Prompt: “The movie, Cinderella Man, takes place during the Great Depression, but it ultimately does
a much better job of telling us an emotional and inspirational “fairy tale”
about one man than it does exposing audiences to the facts about the Great
Depression as it was experienced by most Americans.”
When I
first received the two prompts, I thought for sure I wanted to talk about how
much I learned about the Great Depression during this movie. This is true,
however I realized how much I was actually shielded from. Cinderella Man takes
place during the Great Depression so I was exposed to some of the horrific
things that took place during this time, but this was not the main purpose of
this film.
In the
1930s, boxing, the second most popular sport in America, ruled when it came to
leisure time. Influenced heavily by the Great Depression, boxing changed
greatly during these few years. Because of the suffering economy, fighters were
offered lower pay, however, they would fight for anything because they needed
money. This is accurately shown in the movie, especially when Braddock starts
out making good money from his fights, but when the economy crashes, he is
forced to beg for fights, and even just for money. This is interesting,
however, because people would spend everything they had just to see a big fight
or listen to it in a local bar. Whether or not people were willing to admit it,
boxing provided a sense of community for Americans. No matter who it was or
what class they came from, people all watched and enjoyed boxing in the same
way. When the dock owner sees Braddock’s fight and reads about him in the paper,
for just a moment, money doesn’t matter. At this moment, it didn’t matter that
Braddock was having to beg this man for work, because boxing brought them
together.
However, in
this movie, Braddock’s final opponent Max Baer is completely railroaded by the
directors. It seems as if they took every boxing-related stereotype and
implanted into Baer’s character. In the scene where the two men talk in the bar
and Baer says to Mae, “you’re too pretty to be a widow”, it really shows to the
audience that Baer wanted to kill Braddock and he would take pride in it. This
couldn’t be further from the truth. After Baer killed Campbell(another fighter)
in the ring, he was plagued with guilt for the entirety of his life. He even
provided financial support to Campbell’s family until the day he died. Boxing
experts say that he was never the same fighter after this incident. He was even
charged with manslaughter, but was eventually cleared. His second “killing”, as
depicted in the movie, was completely exaggerated. This man that Baer allegedly
killed actually fought 4 more fights before dying. In all honesty, a number of
things could have killed this man. Yes, the fight with Baer could have played a
part in this, but there was no need for the movie producers to depict it this
way. Baer, in the movie, is shown as a barbarian who is proud of his killings.
I’m surprised the producers didn’t show him holding the heads of the men he had
killed. The way he is depicted in this film, that wouldn’t be too far off.
There was
also major controversy over how the Jewish star on Baer’s shorts was shown. In
reality, the star is bright, yellow, and huge, but in the movie it is very dull
and almost unnoticeable. Baer wore this star to fight against the increasing
anti-Semitism in Europe and this was the cause he fought for the entirety of
his career. Because of this, Baer lifted the spirits of Jews all across the
world and was seen as a hero for them, but we never see this in the movie. The
producers of this movie wanted Baer to be seen as the “bad guy” in order to
make Braddock more appealing to the audience. They didn’t want viewers to have
any sympathy for Baer because they needed people to love Braddock. When I
watched the film, I thought Baer was a horrible person and I was very happy
when Braddock beat him, however after reading more about Baer, I realize that
he was actually a really good guy who fought for a great cause.
Using all
of these techniques, the producers provided a very entertaining, fairy tale
story of the life of James J Braddock. I understand how the main purpose of
this movie was to show his life, however, it was not necessary to wreck the
life of another fighter. It would be unfair to say this movie didn’t educate,
however, this is not the main purpose. In this sense, the movie does a fantastic
job of showing how popular boxing was and how it effected the lives of many
Americans in the Great Depression, but it does not provide an accurate
depiction of the lifestyle of the common man. Braddock is a great guy who got a
second chance because of boxing, but many were not that lucky. To me, this
movie made it seem like everyone got out, when in reality many didn’t.
Cinderella
Man is a great movie, don’t get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed it, but I
now realize why I liked it so much. It is a classic fairy tale; just like
Cinderella. Cinderella starts off living a great life, just like Braddock, but
when her parents die, she is forced into a period of depression and hard times.
This is comparable to how the Depression affected Braddock. After living in
this period, Cinderella finds her prince and everything is happy again. When
Braddock starts to fight again and ends up winning, it’s a classic “fairy tale
ending”. The movie doesn’t end with Baer killing Braddock, it ends with what
the viewers would want. This movie helped to inspire millions going through
hard times, but while doing that it loses a lot of historical accuracy.
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| Max Baer in real life. |
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