The Best Boxing Movies

[Charles Martel]

Six good ones:


City for Conquest (1940)

Gentleman Jim (1942)

Cinderella Man (2005)

Kid Galahad (1937)

Gladiator (1992)

Klitschko (2011)


These were okay but not as good:


Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

The Set-Up (1949)

Rocky Marciano (1999 TV Movie)

The Fighter (2010)


I haven't been able to find The Harder They Fall, Body and Soul, Fat City, or Requiem for a Heavyweight.

I didn't like Ali, The Boxer, Raging Bull, The Great White Hope, When We Were Kings, the Rocky movies or The Hurricane.

 

[sport historian]

I like The Harder They Fall. It was on TCM a few nights ago. According to the TCM site, they'll run it again on October 12.

Max Baer has a major role.

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

The Klitschko Brothers documentary entitled "Klitschko", released in 2011, is probably my favourite film that deals with boxing. It is a documentary loosely based around both brothers' boxing careers as well as their personal lives.

Another movie I enjoyed is a German feature that came out about 1 or 2 years ago, I saw it with friends. It was called "Fist Of The Reich" and was a sort of biography on German World Champion Max Schmeling. I don't concern myself with the political messages in the film, but the film is more about his boxing career and his personal life. Interesting film and I quite enjoyed watching it for entertainment purposes.

I haven't seen "Cinderella Man" but heard it's good, should probably see it sometime. I'm not the biggest fan of the "Rocky" movies.

Boxing is a tremendous sport, my favourite sport and the only sport I really follow, but most of the time I find movies based on boxing tend to be quite poorly done and awfully unrealistic.

 

[jaxvid]

I really liked Cinderella Man and the Fighter. Those older movies were also good watching back in the day, I haven't seen them in a long time. Not mentioned was "Champion (1949)" starring Kirk Douglas. One of the things I always liked about Kirk Douglas was how he kept himself in great shape. I don't know if he was a workout guy back then but of the guys that did those old boxing movies, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, etc. Douglas looked like he could actually be a fighter.

The funny thing about the Rocky movies is that they were great movies, outside of the actual boxing, which were so stupidly phoney that they are hard to watch. But the story lines were always good and Stallone was born to play that role.

The first Rocky movie came out in 1976 or so and I remember seeing it in the movie theater. It had an effect on young guys at that time (myself included) more then any other movie. Say what you will about Stallone since then, he did create a very strong admirable White male character, that for a long time was an antidote to the non-stop White male bashing of the media.

Compare the image created in the movie of an out of work Rocky (we were ALL out of work in 1976) to the typical out of work fat lazy basement dwelling blobs that we see today. After seeing that movie me and my buddies and many others hit the gym and aspired to be something like the guy Balboa was. Maybe not the best role model. But there are certainly worse.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I really like Rocky. The first and second ones are really, really good movies and after that the third, fourth, fight and the one from a few years ago are very average.

 

[Charles Martel]

The Klitschko Brothers documentary entitled "Klitschko", released in 2011, is probably my favourite film that deals with boxing. It is a documentary loosely based around both brothers' boxing careers as well as their personal lives.

How could I forget that one? I've edited the opening post and added Klitschko.

Boxing is a tremendous sport, my favourite sport and the only sport I really follow, but most of the time I find movies based on boxing tend to be quite poorly done and awfully unrealistic.

True, most of them are.

But some of the ones I mentioned in the opening post like Cinderella Man and City for Conquest are very realistic.

You might like Cinderella Man, it's about 90% historically accurate (the second half of the movie is pretty much what actually happened). They did an excellent job of portraying what really happened in the fights. Toronto boxer Troy Ross played John Henry Lewis perfectly, as Craig Bierko did Max Baer.

I recommend the excellent book with the same title Cinderella Man, which was published some months before the movie came out.

 

[The Hock]

"Raging Bull" is a good boxing movie. I like the throwback feel of the black and white style. It helps take you back to the fifties, which were a golden age of boxing when there were so many quality fighters and the world championship meant a lot more than it does today. It's also a good look at the troubled family lives so many boxers seem to lead. De Niro is very convincing as a boxer. In fact he even has a better build than Jake LaMotta. Also an early look at Joe Pesci as Jake's brother.

Overall a typically excellent Scorsese movie.

 

[white is right]

"Raging Bull" is a good boxing movie. I like the throwback feel of the black and white style. It helps take you back to the fifties, which were a golden age of boxing when there were so many quality fighters and the world championship meant a lot more than it does today. It's also a good look at the troubled family lives so many boxers seem to lead. De Niro is very convincing as a boxer. In fact he even has a better build than Jake LaMotta. Also an early look at Joe Pesci as Jake's brother.

Overall a typically excellent Scorsese movie.

Boxing movies are either brilliant or total dreck. There really isn't much of a middle ground. Raging Bull, The Harder They Fall, Requiem for a Heavyweight and Fat City are brilliant, even the first Rocky is a classic story. Then you can hit rock bottom with the Great White Hype, or some of the terrible Rocky movies.

 

[Westside]

Here is my top five in no order:

Rocky 1

Raging Bull

Cinderella Man

Rocky Docudrama with Jon Faverau playing Marciano. LOL

Klitiscko Documentry

 

[werewolf]

Boxing movies are either brilliant or total dreck. There really isn't much of a middle ground. Raging Bull, The Harder They Fall, Requiem for a Heavyweight and Fat City are brilliant, even the first Rocky is a classic story. Then you can hit rock bottom with the Great White Hype, or some of the terrible Rocky movies.

I agree. I haven't seen Harder, though. I haven't seen the Klitschko film either.

Requiem was done twice, and both starred great actors who actually once were professional heavyweight boxers themselves, Jack Palance and Anthony Quinn.

Palance was in the 1956 version written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. That version also featured featured famous boxers Max Baer and "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom. It was the first original live 90 minute tv drama and it is considered one of the best things ever done on tv.

The Quinn version was a 1962 movie featuring Jackie Gleason (who once brawled with 2 Ton Tony Galento with notably unsuccessful results), and aalso Mickey Rooney, and Julie Harris, the latter two never having been heavyweight boxers.

Here's an excerpt from the Palance version. It would be nice if the entire play was available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCKVwoVh8Xs

My favorite boxing movie, though, is John Huston's depressing "Fat City" (1972), about the underbelly of boxing in Stockton, CA, even tho Hollywood stuck in a bit of miscegenation. Like many great movies, music played a big role in making it good.

Here's the ending:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0y9phFKDPI

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

You might like Cinderella Man, it's about 90% historically accurate (the second half of the movie is pretty much what actually happened). They did an excellent job of portraying what really happened in the fights. Toronto boxer Troy Ross played John Henry Lewis perfectly, as Craig Bierko did Max Baer.

I recommend the excellent book with the same title Cinderella Man, which was published some months before the movie came out.

Thank you kindly for your recommendation.

Yes, I've heard a lot of people say that "Cinderella Man" is great movie, so one of these days I'll have to sit down and watch it either online or on TV.

Over the years of living in Toronto and Mississauga, Ive always been working out in fitness gyms and when I was in my teens I used to box quite a bit. I like to stay fit and active. So by chance, I happen to know or even worked out with many of the guys involved in the Toronto boxing scene. Ive seen Troy Ross around the gyms and Ive also met Russ Anber, Logan McGuinness, and a few others that aren't as "big name" so probably most people wouldn't know them by name.

In fact, as a teenager, some of the guys I used to spar with and am friends with, are now turning pro as boxers. It's cool to see guys you worked out with going pro.

Tyson Fury has also been known to frequent Toronto and Montreal, havent seen him around though. I also heard he likes to spend a lot of time in the bars!

Toronto has a so-so boxing community. But anyone who is seriously trying to make it in boxing in Canada would be much better off relocating to Montreal.

 

[Average American]

I really like Rocky. The first and second ones are really, really good movies and after that the third, fourth, fight and the one from a few years ago are very average.

yeah, the first 'Rocky' for sure.. Not just a good boxing flick, but one of the greatest American movies.
It was about a real human being.. instead of a super-hero, or a super-douche.

My favorite scene, where he's laying in bed with Adrianne & says all he wants to do is prove he's not just another bum from the neighborhood. What man can't identify with that desire.

 

[werewolf]

Yo, Adrian!

Some girl I once knew used to work with Stallone. She said he was a nice guy.

 

[werewolf]

"Fat City", 1972

http://www.crackle.com/c/fat-city

 

[Charles Martel]

Since I made this thread, I've seen Body and Soul which was okay but not great and Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) which was awful (I didn't like the story and it was a poor performance by Anthony Quinn).

The Harder They Fall and Fat City I now have on video and I plan to watch them soon.

 

[f3d0r]

the fighter with Bale and Mark Wahlberg are good and well acted. Shows you the tough Irish areas of Boston.

Not boxing but the Warrior with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton is good also.