Jackson Pearson
May 5, 2015
USH- Cinderella Man
James J.
Braddock: An American Life
The movie Cinderella Man captures the life of an American
boxer, James J. Braddock, as he goes through the great depression. In the early
part of the movie you see Braddock living a luxurious life with everything a
man needs and more. Unfortunately for Braddock he loses his dream life when all
the money he had invested into the stock market goes from dollars to pennies in
a matter of one day. The movie tells the phenomenal, true story of how James J.
Braddock managed to make it through the depression and how difficult it was for
him, the movie is a very accurate depiction of how the depression changed
people’s lives.
As Braddock
shifts from the great life to the hardly managing life, you see his mood and
figure change as he has lost hope and has been malnourished. This shift was not
exclusive to Braddock, in the 1930s many families had lost jobs and like Braddock
could only find work one or two days out of the week. In one scene you see
Braddock give his daughter his breakfast because she was not full after her
small meal, this is a great scene because it really highlights how scarce food
was. Instead of getting up and grabbing more food for his daughter the only
food he had to give was the meal he had. In another scene it shows Braddock’s
son being taken back to the meat store by Braddock to return meat that he had stolen
out of the fear of being shipped away. This is another great scene, not only
does it show to lack of food but it also shows how Braddock’s son had lost hope
in Braddock to provide food for the family. The film conveys the hopelessness
and lack of food of the great depression very well.
During the Great
Depression it was extremely difficult to even find work for two or three days
out of a week. Because of the lack of jobs many men found themselves shipping
their kids off to live with family while they beg outside gates to have a day’s
worth of work. In the film Braddock is seen begging to get a job outside the
shipyard, he is one of twenty or thirty men and only eight or nine were chosen.
The scene portrays the difficulty to find work very well, for the people during
the Depression that didn’t get picked for a job they had to return home with nothing
to bring their families. Many men resorted to government agencies to help
provide for their families; sometimes it wasn’t enough though. The loss pride
and of hope to provide for their families led many men to believe they would be
better off just providing for themselves. This resulted in broken families and
ultimately a scary reality for women that their husband could walk out at any
moment. Not only was Braddock’s wife shown in the movie scared of him leaving,
many women had this scary thought. The film conveys the lack of jobs in the
1930s very well.
Even though
Braddock was faced with all the terrors of the Great Depression (no food, job or
electricity), he managed to get through. He was a great boxer before the
depression and he managed to score a big fight that paid very well whether he
had won or lost. The last part of the movie shows Braddock fighting a champion
boxer who he was not favored to win by 10-1. The fight scene was depicted very well
with few minor flaws (no flaws retaining to Braddock). The scene shows Braddock
last till the last round and win by decision; this was a turning point in his
life. He would no longer have to worry about the awful things the depression
brought. What a viewer of the movie may think after seeing Braddock in the
movie is that every American had an upswing and was lifted out of the
depression; this was not at all the case. Braddock was a rare case that
involved a lucky man lifting himself and his family out of the harsh terrors of
the depression. The majority of Americans were in the Depression the whole
time.
The movie Cinderella Man shows how the 1930s were
for the average American. The movie shows nearly every concept of The Great
Depression. From the loss of food to the loss of a whole lifestyle, Braddock’s
life in the movie conveys all the ideas involved around the Great Depression
that are needed to be shown. The movie emphasizes many of the important things
of the depression and does not fail to show the finer, small details of the
depression.
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| Above is James J. Braddock |
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