He rose from his knees to become King of the mountain.

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

Boxing films.It seems like we have seen at least a thousand of them.The boxing matches all seem to go the same way.Punches that in reality only take seconds are slowed down to what seems like a full minute.We are used to seeing this.So to be impressive,a boxing film would have to have a strong side story.This one has that.James J.Braddock was a boxer,and at least to some degree,a cocky one.Suddenly,injuries and the Great Depression drove him to the depths of despair.He was suddenly fighting an opponent much tougher than any he had faced in the ring:poverty.Struggling to keep his family warm and fed wore him down more than any boxing match could.Suddenly,the powers that be gave him a second chance,not expecting anything less than failure.His despair made him a tougher fighter than he had ever been in the past,and before the shocked faces of everyone who wrote him off,he becomes king of the mountain.I like this movie.I love the performances and the story the film tells.Much of it is fictionalized.I have heard and read the many criticisms of director Ron Howard's portrayal of champion Max Baer as a vicious,bloodthirsty monster,and if the people who knew him,particularly his son,Max Baer,Jr.,say that this is inaccurate,I will buy that and just chalk it up to the fact that this is Hollywood,where reality is thrown out of the window most of the time for the sake of entertaining an audience.When the smoke from all of that clears,at the very core of this film is perhaps the greatest comeback story of all time.