Cinderella Man Essay

   During the commencement of my junior year at Randolph, my history teacher taught me early on that there was a lot to be learned throughout movies, other than the fairy tale of a historical being and the miracle that was their life. In history, I learned that historical truths are found all throughout historical films such as 12 Years a Slave and Glory, and now we have found some of the same truths in the film "Cinderella Man" directed by Ron Howard. This nail biting extraordinary fight of a man, is the story of James J. Braddock and his come back story in the midst of the worst economic times in US history; the Great Depression.
    Throughout the film there were little moments where major historical truths were revealed, but you had to see them with a watchful eye or you would simply miss them. As Braddock is wandering back and forth to the docks day in and day out, Ron Howard revealed the truth of just how hard it was to find work. Day after day Braddock found himself hopelessly aiming to find work on the docks, but days would pass where he wasn't chosen to work and he would return home empty handed to his wife; ashamed. Throughout the entire country, men, women and children of all ages were unable to find work and would continuously come up short to provide for their families, and eventually striking rock bottom with nothing to fall back on at all. The need for work for Braddock to provide for his family in the film was all together accurate to how families lived in the Great Depression in the 30s.
    In the film, when all hope was beginning to be lost for Braddock and his family, the camera moved to a newspaper lying in the street, dirty and crumpled that read "15 Million Americans: 1/4 of the Labor Force Unemployed." I believe Ron Howard chose to reveal this historical truth this way because he wanted to give a fact without it being outspoken by a character in the film. And with this truth being kind of an unimportant fact within the film, it really ended up giving light to just how serious the Great Depression was. According to US History in Film, 600,000 people in New Jersey, where Braddock and his family lived, were forced to fall into the government relief line to provide simply enough food to put on the table.
    As a woman in the Great Depression times, Braddock's wife Mae was very accurately depicted, and represented the women's role in the Great Depression times. In times of inner struggle within families, women were forced to stay at home to tend to the children. As depicted in the movie, children were sent away to stay with family members who were more financially stable in the times of the Great Depression. Women were forced to make decisions regarding their families putting aside the pride of their husbands. In the film "Cinderella Man," James Braddock was ashamed and embarrassed that time and time again he was unable to provide for his family and being prideful, he promised that he would never send his children away because he would feel ashamed. When sickness struck and turmoil began to boil between James and Mae, Mae had to step up to make decisions regarding her children's well being, even if she did it without the support of her husband. I believe that during the Great Depression, men and women in marriage became more equal because one was not more dominant than the other and that was definitely revealed in this film. Without James bringing home the money and being able to dictate what was to be done with the money, he became more equal to his wife because they endured their hard times together.
    Throughout this film I didn't only learn about the life and the story of James Braddock, but I learned a deep level of information regarding the Great Depression such as unemployment rates and the difficulty there was to find a job. Another less important, but interesting thing that was revealed in the movie, was a little glimpse into the life of Max Baer, who lost to Braddock in the championship fight. Max Baer was depicted in the film as a ruthless fighter in and out of the ring, and although this was true, according to US History in Film, after the championship fight Baer was on record saying, "Im glad and really happy to see Jimmy happy..after all he's got a family...I might have a family around the country too, but I don't know it!" And although this seems irrelevant, it gave me insite on the way people reacted to such speech. For the time period, people did not speak loosely or carelessly as Baer did, and this was taken in to account and noticed by all, and they were stunned. The way Baer acted carelessly in his speech was referred to as "saucy outbursts" or "loose talk" in his time period and I found that really interesting because not a days that is not so out of the norm but rather norman for idols to speak this way.
   The film "Cinderella Man," revealed historical accuracies throughout the film that gave me a great bit of knowledge into life during the Great Depression. This film showed the life of a common family in the US during these hard times. This film revealed the pattern of building hope during the Great Depression and the hard times of the economy being able to tear them down easily, so it was important for neighbors and friends to work together in these hard times.

James Braddock was viewed as not only a heroic fighter,

but as a fighter for the average man in Great Depression times.