.. a nickname coined by Damon Runyon after Jim Braddock unexpectedly won a fight after years of losses and then made a come-back. Russell Crowe is he and his wife is Renée Zellweger, and the trainer is played by Paul Giamatti - all excellent. New York is played by Toronto, photographed by an Italian, Salvatore Totino (music videos, Frost / Nixon).
The first hour of the 140 min running time is quite grim in its honest depiction of the depression, 1933, but the structure is right, for it then takes off beautifully. Written by Cliff Hollingsworth and Avika Goldsman. Really good Oscar nominated editing by Dan Hanley and Mike Hill, both known for several other Howard films, working on footage from five camera units.
Seems like a good companion piece to Seabiscuit, another Depression-era tale of an outsider becoming the people's hope / emblem. Not having seen it since 2006, we were both feeling somewhat dreadulous about what the ending might be. After the fight Crowe kisses an old man on the head, and I wondered if this was a little in-joke to something as we hadn't really seen him before - he's not Jim Braddock, though, who was well dead already (1974). Craig Bierko plays his final opponent rather well. (Max Baer's son complained about the depiction of his dad in the film. In real life he was terribly upset by the one death he did accidentally cause in the ring.)
Very distinctive and uplifting music from Tom Newman. Wynn Thomas is the production designer and Tom Fleischman is one of the sound rerecording mixers.
My favourite moment is when he says goodbye to the kids and shakes the eldest's hand - then the younger boy also wants to shake his hand. Which tells you, the story is told with heart - it's not just fight after fight.
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