One of if not the greatest boxing biopic .

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2016)

James J. Braddock was in the mid to late 20's a very gifted Light heavyweight. Braddock chased the Light heavy title and never got it. By 1928 Braddock owned a taxi cab company was well invested in the stock market and was considered rich. Then the stock market crash hit and Braddock lost his money and his company and bad luck stalked him. From 1930 until roughly 1933 Braddock suffered a run of bad luck that almost broke him. Braddock's fighting career almost came to a halt when he broke his right hand more then once and suffered career ending defeats. by the time 1933 came Braddock like many others struggled to find work and found it on the docks. With his boxing career basically over And Work hard to find Braddock held onto his pride and refused to go on government relief. There are others worse off he often said. By the end of 33 Braddock was broken to the point where he had no choice but to go on Government relief and Braddock swore to pay them back. Soon after Braddock was given a match a last minute replacement match against Corn Griffin a top ranked contender for the heavyweight Championship. Braddock surprised himself and everyone else by winning. This led to other fights which Braddock won. By then the people of America saw their struggle in Braddock and embraced him. Braddock became Their Champion. When Braddock finally got a shot at the Heavyweight Championship against Max Baer. The match was a clash of the titans. In one corner the everyman and in the other the Champion of the world the rich man's Champion. Baer was a killer in the ring and a Clown. but he was as serious a threat as a bullet from a gun. Braddock entered the underdog and no one gave him a chance. Then James J. Braddock made history by knocking out Max Baer for the Title. True to his vow Braddock paid back the relief money. And held on to the Championship for two years until he lost it to Joe Louis .
Ron Howard's Telling of the Braddock Legend is an excellent example of how to tell a story. First off Russell Crowe captures the shy nature of Braddock a honest man caught in try times that made good people Evil. that is driven home when you see the conditions in which they live . And when his oldest child steals to put food on the table and Braddock makes him return the meat. That is the finest scene in the movie. The acting is so pure and you are caught up in it . The Struggles they face and the bravery they had to have. The movie itself is a time machine that lets us peer into a window and see just how terrible the depression was and how it killed people in one way or the other. And how one man gave them hope and became their Champion.