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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.
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