Director Ron Howard delivers with a story set in the bleak days of the Great Depression, focusing on a man who lost his shirt before finding his fists. This film focuses on the true story of James J. Braddock, a washed-up prizefighter who gets a second shot at glory when the world is at its absolute worst.
Review by Ben Dover
I popped this disc into the machine after my grandson told me I needed to watch more inspirational cinema instead of screaming at the evening news. Let me tell you something. I usually put on these old dramas expecting to fall asleep within twenty minutes, but this one actually kept my eyes glued to the screen. Russell Crowe plays Jim Braddock, a guy who goes from riches to rags faster than my joints react to rain, and for once, Hollywood actually made a movie about a guy you can root for.
Now, I usually can’t stand these modern movies where everything is edited so fast it gives you a migraine, but Ron Howard actually does a fantastic job here. The first hour is just pure misery, but it is handled with real respect. It is dark and cold, and everybody looks like they haven’t seen a potato in three weeks. Crowe plays the part with this big, earnest, sad dog expression that completely works. He is working the docks with a broken hand just to buy a pint of milk for his kids. It is heavy stuff, but it shows these kids today what actual grit looks like instead of sitting on their phones making dancing videos all day.
The movie really gets moving when Braddock gets thrown back into the ring as a literal punching bag for a rising contender, only the guy actually wins. That is when the whole Cinderella business kicks in. I do have to laugh at the nickname though. Cinderella? The man is a six-foot-two Irishman built like a brick outhouse. There is nothing dainty about him. But watching him climb his way back up to the top is about as good as cinema gets.
My only real gripe with this whole thing, because you know I have to find something to complain about, is how they treated the bad guy, Max Baer. They made this guy out to be an absolute monster who practically licks his chops over killing people in the ring. I did some reading in my almanac, and the real Baer was actually an okay fella who felt terrible about his opponents dying. Hollywood just can’t help themselves, they always need a cartoon villain. Still, when the final fight happens, even a cranky old bastard like me was leaning forward in his recliner rooting for Jim to plant one right on Baer’s smug jaw. It is an absolute powerhouse of a movie.
Starring
- Russell Crowe as Jim Braddock: The big guy himself. He put on the gloves and actually looks like he knows how to take a punch, which is good because he takes about five thousand of them. He plays a good, honest man beautifully.
- Renée Zellweger as Mae Braddock: She plays the worried wife. Her main job in this movie is to look out the window with tears in her eyes and squeeze her hands together until her knuckles turn white. She is good at it, I guess, but she does a lot of squinting.
- Paul Giamatti as Joe Gould: Braddock’s manager. This guy is the best thing in the whole picture. He is loud, he talks fast, and he has a mouth on him that reminds me of my old bowling buddies. He got an Oscar nomination for this, and he deserved every bit of it.
Special Effects
There are no giant space robots or green screen explosions here, thank God. The effects are mostly used to make Toronto look like 1930s New York, and they do a fine job of it. The best stuff is the makeup. By the end of some of these rounds, Russell Crowe’s face looks like a slab of raw meat that fell out of the back of a butcher’s truck. You can practically feel the teeth rattling in your own head.
Music
The music was done by Thomas Newman. It is full of Irish whistles and sad pianos that are specifically designed to make old women cry. It gets a bit loud and dramatic during the big punches, but at least it isn’t that awful hippity-hop noise the teenagers blast out of their trunks at the stoplights. It actually fits the mood of the country back then perfectly.
Rating
5 out of 5 Stars – An absolute knockout of a film
Complete Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
The story kicks off in the late 1920s when Jim Braddock is a top-tier light heavyweight boxer making good money and living the high life in New Jersey. He has a beautiful wife named Mae and three kids. But then the stock market goes belly up, and Jim starts losing fights because of a badly broken right hand. The boxing commission strips him of his license, leaving him completely destitute.
Cut to the worst of the Depression. Jim is hiding his broken hand so he can get manual labor shifts down at the docks just to bring home a couple of bucks. Things get so bad that the power gets shut off, the kids get sick, and Jim has to go down to the public relief office to beg for cash. He even goes to his old wealthy boxing associates and holds out his hat for change just to get his children back after his wife sends them away to relatives.
Out of nowhere, his old manager Joe Gould offers him a one-time deal. A top contender needs a last-minute opponent for a fight at Madison Square Garden, and they just need a guy who can take a beating for 250 bucks. Jim takes it, but because he spent months working the docks using only his left hand, his left hook is now like a battering ram. He stuns the world by knocking out the guy.
Jim gets signed for more fights and goes on an unbelievable winning streak, giving hope to millions of poor folks who are living in cardboard shacks. He even goes back to the relief office and pays back every dime of the government assistance he took, which makes him a national hero. Soon, he is set up to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Max Baer, a guy notorious for literally killing men in the ring.
Mae is scared out of her mind and begs him not to fight, but Jim says he knows what he is fighting for this time, which is food and security for his family. The final act is a brutal, fifteen-round war against Baer. Jim takes an absolute thrashing but refuses to go down. In the final rounds, he uses his wits and his iron chin to out-point the champ, winning the heavyweight championship of the world in one of the biggest upsets in sports history.
5 Famous Quotes
“I’m fighting for milk.”
“You think you’re telling me something? Like, what, boxing is dangerous, something like that? You don’t think working triple shifts and at night on a scaffold isn’t just as likely to get a man killed?”
“Always for $250 I would fight your wife. And your grandmother at the same time.”
“And you are the champion of my heart James J Braddock.”
“He’s not just winning for himself, he’s winning for them too.”
5 Interesting Facts
- Russell Crowe actually broke his shoulder during the intense boxing training before filming even started, which delayed the production for two whole months.
- The movie was filmed almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, because it was cheaper than shooting in New York, and they had to bring in tons of vintage cars from all over the country.
- To make the boxing look real, Crowe fought against actual professional boxers who were instructed to get as close to his face as possible without knocking him out.
- The real James Braddock actually did return his welfare money to the government as soon as he made enough cash, a move that stunned the public during the Depression.
- Max Baer’s real-life son was furious about how the movie portrayed his father as a cruel, heartless killer, maintaining until his dying day that his dad was a big softie who was deeply traumatized by the ring deaths.
Major Award Wins
- Paul Giamatti (Supporting Actor): Won at the SAG Awards, Critics’ Choice, Boston Society of Film Critics, Florida Film Critics Circle, and Toronto International Film Festival.
- Other: Hollywood Screenwriter Award (Akiva Goldsman, Cliff Hollingsworth).
Key Award Nominations
- Academy Awards (Oscars): Supporting Actor (Giamatti), Film Editing, and Makeup.
- Golden Globes: Actor (Russell Crowe) and Supporting Actor (Giamatti).
- Other Notable Nominations: BAFTA (Original Screenplay), WGA Awards (Screenplay), SAG (Crowe), and Critics’ Choice (Picture, Director, Actor).
Philip Seymour Hoffman won best actor for Capote and George Clooney won supporting actor for Syriana Hoffman I can understand, but Giamatti was robbed.
Photos
Trailer
Reviewer Notes
OK I used to think Rocky was the best boxing movie ever. It’s a piece of crap next to this.
I almost took a star away for the way they treated Max Baer. He treated boxing the way today’s professional wrestlers do wrestling: part sport, mostly showmanship. He never deliberately hurt anyone. He was not as shown in this film, he visited Campbell in the hospital, gave many of his purses to the Campbell family and he almost quit boxing after the incident. He regretted this incident all his life and cried a lot about this according to his son.
The production design for the depression era is incredible.
Russell Crowe’s portrayal of boxer James Braddock, is nothing short of brilliant, and I cannot even put into proper words how good Giamatti is. Somewhere better than brilliant.
I found myself tearing up a LOT in this movie, not in the Rocky boxer comeback stuff, but Howard and Crowe really nailed the family man part of this movie, and the relationships.
There is some weird thing in this movie where I know I am being manipulated feelings wise, but I don’t care. Its super close to the actual true story with a few exceptions (mainly Baer) which takes the sting out of the manipulation.