Creed (2015)
I went out on a bit of a limb in proclaimingFruitvale Station the best film of 2013. It was the debut film of previously unknown director Ryan Coogler, and yet, no other film moved me...
Tagged: boxing
The Ring (1927)
The Ring is a silent film from 1927, made by director (and screenwriter here, the only film to give him sole credit) Alfred Hitchcock (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps). It’s a familiar...
Rocky IV (1985)
“I must break you”. At the time wrote the words above are uttered, it’s hard to discern whether writer/director Sylvester Stallone was speaking through Rocky’s fiercest opponent yet, Ivan Drago (Lundgren, Masters of the Universe),...
Rocky (1976)
The inspiration for Rocky came on March 24, 1975. Struggling actor and writer Sylvester Stallone attended a closed-circuit presentation in a Los Angeles movie theater of Chuck Wepner fighting Muhammad Ali. Wepner was a...
The Great White Hype (1996)
The Great White Hype is a broad satire of the boxing industry, particularly in how publicity and marketing govern the suitability of one’s rise to the top more so than sheer talent. Spoofing everything from...
Fat City (1972)
The great director John Huston scores again with one of his most understated films, a small-time character study on two boxers on opposite ends of their boxing careers. Keach plays Billy Tully, a former...
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
As a director, Clint Eastwood has sometimes been down, but never for the count, and if you consider the last two films he has directed, Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, you might even conclude he has hit...
Ali (2001)
Ali is the type of movie that is hard not to disappoint people with, since Ali is a much loved figure around the world, and one of the most popular personalities of the Sixties and...
The Hurricane (1999)
This is the inspiring sorta-true-story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (Washington), a man who could have been the middleweight champion if not for being convicted and sentenced to three life sentences for murder. Maintaining his...
Snatch (2000)
“Mr. Madonna”, Guy Ritchie, follows up his splash debut to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with another wryly comic (and violent) crime piece with Snatch. Like the previous film, it features a cast of almost two...