Cinderella Man

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It’s an hour after leaving the theater and I’m at a local grocery store waiting in line: one of my least favorite things to do in the whole world. The clerk and the another employee chat about last night’s party: and who got drunk and who didn’t, and who left early and who didn’t, and neither of them know that waiting in line is my least favorite thing – in the whole world – and it’s obvious they wouldn’t care if they did know. So I think about the movie, Ron Howard’s latest, Cinderella Man, and I think about the Great Depression and how I wish these two employees could be swept away into a time vortex and be tossed like loose change somewhere into the Arkansas, New Jersey, Chicago, or Oklahoma of the 1930's.

On June 13th, 1935, the United States was in the midst of The Great Depression, twenty-five percent of the working population, 15,000,000 people, were out of work and James J. Braddock won the Heavy Weight Championship title of the world from Max Baer, the Mike Tyson of his day. I’m no pugilist afficionado but I’ve always had some fascination for the sweet science so I went to see this film knowing how Braddock wins the title. What I wasn’t prepared for was the creeping concern I had, near the end, that Braddock was going to lose the fight. I knew better I just couldn’t help but be drawn into the movie process that had been built by fine directing and great acting.

Russell Crowe as James Braddock offers a clear, all-encompassing image of the Depression when he portrays Braddock’s lowest moment. Ruined, like many by the crash, Braddock is at the end of his career as a boxer. No money, no fights, no job Braddock must go, literally hat in hand, to beg money from men who had made fortunes from his past exploits in the ring – to buy milk for his hungry children. During this scene, Braddock’s manager, Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) looks on aghast as the once proud fighter collects mostly small coins and snubs. In the story background, wife, Meg (Renee Zellweger) and his three children reveal the fears of millions of family’s that were affected: the fear of being separated: farmed-out to those more fortunate. In the end, like all Howard movies, the hero wins with an undaunted spirit and selfless honor, but in the case of Braddock this is all too true.

The other surprise here is how blessed I felt as I left the theater. The story, a bio-pic, is also a revelation of what we tend to shove into that dusty, neglected place called history. There is that touch Howard always brings; that “everything will be fine,” touch. But, this is a movie that might teach, might bring back what’s important, might reveal something about those who lived through that time. My mother was born at the beginning of the Depression and her history is not unlike the movie. A father without work, a family separated and farmed-out, grateful for hand-me-downs and a pair of new shoes once every couple-of-years.

I move up in line and the two store employees now regard me as another interruption. “Yes?” Are you buying something or what?” Funny how far we’ve come and how much we’ve lost. Where the heck is that time vortex, anyway?