Boxing Junkies are having a hard time these days getting their fixes because live cards have been postponed or canceled, the result of the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s why we decided to put together “Our Favorites,” which we hope will help fill the void to at least a small degree. Boxing Junkie staffers Michael Rosenthal, Norm Frauenheim and Sean Nam give you their three favorite boxing matches, three favorite boxing movies and three favorite boxing books.
Yesterday, we posted a list of our favorite fights. Today: boxing movies.
MICHAEL ROSENTHAL
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Released: 1956
The gritty, black-and-white film stars a young Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano, the colorful brawler who thrived during and after World War II. The protagonist is a tough kid who grows up in an impoverished Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, has an abusive father, runs afoul of the law a number of times yet is able to overcome it all and become world middleweight champion. It’s not a unique story – rags to riches – but it was done particularly well in this special film. In particular, Newman gave one of the best performances of his career.
Rocky I
Released: 1976
“Rocky” – the film and the character, played wonderfully by Sylvester Stallone – has become so ubiquitous in our culture that one might forget how good the original article was. “A Rocky story” is an American story, one in which anything is possible if you set a goal and work as hard as you possibly can to achieve it. Rocky Balboa proved that in a classic film to which everyone can relate. Rocky was an “everyman.” He was us. Thus, when he climbed the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we climbed with him. And we celebrated as he did when he reached the top.
When We Were Kings
Released: 1996
The drama surrounding the 1974 fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in what was then Zaire – the “Rumble in the Jungle” – was a film waiting to happen. However, documentarian Leon Gast outdid himself. He spent more than two decades collecting and editing a remarkable amount of footage leading up to the iconic heavyweight title fight before releasing the film. The final product made you feel as if you were there for what was arguably Ali’s greatest moment in boxing.
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NORM FRAUENHEIM
Raging Bull
Released: 1980
“Raging Bull,” back-and-white and double-edged, is to boxing movies what Sugar Ray Robinson is to boxing. It’s TBE, The Best Ever. “Rocky” is fun, a timeless piece of escapism. But Raging Bull is real, a timeless piece of art. DeNiro captures the element that made Jake LaMotta so compelling and so damn scary. It’s the defiance. “Ray, you couldn’t knock me down, you couldn’t knock me down,’’ he says, spitting blood, after losing to Robinson. It’s a line that summed up a character. Summed up a sport, too.
Cinderella Man
Released: 2005
It’s a bittersweet film about a forgotten time and forgotten fighter. It’s set in the Great Depression, a time without hope or heroes. James Braddock, an undersized heavyweight with an oversized heart becomes that unlikely hero. Russell Crowe, known for engaging in more than a few barroom brawls, plays him well. Director Ron Howard’s film is unfair to Max Baer. He wasn’t evil. But somebody had to be the bad guy, especially in a film about a common man remembered as the “Cinderella Man” for upsetting the feared Baer for the heavyweight title in 1935.
Requiem For A Heavyweight
Released: 1962
A sad, sometimes touching look at what happens to every fighter. They get old. Anthony Quinn plays Mountain Rivera, who gets close yet never wins the heavyweight title. The film, written by Rod Serling, is fiction, yet includes a real name. Rivera’s last fight is a loss to Cassius Clay, two years after Olympic gold in Rome and years before he became Ali. Jackie Gleason is terrific in a dramatic role as a cynical manager. Is there any other kind? In the end, Gleason sells out the naïve Rivera.
SEAN NAM
Jose Torres
Released: 1959
Before filmmaker Hirsohi Teshigahara became known for his expressionistic adaptations of Kobo Abe novels, like “Women in the Dunes” and “The Face of Another,” he trained his camera on popular New York middleweight Jose Torres. Teshigahara trailed the no-frills Torres for a week leading up to his bout against journeyman Joe Shaw at the Sunnyside Garden Arena in Queens. The result is one of the most evocative portraits of a serious prizefighter at work. It also includes alluring footage of Torres working out at his trainer Cus D’Amato’s famed Gramercy Gym in New York City.
The Set-Up
Released: 1949
It may not be as good as “Out of the Past” or “Kiss Me Deadly,” but Robert Wise’s “The Set-Up” stands up as one of the key examples of the film noir genre and one of the best boxing films ever made. Wise’s last film with RKO Pictures plays to all of boxing’s dark impulses: crooked promoters and managers collaborate with the mob to squeeze one final pay dirt out of aging gatekeeper Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan). Stoker, though, has other ideas.
The Boxer and Death
Release: 1963
Based loosely on the life of Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, a Polish boxer and Auschwitz survivor, Peter Solan’s film is a moving and harrowing drama about the relationship between former boxer-turned-concentration camp inmate Jan Kominek (Stefan Kvietik) and his commandant Kraft (Manfred Krug). Kraft, bored by his job, decides to stave off ennui by sparring with Kominek. With each “session,” the two form an inexplicable bond reminiscent of Jean Renoir’s generals in The Grand Illusion. Soon Kraft starts handing Kominek favors, even as certain death looms for most of his companions.