When creating a movie based on an event in history, there is always the challenge of keeping the movie accurate, while writing it to appeal to the viewers. The director has a very difficult job of forming the event so that the viewers stay intrigued and interested, while they stay true to the story. Ron Howard, the director of Cinderella Man, did a great job of keeping the basis of the Great Depression in tact, while keeping the story entertaining. Granted, not all aspects of the movie are true because he had to exaggerate some things to get the right emotions and thought from the viewers, the main ideas of the Great Depression are correct. By watching the movie, I learned more about how the Great Depression really affected families and individuals, and I learned it in an interesting way that made me want to learn more.
Ron Howard did a great job of portraying the struggles of the Great Depression, and how emotional it made people. The main character James J. Braddock, in the movie, had to take many desperate measures so that his family could survive the depression. In the movie Howard tweaks an event that truthfully occurred, to make the audience feel a type of empathy for Braddock. In the movie, Braddock goes to the boxing association and begs for money from the benefactors; this scene in the movie shows Braddock at a level of emotional wreckage that it is almost unbearable to watch. Although in history Braddock did beg for money for his family, he only went to one person to do so. That person later went on Braddock’s behalf to ask for money for him from the boxing association. This minor change in the script was made solely for the audience to be more invested and have sympathy for Braddock. This scene is one of many throughout the movie that portrays how far Braddock was willing to go so that he could provide for his family.
The movie did a good job of showing the struggle that Braddock’s family went through during the Great Depression. Braddock did in fact have to go to the fence the docks and hope for a job everyday. This shows how rare work was, and how this made it even harder for people to survive the depression with minimal work. Many days men did not have work to do, and they were left with the uncertainty that they would be able to put food on the table for their kids, or if they could pay their heating bill during the winter. This representation stayed true to the struggles of the Great Depression, and showed it in a way that made the audience feel with the main character.
Another minor tweak Howard made to the story involved Braddock’s family. Although these changes were almost unaffected towards the Great Depression, it just further made the audience more involved in Braddock’s family. Braddock’s children in the movie were all born by the time of the mid 1930’s but in reality this was not true. By changing the children’s ages, or birthdates, it allows the audience to begin to feel for the children. The kids were still very young in the movie, and it makes it even harsher for the children to struggle at such a young age. The thought of having three struggling children makes the idea of the Great Depression even more horrific and cruel, this idea always makes the audience more empathetic for the children. This representation of children suffering might not have been completely true to Braddock’s family, but it was certainly true of the Great Depression as a whole. Thousands of children were affected because of the Great Depression, whether it was losing their parents, starving, or sleeping in the streets. This exaggeration in the movie furthers the ideas of the Great Depression.
The biggest change in the movie that actually affected people involved, was the representation of Max Baer. In the movie Baer is depicted as a cruel, merciless fighter. He is almost shown as a murderer to the two boxers that were killed due to his right hand. The depiction of Baer was emphasized so that the audience would not empathize with him, rather Braddock. If Howard had truly portrayed Baer as a good guy that was involved in a violent sport, the audience would not be able to blame, or to name a antagonist in the plot. This could confuse the audience, and draw away from Howard’s intentions for the movie.
Overall the changes that Howard made mostly stayed true to the Great Depression facts,
with the exception of Baer’s character. All of the changes were made so that the audience’s focus
would be centered around Braddock’s character and life. The exaggerations and emphasizes only
made the story a more entertaining and emotional storyline, the feeling that the movie gave of the
Great Depression was still insightful and allowed the viewer to see, hear, and feel what it was like
during that time period.
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