Cinderella Man

I usually like boxing films- though with a guilty feeling as I also think it should probably be banned; a bit like giving up smoking and then indulging in occasional relapses. Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, with Robert De Niro, was much more than a boxing film — but was this?

Not quite so much, but it was not bad as a fairly faithful biopic of James (Jimmy) J Braddock, a working class Irish immigrant from New Jersey. We see him climbing the boxing ladder as a promising light heavyweight in the twenties who loses a narrow decision in 1929 for the world title. From there he falls from grace, being forced to work on the docks during the Depression when he suffers unemployment and shares the privations of millions who were driven to desperation when they could not support their young families.


This part of the film is designed to win sympathy with a man who was fundamentally decent and hardworking but whom circumstances prevented him from fulfilling his role as husband, father and breadwinner. Then, when most think he's all washed up, he gets a chance to box again in a contest with Corn Griffen, the number two contender for the heavyweight title. He wins against all the odds, scooping £250. His career is back on track and he goes on to beat two more ranked fighters, John Henry Lewis and Art Lansky.

The world champion at that time was Max Baer, an extravagant playboy of a character, infamous for having killed two men in the ring. Braddock's wife Mae is terrified her husband might become the third victim of this Mike Tyson of his time. [In reality Baer did not exult in this, as in the film, but was hugely upset and paid for the dead man's children through college.] However, in the climactic confrontation Jimmy, the 10-1 underdog, refuses to be intimidated and fights a great, gutsy fight to win the title.

So it's a real life Rocky story, which makes one wonder why the fictional was preferred for so long over the actual. Braddock wasn't a bum, but he was virtually a down and out victim of the Depression who came out of the gutter to win - hence his nickname, Cinderella Man. Consequently he is a more attractive and sympathetic character than most boxing film heroes. He's in no way a stereotypical boxer but a family loving, dutiful husband: a veritable Ghandi compared to most successful men in this cruel sport. In the film he becomes a kind of symbol for endurance and survival in the hardest of times.

Russell Crowe plays Braddock and makes a good shot of 'tough yet decent'; he also convinces as 'determined yet accepting humiliation' to save his family. I worried that he was a bit too short and lacking in stature for the man who humbled Baer. As a former light heavy he might have got away with it, but Braddock was six foot two inches and I felt throughout that Crowe shared the stature of a middle and not heavyweight.

Any boxing film has to do good fight scenes and here they are pretty believable, except for the tendency for punches to sound too much like someone socking a cabbage while someone else kicks a tea chest. Punches do not resound in that way and yet boxing movies persist in telling us that they do.

Also we see fighters laying into each other in the fifteenth round as if all energy and fight had not long since departed by then. Renee Zellwegger as Mae is competent but did not quite make the best of the role in my opinion. But Paul Giametti was excellent as Braddock's wily, inspirational manager and not wholly unconditional friend.

Was the film worth the Oscar for which it was nominated? I think the answer is No. Having seen Crash, it seems crudely over-sentimental and the performances lacking in subtlety. But as a guilty viewing pleasure it was, well, pleasurable enough.