... hate to differ but, BOTH as an actor and director:
Mel Gibson:
Hollywood's Champion of Faith, Family and Freedom!
Posted on 06/18/2005 8:45:12 AM PDT by GMMAC
Cinderella Man
A Father’s Day Message
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
June 17, 2005
The children are huddled together in one bed, trying to keep warm. The gas and electricity have been turned off; the last of the milk is gone. What stands between these children and complete disaster? Their father.
That their dad would do almost anything to save his family is the ultimate message of Cinderella Man, a wonderful new film starring Russell Crowe. Based on the life of legendary boxer James J. Braddock, the film is a celebration of a man who models sacrificial love for his family.
Braddock was born into a blue-collar, Irish Catholic family in 1906. Like most Irish boys of that day, Braddock liked to fight—and he was good at it. By age twenty, he had turned pro, winning fight after fight, and becoming one of the best young boxers in the world.
But by 1929, Braddock’s injuries—especially a badly broken right hand—began mounting. And when the stock market crashed in October, Braddock found himself washed up—and wiped out.
Braddock then fought the worst opponent of his life: the Great Depression. To feed his family, he worked at the New Jerseydocks. But the work was irregular. One desperate winter, Braddock and his wife were forced to send their children to live with relatives.
In moments of despair, Braddock turned to the priests of St. Joseph of the Palisades in West New York. As sportswriter Jim Hague notes, “The priests at St. Joseph all told Jim to keep his faith; that God would provide him the strength to carry on.”
And God did, answering Braddock’s prayers in an unexpected way. The months out of the ring allowed Braddock’s battered body to heal. And his work on the docks had an unexpected benefit: It strengthened his left hand and arm.
Then in 1934, Braddock had a chance to substitute for an absent boxer. Incredibly, he beat powerful heavyweight opponent John Griffin. He then beat two more top heavyweight contenders: John Henry Lewis and Art Lasky.
Braddock then faced heavy-weight champion Max Baer—a womanizing show-off who had already killed two men in the ring. Braddock was listed as a ten-to-one underdog, and his wife feared he’d be killed by Baer.
By now, the story of the broken-down boxer who fought to feed his family had captured America’s imagination. In Braddock, Depression-weary Americans saw a family man who, like them, struggled against common enemies of unemployment and poverty, and he did it with grace and courage.
When the day came in June 1935, Americans walked for miles to pool halls and pubs to hear the fight on the radio. I am not going to spoil the ending, in case you’re planning to see CinderellaMan. But I will say this:
Today, our elites are fond of saying that fathers are unnecessary—even destructive in the lives of their children. Millions of fatherless kids are paying the price for this attitude—children starving for a father’s love and protection. Cinderella Man gives us a tremendous example of what a father ought to be.
As we celebrate Father’s Day this weekend, I pray that fathers and fathers-to-be will be inspired by this film to be the kind of man God intends: one who sacrificially puts his love for his family above all else.
For further reading and information:
Jeremy Schaap, Cinderella Man (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
“1936 book on ‘Cinderella Man’ Braddock scores hit,” San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 June 2005.
Peter Heller, In This Corner . . . !: Forty-Two World Champions Tell Their Stories (Da Capo Press, 1994).
Steve Beard, “Fighting with Integrity: Cinderella Man,” Thunderstruck.org.
Frederica Mathewes-Green, “Knockout: Cinderella Man,” National Review Online, 6 June 2005.
Harry Forbes, “Cinderella Man,” Catholic News Service.
Stephen Hunter, “The Contender,” Washington Post, 3 June 2005, C01.
Stephen McGarvey, “Reel Dads,” BreakPoint WorldView, July/August 2004.
Roberto Rivera, “Patriarchy: It’s All About Transmission,” BreakPoint Online, 7 July 2003
BreakPoint Commentary No. 040618, “Captain Obvious Strikes Again: We Do Need Dads.”
She does not like boxing movies, but the humanity in this flick caught her empathy.
Russel Crowe is without a doubt the best actor alive today.
His performance in A BEAUTIFUL MIND will rank as high as ever there was.
I had no idea what this movie was about. The title was keeping me from having any desire to see it. It sounds very good.
Thanks for the post
Happy Father's Day to you too, Gmmac!
Excellent movie! IMHO best of season thus far. In light of Cinderella Man, Star Wars Episode III should be retitled Wankers in Space.
It was a great movie.
I also don't think Gibson ever assaulted a hotel desk clerk either. Not that I dislike Crowe, but I think it's only fair to point out he has an anger problem and he freely admits it himself...
Respect your opinion, but Mel has been working for 25 years.
Crowe is still growing...his best is yet to come....imo.
We saw the movie last night. Although the boxing scenes were brutal (I describe them as just short of The Passion) the overall message and the acting was wonderful. This reviewer fails to mention several of the really positive messages and influences this man had on his family and his neighbors.
Paul Giamotti was terrific as the trainer. And Rene Zellwegger was good too, if a little wooden at times.
One of my favorite parts was when he won his first big fight he returned to the relief office and made his way to the window where they were handing out cash and quietly returned all of the cash that they had given him in the previous weeks. And of course there was the scene when his little boy stole a salami and he made the kid return it and apologize to the butcher.
I wouldn't take the kids to this one, however. Too brutal.
I took my whole family to see it after reading the reviews, and it is outstanding. "Opie" again displays his brilliant directing skills. The movie is very motivational, and emphasizes honor, integrity, and commitment. It is based on a true story, is set during the great depression, and gives us some insight into the extreme difficulty and turmoil that families had to overcome.
It shows why the "Greatest Generation" was the "Greatest Generation."
By the way, I was interested to find out that Max Baer, the blowhard heavyweight fighter, was the father of the actor who played Jethro Bodeen on the Beverly Hillbillies.
Yes, I neglected to mention that this is a Ron Howard film. Need I say more?
And the credits mention a couple of Howard's brothers -- must have played bit parts, but I didn't recognize them.
I can't wait to rent this!
One of Braddock's grand-daughters also had a role in the movie. She might have been the neighbor whose husband befriended Braddock on the docks.
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