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With "Million Dollar Baby" taking home the Oscar for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards, it seems unlikely that another boxing movie will take the honours next year.

With that said, Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man", about the life of Depression-era fighter James J. Braddock has to be considered strong front-runner to follow in "Baby"'s footsteps. It's also a better movie and made for the Oscar's.

Unlike "Baby", which was based on a tale from a book of short stories by F.X.Toole, "Cinderella Man" is a biography, an all-American story of a man who, being down and out in the Great Depression of the 1930's, stayed true to his core beliefs and values and rose up against all odds to become the heavyweight champion of the world. The Academy loves this kind of stuff - an epic American success story.

Russell Crowe is brilliant as the hard-working Braddock, the everyman that Americans fell in love with at a time when there was little to believe in. They put their faith and hopes in Braddock and felt vindicated when he defeated Max Baer for the title, as if they had overcome their own personal poverties. Paul Giamatti, as usual, is excellent as Braddock's trainer and manager, and Rene Zellweger gives a strong performance as Braddock's stoic but proud wife.

The film's successful formula hinges on its ability to reel in the audience and take it along for the ride. In the first half of the movie the emphasis is placed on the poverty of the Braddock's family and that of the average American's living in hardscrabble New Jersey in the Dirty 30's. Everything is shot in brown, grey and charcoal, and the desperate conditions produced by the Depression are so palpable that the viewer feels a connection with Braddock's family; when Braddock teaches his son that one should never steal no matter how bad things get, we see that Braddock is comfortable playing the underdog role in life as well as the ring. Here the film is essentially a period piece with boxing as a backdrop and a mere means of survival for Braddock.

In the movie's second half, with the viewer already hooked, the unlikely success of Braddock's ring exploits find him challenging Max Baer for the title. Here the film's emphasis switches to boxing, but by now Braddock's underdog role has already been established and even the most critical boxing detractor must concede the film's merit. This is what makes "Cinderella Man" better than "Million Dollar Baby" - it works both as a movie about boxing and a Hollywood epic. The movie bleeds integrity all over the screen.

America loves to celebrate its own, and James J. Braddock is an American hero, even if he did eventually lose the title to another American hero - Joue Louis.

Now THERE is a man whose life story would make a great movie.

© 2004 Aaron Bayley