars in this rags to prison to boxing ring to riches true story about Rocky Graziano who always knew how to get into a fight but never really knew how to get out of them. He meets his match when he falls in love. Pier Angeli plays the girl who gives his life focus. (Rocky later used his pugnacious charm to make people laugh as a regular on The Martha Raye Show in the early sixties).
“Raging Bull” (1980) - Director Maritin Scorsese’s masterpiece. This magnificent character study has Robert De Niro in his Oscar winning role as Middleweight champ Jake La Motta. He is his own worst enemy as man who could never come to terms with his demons who resisted - not always successfully - the influence of the mob. His career is defined by his six fights with Sugar Ray Robinson who first lost to La Motta in 1943. Joe Pesci was lifted from obscurity by Scorsese to play Jake’s brother. De Niro and Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker won the Oscars for this one. Cathy Moriarty and Theresa Saldano are the wives. Just recently re-released on a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD set.
A TV and Cable movie about Rock Marciano - Boxing History’s only undefeated Heavyweight Champion.
“Marciano” (1979) - Tony Lo Bianco is Marciano in this typical TV movie that gives equal time to his personal life and his career. Lo Bianco as always, is excellent. Tony was the New York connection in “The French Connection.” It’s worth a look just to see one of our most underrated actors at work.
“Rocky Marciano” (1999) - This may go down as Jon Favreau’s greatest film role. He bulked up to play Marciano and it shows. Like Craig Bierko as Max Baer in “Cinderella Man,” Favreau has a strong imposing physical presence that makes his Marciano tower over everyone around him. The most memorable aspects of the movie show Marciano collecting the money for his fights up front and stashing the cash in his pockets. He never put stock in the words and deals offered by the promoters, handlers, and business managers - in - accordance with the experiences of other fighters like Joe Louis. Tony Lo Bianco, who played Marciano on TV in ’79 has a supporting role. If I’m not mistaken, this movie may have been released theatrically overseas.
Two films with Max Baer.
“The Prizefighter and the Lady” (1933) - Max Baer made a few movies in his time with people like Pat O’Brien and George Murphy, but this was his first. He plays a bouncer turned prizefighter who falls in love and marries a gangster’s moll after she almost kills him on a country road with her car. Primo Carnera and Jack Dempsey are the best known boxers who show up in this film. There’s a host of other champions who were more familiar to the public in the twenties and thirties. The story seems to be modeled after Baer’s humble beginnings. Myrna Loy is The Lady of the title.
“The Harder They Fall” (1956) - Humphrey Bogart is an ex-reporter working as press agent for a corrupt manager who exploits an Argentinean boxer named Toro, said to be modeled after Primo Carnera. Max Baer has the prototypical role of the boxer who will destroy Toro. With Rod Steiger Written by Budd Schulberg who penned “On the Waterfront.”
Some classics and a few not so classic
“Body and Soul” (1947) - John Garfield stars in one of the great films of all time as a boxer who fights his way out of poverty and into the big time. He fights his demons and the gangsters who want to control him. Garfield also played a boxer on the lam in “They Made Me a Criminal” (1939) but this wasn’t about boxing so much as it was about a boxer blamed for a killing he didn’t commit. He finds a place for himself at a juvenile work camp where he falls in love. He takes a chance on exposing his past when he fights to raise money for the camp. The kids are played by The Dead End Kids led by Billy Halop. (see Leo Gorcey below).
“Champion” (1949) - Kirk Douglas destroys everyone in his path to reach the top of the fight game. Directed by Mark Robson who would make Humphrey Bogart’s last film, “The Harder They Fall” mentioned above.
“The Set Up” (1949) Dir. Robert Wise - Another story about a boxer who won’t succumb to the will of the mob. A great performance by Robert Ryan makes this a winner. It unfolds like a play, but the lighting, and direction make it a thing of it’s time when Noir ruled the screen.
“Right Cross” (1950) - The presence of Ricardo Montalban gives this portrait of a boxer a racial undertone. He and writer Dick Powell love the same woman. Directed by John Sturges would make “The Gunfight at the OK Corral,” The Magnificent Seven,” and “The Great Escape” years later.
“Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962) - The first version of this was an award winning teleplay by Rode Serling with Jack Palance. It had a sanitized ending to meet the demands of the TV censors. This is the version Serling wanted the world to see. Anthony Quinn plays a punch drunk fighter sold down the tubes by his manager - Jackie Gleason in a first rate dramatic performance. Mickey Rooney plays the trainer. Its a devastating portrait of the fight game with a heart wrenching ending that will tear you to pieces. Not to be missed.
“The Great White Hope” (1970) - Martin Ritt directed this adaptation by the author, Howard Sackler of his hit Broadway play. James Earl Jones reprises his stage role as Jack Jefferson, a heavyweight champion who lives his life as he sees fit with a white woman in the early 1900’s. While not an official biography, it is based on the life of World Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson. This is the role that put Jones on the cinematic map. Jane Alexander, likewise repeats her stage role as his lover. The Great White Hope of the title will be the white boxer who defeats Jefferson.
“Streets of Gold” (1986) - Worth a look for Klaus Maria Brandauer as an exiled Russian boxer living out his days as a working stiff in Brooklyn whose energy is rekindled when he takes two promising boxers from the local gym under his wing. Wesley Snipes and Adrian Pasdar play the young men.
Leo Gorcey in the boxing ring! Leo who?
If you were a fan of the Dead End Kids who later morphed into The East Side Kids who later went for juvenile comedy as The Bower Boys, then you know who Leo Gorcey is.
As a member of the East Side Kids who go to a Civilian Conservation camp (modeled after the same 3 Cs my father worked in), he trains for a boxing match that occurs at the end of “The Pride of the Bowery” in 1941. Gangsters and Boxing are what “Kid Dynamite” from 1943 is all about.