Danielle
Lioce
After watching Glory and A Cinderella Man in history class, we compared the dramatized
Hollywood version of what happened to reality. We discussed the necessity of
making it appealing to audiences to make money, and how they have ‘creative
license’ that gives them the power to change things. Those two movies were made
with the director trying to keep them historically accurate, to do the
characters, and the history justice. In A
Cinderella Man the main Character Jim Braddock is a financially struggling
father in the Great depression, the scenario and movie lend itself to be a
great example of how the families struggled, the men’s prides were too large,
and how it was nearly impossible to get a job.
The movie A Cinderella Man focuses on how families during the great
depression struggled to stay together and live comfortably. The movie
illustrates the hard times of the families by showing Jim Braddock with his
three small children and wife, with limited food and no electricity. The real
Jim Braddock’s children were actually teenagers in real life when the story
took place. The director used his ‘creative license’, to alter this piece of information,
this makes the viewer feel more sympathetic for the children and Braddock. This
serves to make the viewer root more for Braddock, hoping that he can win
fights, and get work so he can feed his children and keep them warm during the
harsh winter.
A big problem during the great
depression was men’s prides were too large, and they wouldn’t except help from
anybody. When the Braddocks start to really struggle and their power gets shut
off, it took Jim Braddock getting his kids sent away for him to finally go get
financial help. The movie puts a lot of emphasis on this event because it was a
big problem in this era. When a man couldn’t provide for his family, it took
away their pride, and it was a big deal for Braddock to put his pride aside and
ask for money. The movie does a good job of portraying this, and in the end
when Braddock pays the money back, it makes him more likeable and that does
well for the movie because everybody loves the heroic good guy.
The movie also shows Braddock
struggling to get steady work. He starts loosing fights and eventually looses
his fighting license, so then he has to stand outside gates hoping to get
picked for that day’s work. We learned about the bread lines and the lines men
would wait in hoping to get picked to work. The movie didn’t over dramatize this but they
did put emphasis on it, because it illustrated how tough it was to get a job,
which was historically accurate. When he eventually gets back into fighting,
the movie strongly portrays him as the underdog. They made his big rival, Max
Baer, a jerk and altered the portrayal of him to make Braddock look like more
of an underdog that was easy to root for. From the events in the movie and how
well underdog movies do in the box office, it is easy to assume the director
would probably exaggerate events and details to make the
public like the heroic figure.
The Great Depression was well
portrayed in A Cinderella Man. The
Director used his ‘creative license’ very lightly, and didn’t alter any big
details to make it likeable by the public. In our U.S. History class this year
we have watched and studied movies, to see how well they portray history. We
have seen instances where the director changes minor details and we have seen
where the director changes important historical facts. As someone who has
learned the history, I think the big changes actually hinder the film. To
someone that is knowledgeable, it makes the film unlikeable.
