Cinderella Man Essay

 Many movies made about important historical events are not entirely accurate. Movie directors “Hollywoodize” stories to make them more dramatic. Sometimes they do this by changing or exaggerating the personalities of characters to make conflicts more intense or make the heroes seem more heroic.  Sometimes though, the entire story line of an event is changed the true historical event is diminished. This may leave audiences satisfied but it also leaves them completely ill-informed. It is important for writers and directors not to stray too far from the original story line so they do not dampen the importance of a real event. One movie that did a good job of not sacrificing the accuracy of the story too much while still making the story engaging was “Cinderella Man”. This movie, while not perfectly accurate, did a great job of portraying the hardships of the Great Depression through the setting and scenery, and the fears and desperation of the characters.

            The setting and scenery in “Cinderella Man” helped to represent just how bad the poverty in America was during the Great Depression.  The dramatic switch in the beginning of the movie from Jimmy Braddock and his wife wearing nice clothing and living in a beautiful big house to living in a one room apartment with no color with their three children and hardly any belongings represented just how quickly people were losing their money, their homes, and their freedom. Even families that were doing fine financially like Braddock’s, were affected by the Depression. The bare necessities were the only thing that people had and they sometimes even had less than that. Families were ripped apart because parent could not bear to keep their children in their terrible living conditions. Another scene in “Cinderella Man” that really shows the struggles of people living in urban areas in when Braddock visits a huge “Hooverville” in Central Park, New York City, to find a friend of his. People are shown living in lean-tos made out of cardboard or whatever trash could be found and fighting over possessions and stealing from and beating each other.  The will to live is the only thing that keeps these people human. Desperation caused by poverty turned people into barbarians and animals. This scene in the movie accurately depicted the madness that was unleashed when people on America hit rock bottom and lost all hope.

            The culture of the Great Depression is also shown through the fears and desperation of the characters. Braddock’s wife was particularly concerned about her husband leaving her and their three children because men all over the country were running away from their families because they just gave up. This was such a big fear for women because if their husbands left them, there was no way for them to feed themselves or their kids other than standing in soup lines, no way to keep their power and heat on, and no way to keep their homes. There were already no jobs for men so it was virtually impossible for women to get jobs. Every day, Braddock went to the docks to try to pick up shift for the day. He was afraid of not getting picked for a job that day or not being able to work because of his broken hand. This showed how in the real depression, men were extremely scared of not being able to feed their families and failing as people. This was also shown in the scene in “Cinderella Man “ when Braddock’s children have been sent away because he could not get enough shifts to get enough money to pay his family’s bills and keep the power on. He is forced to go to his old boxing agency and beg for money so that he can get his children back. He makes sure that the men know that this is his absolute last option or else he would not be there. His desperation and shame represents the shame that other men in the Depression felt. The Great Depression was a massive blow to men’s masculinity because they believed that failure was entirely their fault. Men all over the country were feeling the same sense of responsibility for the state of the country. Other men though, felt as though the tragedy was completely the fault of the government, as was shown by the former broker, Mike, in the movie but for the most part, men looked as the crash of the country’s economy to be a sign of personal failure.

            “Cinderella Man” may not be perfectly historically accurate but it does a great job to represent the feelings and culture of the people that were affected by the Great Depression through the setting and scenery and through the fears of the characters. The way that the poor people in jersey responded to Braddock’s boxing just showed how much they needed a hero. Braddock was not trying to be a hero; he was just a great man who never stopped trying to protect his family. A film that affects audiences in the way that “Cinderella Man” does is what filmmaking is all about. It is important that the directors of movies based off of historical events do their best to maintain accuracy because making a film about an event is just like creating a monument or statue to attribute a person or event. It needs to create a community and it needs to help people remember either what they went through or what their parents or grandparents went through. Remembering keeps us from making the same mistakes again and helps us to appreciate what we have.

http://bytheway-nana.blogspot.com/2012/01/cinderella-man.html#.U1agXfldUXs