Remembering Cinderella Man
iView Author: Rashmi Dewan (Bangalore, India)
Email: chickooster[at]gmail[dot]com
Remembering Cinderella Man
This extremely brilliant offering by Ron Howard takes the audience through a saga of a hero who falls into a sea of challenges and uninvited troubles thrown at him by the infamous Great Depression and his rise above all the crests and troughs.
Ron Howard’s working-class hero, James Braddock (Russell Crowe) is no slum dog, no underdog. He is affectionately called the Bulldog who is almost transparent in the simple goodness of his character. This movie, like its hero, lands one solid body punch after another.
Braddock is a good family man, a devoted husband and even more a responsible father of three beautiful kids, who explains his only reason to enter the boxing ring, is to put milk on his kids’ table.
Making the connection between Braddock’s career trajectory and the nation’s fortunes, the film lays the dates and locations one over another to briefly chronicle his ring of successes of the 20’s and how he is hit by the Depression. By 1932, Braddock becomes history.
“I have to believe that when things are bad I can change them”. This faith is what keeps Braddock going. Not to forget his extremely supporting and charming wife, Mae played convincingly by Renee Zellweger and the effervescent and trusting trainer/manager, Joe Gould played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti
The movie shifts focus from the magnificent house of the Braddocks during their good times to their dreary and unwelcoming one room cold-water flat four years later in New Jersey. Braddock shines as a father when he understands the reasons of his son stealing a sausage from a meat store. He gives in all the courage that he has and doesn’t, to his son, assuring him that he would not be sent to live with richer relatives.
Things get worse and Braddock is forced to beg for money to treat his ailing kid. Crowe scores an exceptional 200 on 100 delivering the beautiful lines that move the viewers to their souls. When Mae sends the kids off to the relatives while Braddock is out working, his self esteem gets crushed remembering the promise he had made to his son and most importantly, himself!
At the Madison Square Garden hangout, Braddock is reunited with his manager Joe on the offer of a one-time match. As the one-time match takes the backstage and Braddock starts winning matches, Mae gets restless and goes to Joe to put an end to this power packed fighting spree. She is taken in for a surprise when she realizes that Joe and his wife Lucille are so concerned about maintaining a particular status in the society that they are living in a gorgeous apartment sans furniture.
The terrific matches and winning scores places Braddock in the most dangerous and risky fight- a bout with the ferocious heavy weight champ Max Baer (Craig Bierko). The picture of what is in store for Braddock if he decides to fight Max is shown on a projector by one of the promoters. This screening shows the roundhouse punches of Max that kills his opponents.
The whole town standing up for Braddock and considering him their only role model inspires Braddock to take up the fight with utmost confidence and guts. The fight scenes are consistently well drawn, well balanced and lacks artificial shots. Kudos to the editors Mike Hill and Dan Hanley!!! The fight is well shot and Ron makes it look like a movie within a movie- tense, gripping, unpredictable. The lines of Max to Mae keeps running in the viewer’s mind – “You are far too pretty to be a widow …On second thought, maybe I can comfort you after he’s gone”. On the contrary, the only boost to Braddock’s performance is the confidence that his kids have in him and the never-ending support of his loving wife. The main audience, not to be forgotten, is Paul Giamatti who shows his pain when Braddock gets punched and who gets a glow on his face with Braddock’s turn-arounds.
Ron Howard has indeed grown from Beautiful Mind. He grasps the full measure of artistry he’s often reached for. Like any other aficionado of inspiring movies, I can bet my life that this movie is definitely an uplifting story. Truly inspiring and heart wrenching!!! Russell Crowe is at his technical best and plays his character with such ease that has us reeling under its saccharine weight. Though Paul Giamatti plays a secondary character, he is not lost in Crowe’s shadow and outshines all the others at times with his looks and delivery.
In nutshell, Cinderella Man is ostensibly the kind of drama that sends audiences home with a satisfied glow. Undoubtedly, the best movie of 2005!
Tags: Paul Giamatti, Renee Zelwegger, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I love this movie a lot,
and this reminds me of Song
called “Cinderella Man”
by a legendary Progressive Rock band called “RUSH”
Cinderella man
____________________________
“Cinderella Man”
A modest man from Mandrake
Travelled rich to the city
He had a need to discover
A use for his newly found wealth
Because he was human
Because he had goodness
Because he was moral
They called him insane
Delusions of grandeur
Visions of splendor
A manic depressive
He walks in the rain
Eyes wide open
Heart undefended
Innocence untarnished…
Cinderella Man
Doing what you can
They can’t understand
What it means
Cinderella Man
Hang on to your plans
Try as they might
They cannot steal your dreams
In the betrayal of his love he awakened
To face a world of cold reality
And a look in the eyes of the hungry
Awakened him to what he could do
He held up his riches
To challenge the hungry
Purposeful motion
For one so insane
They tried to fight him
Just couldn’t beat him
This manic depressive
Who walks in the rain
____________________________________
I love the way Joe deliverd his dialouges especially- “You son of a bitch”.
Reene acted exceptionally well in this movie.
And I remeber the scene when Braddock's elder son pulled out his hands to shake hands with Dad to assure him that now I am a man, don’t worry I’ll be there.
Nice review Rashmi.
A nice film, but somehow failed to age well for me. I approached this one with caution given Renee's profile of exploding in roles of such emotional requirement (a la Cold Mountain), but she was quite restrained and delivered quite the right punches at the right places. Crowe underplays nicely here, and Howard did handle the Depression connect as a glue to the goings-on. Also, the film did not have that '«fantasy' lining to the poverty shown; it was poverty as it would be in a similar time and place. The film did have its Rocky elements in place to deliver a strong second half and a climax which it did rather well. And not to mention, the eternally successful formula of leaving the film where it would lead to imagination of times to come, a more recent and unforgettable past.
“In all the history of the boxing game you find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J. Braddock…'® – Damon Runyon
Hope.Redemption.Precedence. There is something about Depression Era'–
Two years later Jim Braddock put his title on the line against Joe Louis. Jim knocked him down in the first round though Louis went on to win the bout. Joe Louis would always call Jim Braddock the most courageous man he ever fought.
Jim served honorably in World War II.
He later owned and operated heavy equipment on the same docks where he labored during the Great Depression.
In the early 1960’s he helped build the Verrazano Bridge.
Jim and Mae bought a house in New Jersey with the winnings from the Baer fight. They raised their children in that house and lived there for the rest of their lives.
No offense, with your writing skill and great analysis, you can join indiafm (now renamed bollywoodhungama)
true..wery true…and i think the scene that stayed with me the most from this movie is a fight scene where the opponent punches jimmy so hard that his mouthpiece flies off..the opponent and the rest feel that after such a punch no sob can get up..but jimmy just smiles..bends over and picks up the mouth piece and fits it in the mouth again..all the while remembering what would happen if he fails..remembers the poverty,hunger,starvation,and hope in the eyes of his children..just exemplifies to show that sometimes a man can be pushed so far that he gets transformed in a different sense of world..when loosing is not an option,fighting becomes easier..when u have seen the worst,everything else is worth it..some causes are so worthy its worth dying for..and as he bends down the audience comprising of people battered by hunger and hopelessness of depression go silent and slowly get up from there seats..slowly,hoping they get up..jimmy becomes a rolemodel..not as a winner..but as a fighter..as a beacon..setting that example..that when u defeat the sickness of fear from your mind..everything else is possible..
I really loved the movie. What makes the movie a favourite for me is the passion that Russell Crowe displays as a professional athelete.
Great support by Renne Zellweger.
Nice review.
Cheers
Great movie.It affacted me a lot.Great movie. One scene that stayed with me is where Reene tries to steal some wooden plates from a roadside barricade .she is very honest, but to warm her children she has to do this. Here she is also afraid that somebody might see her. Look at her eyes. A scene as good as it can get! It reminds me of another scene from equally amazing actress Smita patil in “Debshishu”.She is stealing cow milk from the master’s house to feed her children. Same suspicious,afraid eyes.
Loved the movie. I remember going to wikipedia and reading all I could about James J Braddock and other boxing greats.
.
That’s the effect great movies have on you.
ta ra rum pum made a mockery of this fab piece
Awesome movie….remember walking out of this movie, and going straight to “Salam Namsate” cause some friends had brought its ticket……saare mood ki waat laga di :(
And btw, how come Russell Crowe was not nominated for this movie?
@Shekhar: thnx for sharing the wonderful lyrics..Eyes wide open..Heart undefended…Innocence untarnished'–Cinderella Man… Very True!!!
@Negi: THe dialogue of Joe that runs in my mind still is the when he says “Jesus H. Christ! Jesus Mary and Joseph! All the saints and martyrs and Jesus! Did I mention Jesus?”
lol…no one could have delivered those lines with such finesse and expression..
@Tushar: Thanks for posting the title cards.I still remember how the hall was jam packed and the crowd refused to get up from the seats till the curtains went down.This movie did fill all of us with awe..If not all, atleast 90% of the world.
@Omprakash: I do take that as a compliment.
@Chintan & Gautham: THe movie was less sport-oriented and more of a postive-and-never-say-die attitude.This movie inspired me as much as the book-Jonathan Livingstone Seagull!
@Bharath: “Maybe I understand, some, about having to fight. So you just remember who you are… you’re the Bulldog of Bergen, and the Pride of New Jersey, you’re everybody’s hope, and the kids’ hero, and you are the champion of my heart, James J. Braddock”.I think this delivery was her best in the whole movie.It is quite difficult to say who was the best in this movie. Ron was successful in getting the best performances out of each and every character in this movie.
@Sunny: ta ra rum pum..??? cannot be considered as a movie at all!
@avn: i would call it a bad timing. the film was released in summer.would-be oscar nominees are usually released from autumn onwards…and the film coincided with the release of anothe boximg movie- Million Dollar Baby. Paul Giamatti was the only artist who won the screen actors guils award for the best outstansing support actor.
Don’t say anything against Tararumpumpum. The film was so good it missed the audience by 50 yrs.
It is a classic movie,and I always loved to watch Russell Crowe perform, this one being a masterpiece, and this review makes me feel like watching the movie many more times.
Nice review Rashmi.
@Tushar: won’t say anything about Tararumpum…It was a Miss-Take…not worth any comments!
@Nithya- thanks! pick up a DVD!!