Hatchet Job

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 2005)

I suppose when Hollywood tries to make an inspirational story about an underdog, it needs a villain too. Enter Max Baer. To suggest that he was proud of killing two men in the ring is both false and unfair. After Frankie Campbell's death from head injuries sustained in a fight with him, Baer was very upset, not proud. He was even (falsely) accused of manslaughter although the charges were later dropped. He donated subsequent purses to Campbell's family and put his children through college. Although somewhat of a clown in and out of the ring before this tragedy, some boxing historians suspect that Campbell's death also resulted in the death of Baer's "killer instinct" in the ring. If he really had tried to "disconnect" Braddock's brain, I don't think Opie Howard would have made a movie about The Cinderelle Man.