Best Boxing Film
 

There's been some great ones but for me it comes down to 3 contenders. Id like to be edgey and "hip" and name some lesser known titesbut honestly i think the top 3 are so strong its hard to argue for anything else. I guess im making this thread to see if anyone has a hot take out there.

Anyways my top 3:

3. Million Dollar Baby (2004)

I can still remember how angry i was when Jamie Foxx won best actor for Ray over Eastwood. Sure Eastwood already has his trophy but id wager this is his 2nd best performance only behind Unforgiven (which he won Best Actor for.)

Still and amazing film. 4 academy awards. Bet picture, best actress, best suporting actor (Freeman) and best director. And it deserved every single one. A truly special picture that holds up over countless viewings and has all the depth you could want at every level of inspection.

2. Rocky (1976)

Probably for many this is no.1. You'd be hard to dispute it. The story of Stalone writing this deserves all the legacy this film has garnered in of itself. It won best picture, editing and director and was robbed of best original screenplay. It was nominated for basically everything imaginable.

The film is woven into Americana. If legacy is the sole metric these things are decided on Rocky is THE boxing picture. Absolutely has stood the test of time.

1. Raging Bull (1980)

This is one of my favorite films. I think its Scorsese's best work. This stands as the 2nd most perplexing defeat in Oscar history to me. Its nominated for basically everthing and somehow loses best picture. It loses best director. It doesnt even get nominated for best adapted screenplay. Most shamefully is loses cinematography...fucking how... Rightfully it takes best actor and editing.

The film is as masterpiece. The boxing itself is sharp and violent. The character study is complex and enthralling. The black and white allows it to completely timeless. The acting is as good as it ever gets. Its qualify it as a perfect picture. I couldn't criticize it if you paid me.

So here sits a top 3 that to me feels completely inevitable. Maybe a person puts Rocky at the top but are there any boxing films that podium other than these?

I heard some good things about some other boxing movie.... thought it was maybe "Warrior", but that seems to be about MMA not boxing.... will try to remember what it was...

I like Rocky II more than the original Rocky.

i think thats a pretty interesting take. Maybe not a hot take per se but still a good one. What made it pop for you? The ending maybe?

Maybe The Fighter? Mark Wahlberg?

I will say Rocky is a serious picture. The first 2 rocky films are genuine film. The rest are action movies. But rocky 2 was very much autobiographical like the 1st. Between the 2 films people were saying "is Stalone a fluke?" And he took the words of the critics of the day and harnessed that into the script. Its more cliché in my opinion as a whole but its not 80s action schlock like they'd go on to be later in the series.

The first one, sure he comes up from nothing as the underdog challenger to go the distance.... classic story

But the second one has him trying to move on and do other things only to realize he's not good at anything else and not smart enough for anything but fighting and that "moves me" for some reason. Apollo's story is good too... all around just a very believable and good continuation from the base that the first movie made.

Also, the second movie doesn't have the super uncomfortable scene where Rocky won't let Adrian out of his apartment.

That could be the one! I haven't seen it in any case.

more than a fair take. So in your tastes is rocky 2 the best boxing picture youve ever seen?

I suppose. Never seen Raging Bull. I have seen Million Dollar Baby but remember zero about it other than how it ends.

So really the only other boxing movies I've seen are the Rocky/Creed series

To say id recommend Raging Bull is an understatement. Id say its Deniro, Pesci and Scorsese's best works.

I was an extra on the set of the film "Cinderella Man", got directed by Ron Howard himself (via him directing the mass crowd in Maple Leaf Gardens, not @ me directly).....

I should actually watch the movie one day....

And id praise Million Dollar Baby endlessly too. Might go as far to say its a top 10 or this century.

Its a really good flick. For real. You were in a fine movie. Wouldnt put it anywhere near these films, but you did good :lol:

I think the problem with Cinderella Man is it was too close to MDB. You cant just bounce from and all time genre great into a "pretty good" and get a ton of praise.

Another compliment to rocky 2 is at a time when sequels were just assumed to be cash grabs rocky 2 came out as an authentic story on its own merit.

"Southpaw" could be the movie I was thinking of maybe... Jake Gyllenhaal being in a boxing movie that I heard was good sounds familiar....

I liked it. He's wildly as an actor.

Warrior is a good MMA movie which is an offshoot of boxing. Same tropes.

But yeah, Raging Bull is an easy number one. Watched in on shrooms one night. That was something.

I think his best work is Nightcrawler. It got snubbed pretty hard at the oscars. Only was nominated for original screenplay. It was a tough year though. Birdman (rightfully) dominated and Whiplash was there too.

Still Gyllenhaal put in a ton of work for Southpaw. He was jacked. Put a lot of time in the ring to move properly. Definitely an underrated boxing flick.

Thats a ballsy trip with how intense some of the scenes get. Especially the out of the ring scenes.

The one thing that stood out was LaMatta's (sp) hair-trigger temper. We were basically just laughing by the end at how quick he was to anger over absolutely nothing.

I'd seen the movie before, though, and was obviously aware that his anger was a running theme. The shrooms just gave it a more comic effect for some reason.

The best part is just how true that is and that its derived from his own account in his autobiography. Its completely LaMotta saying "yeah i was fucking CRAZY." Its outrageous.

Shrooms do tend to lean toward the giggles

I remember really liking Gladiator when I was a kid. But I haven't watched it since. Guessing its actually shit since no one ever talks about it.

Rocky 4 due to robot

Rocky 4 due to the greatest phrase that I live my life by.

Ive only seen the Ridley Scott remake :shifty:

Cinderella Man is a good choice.

I actually really can’t stand Raging Bull. It’s just so grim and joyless, and De Niro sounds like a pig when he eats.

The best boxing films I have ever seen are:

Somebody Up There Likes Me - Paul Newman plays Rocky Graziano and it’s possibly his best early film, if memory serves it’s based around his life story leading up to the Tony Zale fights but it has been about fifteen years since I saw it.

The Boxer - Daniel Day Lewis during his “The Troubles” period, it’s mostly about the political situation in Northern Ireland but the boxing aspects are dealt with incredibly well. It’s a fantastic film and a real sleeper for anybody who only knows the big DDL films.

Million Dollar Baby - If the title doesn’t make you cry when that film ends, you are a heartless piece of shit. The boxing itself is all excellently put together but it’s the other side of that film that makes the title so fucked up.

Rocky - Obviously

“The Fighter” would be included if it had included the Gatti fights, but it didn’t and that is unforgivable.


I won’t include documentaries besides this one:

Assault In The Ring - The story of Louis Resto vs Billy Collins, tampered gloves, plaster cast handwraps and a lifetime ban from boxing. This story unfolds in front of the camera and it blew my tits off.
I could list fifty of these but this one actually told me a lot about the way these guys are made.

Shoulda watched Raging Bull on shrooms, Seanny.

If I was taking Shrooms ever again I’d need real comfort and if comfort is a boxing film it has to be Rocky 3.
Rocky 3 is more enjoyable than every film in this thread and by a long way too. Every boxer should have a frumpy autistic wife and an infuriated centenarian as a manager.

Sage Stallone dying and coming back as Milo Ventimiglia was weird. Stallone recast his dead son just so he could give himself a chance to be Rocky one more time when he was sixty odd. Then instead of killing the franchise dead it morphed into Creed. Now he can’t even get in his own story anymore.

Now compare that to what he put Chuck Wepner through and the irony is off the charts. It’s essentially the exact same scenario.

The Great White Hype, what a cast! It is a classic mid 90's goofball sports film before Will Ferrell cornered that market.

Cinderella Man is my favorite Russell Crowe movie, that would be a runner up for me.

Does Snatch count as a boxing movie

Does Jackass The Movie count as a boxing movie

Is Butterbean ok

close enough.

I've gone back and forth on Snatch over the years. Obviously I loved it as a child, then grew out of it, but came full circle to realize it's great.

Snake Eyes had a boxing match as the plot device.
Ocean's 11 was all about a heist during a big fight.
A Christmas Story had Ralphie beat the piss out of Skut Farkas

Put them on the board!