Superb movie, even if a bit flawed

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2005)

Let me start by saying: This was a good movie - A very good movie. I will put it on my Christmas/Birthday wish list. I haven't really seen a lot of Depression era movies so I don't have a lot of experience in that area to judge. Ron Howard does an excellent job of bringing what I would assume it to be, back to life. I never empathized or sympathize with the men and women from that time as much as I do now. You get a good sense of how desperate times were and how good, hard working and decent people tried to survive it. It was a very powerful representation of life back then and very moving.
Oh yeah, this is a boxing movie. So a once great boxer hits the bricks and is given a second chance. He runs with it and succeeds beyond anyone's imagination. There's the uber-villain Champ boxer who plays dirty and the self centered, cold and cruel promoter of the fight too. All of the elements are here for a solid boxing movie that you've seen before. Only you haven't. Not like this. I won't go into how and spoil it for you it's that this boxing drama is not a copy cat of it's predecessors. It was similar in format but not the same.
I reserve my biggest criticism for Ron Howard's portrayal of Max Baer. I thought it was unnecessarily harsh and didn't need to be presented like that. Max actually only killed one man in the ring. Doctors only attributed the other in theory to him. The death at his hands of one opponent was a heavy burden for Max and he regularly gave his winning purses to the family of the man he killed. He suffered emotionally for it the rest of his life according to friends and family. He was considered a professional and a gentleman. He was an imposing figure and his reputation for strong boxing should have been enough of an obstacle. Villain-oozing him with the death threats and trash talking was not true to his character. I know it makes for better movie suspense but to me it tainted the last fight and I had to keep telling myself to relax, they had to sell movie tickets too.
Bottom line. Go see this movie but do not do any research on Braddock or anyone of his opponents. It is entertainment, not a documentary. As entertainment it is spectacular. History and boxing buffs may gruff at the interpretation. They were right on the mark when they said, "Based on a true story."