Best Boxing or Anti - Boxing Film

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ken123
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Best Boxing or Anti - Boxing Film

Post by ken123 »

THE HARDER THEY FALL, Bogart's last film with fine perfomances by Rod Steiger, Edward Andrews, Jan Sterling, and Nehemiah Persoff fits as both a Boxing & Anti - Boxing Film. It really shows the sleaziness and dishonesty of this sport ( ? ) . :wink:
Mr. Arkadin
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

The Harder they Fall is a nice film. I would also reccomend:

Kid Galahad (1937)
City for Conquest (1940)
Body and Soul (1947)
The Setup (1949)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
Raging Bull (1980)
Last edited by Mr. Arkadin on May 4th, 2007, 6:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dewey1960
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Post by Dewey1960 »

Rod Serling's REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT is probably the most anti-boxing of all boxing films.
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Dewey1960 wrote:Rod Serling's REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT is probably the most anti-boxing of all boxing films.
Yup. It's one of my all time favorites. One of the greatest films of all time in my opinion. "The rich get richer and the poor get drunk."
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ken123
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Post by ken123 »

Mr. Arkadin wrote:
Dewey1960 wrote:Rod Serling's REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT is probably the most anti-boxing of all boxing films.
Yup. It's one of my all time favorites. One of the greatest films of all time in my opinion. "The rich get richer and the poor get drunk."
My " senior moments " are coming fast and furious now. How could I have forgotten REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, it is great, even better than my oringinal pick. Mickey Rooney is good in this film, and he is NOT among my favorite actors. :wink:
Hollis
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Post by Hollis »

Hello everyone,

I think that my favorite boxing film of them all might just be Somebody Up There Likes Me starring Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Sal Mineo and I think Eileen Heckart as Rocky Barbella's mother. I think that in this movie the boxing was just the vehicle that a juvenile delinquent and dishonorably discharged soldier used to turn his life around. However, the boxing sequences are about as good as I've seen short of Raging Bull with Robert DeNiro, which I think I'd put in 2nd place on my favorites list. I' have to admit that Anthony Quinn In Requiem For a Heavyweight gives an unforgettable performance. I'm certain that others can recommend boxing movies that might not be so well known. I look forward to futher postings in this thread.

Hollis
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Dewey1960
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Post by Dewey1960 »

Hi Hollis -
No doubt you've seen THE CHAMP -- the 1932 original version with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper. I first saw this as a youngster on TV and it completely traumatized me and fully annihilated any interest whatsoever I might have had in the sport of boxing. I do, oddly enough, enjoy boxing films; they lend themselves so nicely to cinematic devices.
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Post by Hollis »

Hi Dewey,

Yes, I have, in fact, seen The Champ on several occasions and it's almost guaranteed to make me mist over. It's far more than just a boxing movie, wouldn't you agree? The relationship between Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper is what makes the movie memorable to me. I do agree that the violent aspect of the sport is and has been, well suited to the cinema. It is a brutal sport and one has to wonder what draws the participants to it, given the likelihood of failure and physical suffering even after the "Glory Days" are long gone. I know that I couldn't do it. It must take a special person to undergo the bloodletting and pain that's surely a part of the sport. I don't know who first referred to it as "The Sweet Science" but I don't think they could have been more wrong. My father fought in the Golden Gloves tournament as a teenager from a farm in South Dakota where physical strength was a byproduct of farm work. He also fought as a middleweight in the Army. He always said it was one of the toughest things he's ever done and he wasn't sure whether he'd do it again given the chance. Maybe it's because we live in a society where violence is an everyday occurrence that these films have drawn so many people to them. You can watch violence without taking part in it. A vicarious reaction to it I suppose.
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Post by pktrekgirl »

Errol Flynn did a couple of forays into boxing films. The better of the two, IMO, is GENTLEMAN JIM (1942).

Not historically accurate...but a fun film. :)
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Post by MissGoddess »

I hate boxing but have enjoyed several boxing films, including Body and Soul (my favorite), The Set Up, Right Cross, Gentleman Jim, The Prizefighter and the Lady, The Champ and most recently, Cinderella Man. I have to see The Harder They Fall again because it's been too long, and I've never seen Requiem for a Heavyweight. Champion was good, but it's not a favorite, nor is Golden Boy, except for Stanwyck's role.
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Hi MissGoddess, Requiem for a Heavyweight is one of those amazing films where it seems like every actor in the movie is well cast in his/her role. They are also perfectly in tune with one another and everyone is hitting on all cylinders.

If I was to make a list of my top ten movies of all time, this would be one of them. Anthony Quinn gives a mindblowing performance here and Mickey Rooney and Jackie Gleasons roles are superb. The film is wonderfully shot and has a great score as well. All I can say is --SEE IT. You won't be disappointed.
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Garbomaniac
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Post by Garbomaniac »

Two I think are great are The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933), and the remake They Made Me a Criminal (1939). I am a big fan of both Fairbanks Jr. who starred in the first one with Loretta Young, and John Garfield who did a better job in the remake with Ann Sheridan. The great story of a framed guy on the lame who is caught by a dirty copper simply because he is famous for his southpaw punch.

I am also a big fan of Gentleman Jim.
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Post by mrsl »

Regarding boxing films, I saw Rocky Balboa yesterday. I watched with my daughter and grandson and it's really interesting how three different people see the same movie with three entirely different reactions, and ideas. My grandson was bored with the first half and left, only to return near the end to see the boxing match. Even though I explained it was not a win or lose deal but an exhibition of stamina, he was still dismayed that there was no 'winner or loser'.

My daughter found the first half rather boring because she felt, Adrian was dead, you just find a way to go on. Also, she thought the boxing match would achieve that for him.

I liked the first half because Rocky was trying to not overcome his feelings, but learn to live with them. As much as he lived for boxing and the glory, his love for Adrian was what he really lived for. It was Adrian who 'made' him the man he was and he knew that. No amount of training could give him the power to succeed like one word from her. Rocky was not fighting for the glory of beating Mason Dixon, he was fighting to re-earn the respect that all his fans gave him, even years after his last match Although Dixon was the current champion, he didn't have the respect that Rocky continued to have after all those years, but Rocky felt that age had robbed him of the opportunity to regain that feeling of triumph which he owed his fans.

Then along comes his son who won't accept him because he's jealous of his dad, yet this other kid admires him for what he can teach him, not as a fighter, but as a good person. Even after all these years, I couldn't help pulling for Rocky to make it one more time. My only complaint about the movie is that at the end, since Adrian was so much a part of it, although not being there, I did wish that somehow when he wrote it, Sly would have worked in a recreation of his yelling "ADRIAN' at the of the bout.

Recommended, but it's better if you're over 50, to understand the sense of age defying your own bodys' shortcomings.

Anne
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MissGoddess
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Post by MissGoddess »

Mr. Arkadin wrote:Hi MissGoddess, Requiem for a Heavyweight is one of those amazing films where it seems like every actor in the movie is well cast in his/her role. They are also perfectly in tune with one another and everyone is hitting on all cylinders.

If I was to make a list of my top ten movies of all time, this would be one of them. Anthony Quinn gives a mindblowing performance here and Mickey Rooney and Jackie Gleasons roles are superb. The film is wonderfully shot and has a great score as well. All I can say is --SEE IT. You won't be disappointed.
I will make a point of seeing it, thanks!
melwalton

boxing films

Post by melwalton »

I'll vote for the already mentioned 'Body and Soul' ( 'Burning Journey') because of the camera work by James Wong Howe ( I've never seen better.) Robert Ryan had one of his best in the already mentioned 'Setup'.
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