Impossible is NOTHING.

[Mike Tyson77]

HOPE....

[sjomcik]

That is a great film......

[Mike Tyson77]

That is a great film......

indeed.........

[Scoooter]

Tremendously underrated film. Terrific performances all the way around. I actually wrote a brief piece on it a while ago, examining Cinderella Man (and boxing at large) within the a framework of the rather abstract concept of modern-day myths. Some excerpts:

Though they are most often associated with ancient peoples and archaic beliefs, myths and mythology can trace their history from the earliest humans, through the ages, and into the present day. Protean in nature and execution, myths are often reflections of their times, and they can adapt themselves to a multitude of mediums, tools such as spoken word, literature, music, radio, comic books, and, in a powerful amalgamation of many disciplines, film...

This film, although an obviously modern work, very effectively conforms to classical archetypes and themes – notably the heroic figure, his call to action in an unfamiliar setting, and his heroic journey – while also exploring more modern ideals and concerns.

...For 20th century Americans, nestled between two of the largest and most significant military conflicts the world has seen, lies what we have since deemed the Great Depression...

Much like the ancient floods of Utnapishtim and Noah, the Great Depression was a disaster of nigh-unprecedented scale, built up over the generations and in the then-current press to a scourge of almost Biblical proportions, and providing a more than suitable environment for the exploits of our hero, James Braddock....

The boxers themselves, as individuals, were similarly elevated, their exploits often worthy of front page news; boxers constituted truly larger than life en******. No celebrities – even among other boxers - were more revered than heavyweight boxers, and among them, none more so than the champion, though “There were times, of course, when the heavyweight champ was trumped by presidents, kings, and field marshals – specifically when the world was at war…but most of the time, the champ was king” (Schaap 11). Comparisons to the ancients’ gods is not completely unfounded, the ever present epithets of he Olympic pantheon were reborn; “Ox-eyed” Athena, “Thrice-grand” Hermes, and “Far-shooting” Apollo gave way to the “Galveston Giant” Jack Johnson, Jack the “Manassa Mauler” Dempsey, “Madcap” Max Baer, and the “Cinderella Man” James Braddock.

Cinderella Man, apart from its established usage of the classical hero and the details of his journey, goes still farther in attempting to aggrandize the already amazing story of what was considered - up until the 1990 defeat of “Iron” Mike Tyson at the hands of 42-1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas – the biggest upset in boxing history.

...Cinderella Man constitutes a unique filmic take on modern myth; a story from a defining moment in history that follows the molds of all great stories before it, passing ideals, both timeless and generational, through the filter of a contemporary director and into the minds of modern audiences. Like most myths, the hero of Cinderella Man is actually a focal point; like most great heroes, a symbol through which we can search for meaning and understanding beyond our daily experiences, a symbol such as has been portrayed in all manner of mythology, from Hercules, Odysseus, and Jason through Buddha, Moses, and Christ and on into Johnson, Louis, and Braddock.