The inspirational story of depression era boxing champion James J. Braddock

Rating: 7/10 (2 May 2006)

Cinderella man is the inspirational story of depression era boxing champion James J. Braddock played by Russell Crowe who came from nowhere to defeat the world title holder Max Baer.A former heavyweight contender Braddocks career goes downhill as a result of injuries and after seeing his savings wiped out in the stock market crash he is forced to work on the docks to feed his family until he is given a last minute fight against a fighter ranked no2 in the world. Braddock wins the fight and from then on his career goes from strength to strength culminating in the title fight. Braddock's riches to rags to riches tale proves inspirational to millions of other ordinary Americans who've seen their savings wiped out and are struggling to get by and he quickly becomes a hero. It would perhaps be easy to dismiss this film as Gladiator goes boxing and certainly Crowe pretty much plays the role in exactly the same manner and is certainly operating within himself. However such is the power of the true story on which its based and the skill of the direction that I found myself rolling with every punch and cheering Braddock on too his inevitable victory. While formulaic and lacking either the rawness of Raging Bull or the sheer cheesy joy of Rocky Cinderella man is a thoroughly entertaining way to spend a boring Tuesday night and its hard not to identify with the story of an ordinary decent man fighting against adversity to build a better life for himself and his children. One interesting thing is the portrayal of Baer himself who by all accounts was not the monster portrayed in the film who revels in his reputation as a killer. While Baer's clowning is seen as disrespectful and contemptuous to his opponents those who knew him say that it actually stemmed from a desire to entertain and impress the judges without unleashing his fearsome right hand as he was actually a man racked with guilt as a result of the tragedies he had been involved in. Rather like Chris Eubank after the fight which left Michael Watson severely brain damaged. Its also interesting that while in real life the part Jewish Baer wore a prominent Star of David on his trunks, worn for the first time against German fighter Max Schmeling whom he defeated, in the film the star is dramatically scaled down so as to be practically unnoticeable. So while clearly happy to portray Baer as an ogre director Ron Howard and Hollywood in general don't seem happy to have the audience rooting for an Irishman against a Jew. That said good film and I enjoyed it.