Typical journey through the formatted mangle

Rating: 2/10 (21 March 2006)

Another boxing movie? Can nobody think of anything new? Obviously the Depression era is total news to today's Americans, but nary a hint in this picture that an economic depression is anything more than a force of nature, like the weather. Nor is there the slightest indication of any solution of the New Deal kind --- heaven forbid.
Braddock and his wife are depicted as the ideal working class couple: devoted, devout and dutiful. Yep, it's "family values" territory. Wifey stays at home and takes in sewing (although we never see her sewing anything). Hubbie goes down and tries his luck as a navvy at the docks, when he can't get in a legal punch-up at Madison Square Gardens to earn some extra cash. It's enough to make the Bible belt go weak at the knees.
When he is driven in desperation to take a welfare hand-out Braddock is depicted as profoundly humiliated and ashamed, and he actually turns up later with a wad of cash and pays it back --- as if his taxes and the human rights of his children did not merit the welfare payments. The conservative financiers of this picture (Ron Meyer/Universal and Miramax/Disney) would have lapped this up.
I recommend to anyone fascinated by the climactic bout of this long, women-oriented flick to watch the video of the real thing that is included in the DVD package. They will see a sporting bout with no fireworks, and only a couple of sharp blows landed by either fighter. There's a clear winner on points and both fighters shake gloves at the end.
In particular, they may be surprised to see in the genuine film the Baer character shown wearing a prominent Star of David on his trunks. Baer wore the star in honour of his Jewish father (although he was raised Catholic) when he fought Hitler's favourite boxer, Schmeling, and wore it thereafter. The star is unnoticeable in the movie's preposterously distorted version of the match, presumably because Baer was being built up as the big villain.
In short the picture is a travesty, not only of the Depression era, but also of boxing history. Definitely avoidable.