Cinderella Man –
Collector’s Edition (Widescreen)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: B+ Film: B+
Boxing has an amazing history with the movies. No matter how many decades go by or how
times change, stories set in the past or present around the sport always have a
unique resonance. Besides the obvious Rocky
franchise, which will not die, films done right in its world get to the heart
of the matter and can still cause plenty of controversy. Only months after the commercial,
controversial and critical success of Clint Eastwood’s amazing Million
Dollar Baby, Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man arrived and is still
considered a top awards contender all these months later.
More incredible, the film gets better with every viewing
and once you start watching, you cannot stop.
With that said, it is all the more incredible the film did not become a
megahit at the box office. The hope was
Universal might reissue it in theaters around the holidays, but they instead
have chosen to issue the film on DVD and this includes a terrific deluxe Collector’s
Edition that finally gives the film the justice and respect it deserves.
Russell Crowe, one of the greatest living actors, turns in
another ace performance as James Braddock, a businessman who suffers great
financial losses when The Great Depression hits. He struggles like everyone else, but has a great talent and that
is his ability to box. This does not
thrill his wife Mae (a dead-on excellent Renée Zellweger) who is on his side
100% with their three children, trying to make a family work as much as
possible. The story picks up as his
abilities start to wane and he fights without enough rest and re-cooperation,
especially in the case of some injuries.
This causes the head of licensing and mega-promoter (the always great
Bruce McGill) to cancel his ability to fight legally, which sends his life into
deeper troubles.
Fortunately, his good friend Joe Gould (the great Paul
Giamatti in an all-time classic performance that will not quit) wants to help
and be supportive. Eventually, Joe is
able to give him that chance and then the story gets even more incredible. All the way, the film is smart,
compassionate, sincere, powerful, human, brave, deep and (no pun intended)
pulls no punches in an amazing screenplay by the always-reliable Akiva Goldsman
and very talented Cliff Hollingsworth.
The film dares to speak of people being down and out and that condition
being a very bad thing that does not have to be that way all the time. From the dialogue to various situations, the
film never shies away from a deeper truth and puts Ron Howard in the artistic
big leagues in a way no one can deny him any longer after years of critical and
commercial hits.
So if the film is practically the modern classic this
critic believes it is, why did it not make the $200 – 300 Million domestic
alone it should have made? How did it
miss? Universal promoted it very well,
the stars are impossible not to watch, the story is terrific, the film as well
crafted as anything you’ve seen in years and well over two hours that never
wear out their welcome. One
explanation is that the summer film season is so known for airheaded
blockbusters that a solid film like this no longer had a chance, yet the summer
it appeared actually produced a bunch of disappointments. There was the slight controversy that the
portrayal of Max Baer (an amazing performance by Craig Bierko) might have made
him look a bit meaner than he was in real life, but not by that
much. There is also the point that
Howard does not get enough respect as a filmmaker and Mr. Crowe’s unfortunate
recent personal incident happened after the film did not connect.
The conclusion, besides the failure of the mainstream film
critics to do right by the public as usual and fail them is likely extremist politics. When Million Dollar Baby dealt with
all of its even tougher issues, the extreme Right tried to “swift boat”
Eastwood by calling him everything from a traitor to the U.S. to a communist
(because when I think of Dirty Harry, Battleship Potemkin is not
far behind?), and did not like how the film dealt with life, death and the
personal choices of the individual that are not now or ever should be that of
the federate, state or power-mad extremists.
Cinderella Man has its dark issues, so could the film have been a
victim of the same politics, but done in a more silent manner?
Here is a story about a fighter and individual who
believes in the United States, what it is and what it has to offer in the
middle of The Depression. He believes
in fair work, fair pay, opportunity, freedom and people, yet rejects communist
because he knows better and understands the power of the individual. The title (too homophobic in some twisted
way for extremists?) alone suggests the possibility of a better tomorrow if
some great chain of events could make a big difference. That one has a reason to have hope, no
matter what. History repeats itself too
often for the worse, and much of the world of this film has come back today and
often without any excuses. Cinderella
Man is a great American film because it reminds us of what made and still
makes this country great at a time when bullies and other dark forces would
like us to forget, believe in lies and even strip away the country no unlike
The Depression. What’s worse, it does
not even take on heavier issues, it just is the story it tells and is one of
the few films in the last 25 years that deserves to claim to be based on a true
story by living up to it. The film is
comfortably left of center without being leftist and that is still too
subversive for said extremists. Now,
six months later and coming on DVD when that extremism is starting to finally
crack from stress, Cinderella Man deserves to live up to its name and be
an all-time DVD sales and rental champ.
That’s not just witty hype from a critic; it is what an excellent film
like this more than deserves.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is about as
good as a DVD is going to get in delivering this visually lush and deceptively
complex film. Cinematographer Salvatore
Totino started in the business as cameraman on some of the most visually
striking Music Videos of the last decade or so for big names like U2,
Radiohead, R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen.
It looks like he and Howard have become a team and are an excellent
match that should stay together for years.
I had seen this film twice in 35mm and could watch it anytime. Except for some minor Video Black and detail
issues, this looks fine. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound is a little better than usual, though there is a slight
imbalance between scenes of standard sound and those with superior sound design
due to Dolby’s AC-3 compression that had more impact in the theater. I wish Universal had included a DTS option,
but perhaps the excessive extras got in the way.
Another great aspect of the well-recorded sound is the
terrific score by Thomas Newman, one of the best in the business. As far back as Real Genius in 1985,
Newman has proved time and time again his exceptional talent for creating fine
music that enhances smart narrative filmmaking. Since then, he has given us scores for The Lost Boys
(1987, one of the reasons the film holds up as it does), Robert Altman’s The
Player (1992), Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994), the
Sam Mendez films Road To Perdition and Jarhead, Martin Brest’s Scent
Of A Woman and a grossly underrated score for Brest’s Meet Joe Black
in 1998. That’s not even a complete
list and Newman is at the peak of his powers now, so what he does for a film
that already has so much going for it is just amazing.
Extras include three separate audio commentary tracks
respectively by Director Ron Howard, co-writer Goldsman and co-writer
Hollingsworth, Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentary by Howard (and
more scenes in this edition than the regular ones), Photo Montage set to music,
over a half-hour of solid monochrome film footage of the Braddock vs. Baer
fight, a Kodak promo, a DVD-ROM piece and great featurettes including The
Fight Card: Casting Cinderella Man, The Man, The Movie, The Legend: A
Filmmaking Journey, The Human Face Of Depression, For The Record:
A History in Boxing, Ringside Seats, Music Score segments, Jim
Braddock: The Friends & Family Behind The Legend, Video Diary: On The
Set With Russell Crowe, Pre-Fight Preparations, Lights, Camera, Action: The
Fight From Every Angle and The Sound Of The Bell.
The extras are thorough for the basic edition, but for
this expanded version, they are incredible and one of the rare times a DVD
release has lived up to its “collector’s” claim. The work that went into making this film was nothing short of
monumental and reminds us of what separates great filmmaking from being a poser
and toying around with digital video something or other and thinking one is
some kind of genius. The extensive work
that went into making just this film is stunning, with everyone from expert
witnesses, to master craftsmen to highly skilled athletes are shown in extended
and always fascinating detail throughout.
These are some of the best extras for a film on DVD we have seen since
those for Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, which are the kind only such
great films could inspire.
The great films are the ones that are built to last and Cinderella
Man is on that short list of late, especially for 2005. If here is a great film you have missed this
year, this is it. If you have seen it,
then you know better and should be beyond anxious to get the DVD. Get this set!
- Nicholas Sheffo
