Best boxing movie?

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I searched and couldn't find anything, so forgive me if this has been done before. But what do you think is the best boxing movie, or which one is your favorite?

Personally, my favorite is still The Great White Hype. It's hilarious and pretty accurate.

And did anyone ever watch the movie Undefeated with John Leguizamo? If was an HBO movie about 10 years ago or so. I thought it was pretty good.
 


I liked the hammer for the humor and because it has the most realistic boxing of any movie I've seen
 
I completely forgot about The Hammer. It was pretty good. I would never say it was the best though.
 
Soda was my fav punch out dude, "i drink to prepare for a fight, tonight im very prepared!" lol

probably not a popular choice and theres probably others I liked better, but I always thought Play it to the Bone was unique in its perspective
 
that looks pretty good, i think i saw it in a pawn shop the other day but I didn't know it was a boxing movie.
 
No one mentioned The Fighter? you silly people
 
I thought Diggstown looked corny (just by seeing the cover and the little blurb). I am going to have to check it out now.
 
also, how about the old movies, golden boy, and requiem for a heavyweight, the joe louis story wasn't half bad either, in requiem for a heavyweight and the harder they fall, i forget which one of the last two but the view of the business end of boxing seemed more advanced for the time, making a movie where the fighters get whored out wasn't exactly a desirable theme in a tougher america. At the end, they panned past a bunch of old palookas, broken nosed and scarred.
 
and also in the joe louis story, the real life boxer coley wallace was excellent as Joe, had obviously studied the great man as a fighter and was likable and charming as joe. He also, incidentally, beat Marciano in the ammies, might have been the last guy to do so. He wasn't very successful as a pro though.
 
The first Rocky was a great film. People forget that because the sequels were completely different in tone. They turned into summer-blockbuster type movies. But the first one was basically an indie film that won best picture.

Word, the Rocky series got super ridiculous but the first one is 100% legit.

As much as I love those films though, the actual boxing scenes are the worst part of all of them. :icon_lol:
 
Classic: Raging Bull




Somewhat Recent: The Fighter
 
Word, the Rocky series got super ridiculous but the first one is 100% legit.

As much as I love those films though, the actual boxing scenes are the worst part of all of them. :icon_lol:

I like most of the rocky's but there is a difference, the first one was truly great, the others are good and cheesy for the most part. the second one was similar to the first but after that, stallone had gone hollywood and the ego spilled over into the character who started speaking better, looking like a bodybuilder instead of a fighter and combing his hair. The first ones were truer, i have a double disk version where the still common man stallone was told by the director to stop eating so much ice cream because he was too fat and that the film would be around forever.
 
The first Rocky was a great film. People forget that because the sequels were completely different in tone. They turned into summer-blockbuster type movies. But the first one was basically an indie film that won best picture.
 
I like most of the rocky's but there is a difference, the first one was truly great, the others are good and cheesy for the most part. the second one was similar to the first but after that, stallone had gone hollywood and the ego spilled over into the character who started speaking better, looking like a bodybuilder instead of a fighter and combing his hair. The first ones were truer, i have a double disk version where the still common man stallone was told by the director to stop eating so much ice cream because he was too fat and that the film would be around forever.

Yeah, the first in in my Top 10 Movies of All Time. Loved Rocky Balboa too.

Rocky 2 has the soap opera melodrama of Adrian's coma but I agree with you for the most part it isn't as cheese-laden as they got in 3 and 4. I barely remember 5, I think I blocked it out. :icon_lol:

I'm amped as fuck for Creed to come out in a couple of weeks too. Even as a huge Star Wars fan I can imagine Creed might end up my favourite film of 2015 if they nail it.

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Classic: Raging Bull




Somewhat Recent: The Fighter

I did like the fighter. But really only because it was about Mickey Ward. And why the fuck did they end the movie before his fights with Gatti? That's like doing a movie about Michaelangelo and leaving out the part where he paints the Sistine Chapel.






Or the part where he hits Master Shredder with his nunchucks.
 
Yeah, the first in in my Top 10 Movies of All Time. Loved Rocky Balboa too.

Rocky 2 has the soap opera melodrama of Adrian's coma but I agree with you for the most part it isn't as cheese-laden as they got in 3 and 4. I barely remember 5, I think I blocked it out. :icon_lol:

I'm amped as fuck for Creed to come out in a couple of weeks too. Even as a huge Star Wars fan I can imagine Creed might end up my favourite film of 2015 if they nail it.

[YT]Uv554B7YHk4[/YT]

stallone has always had a lot of Rocky in him, that is underdog, a very live underdog. He can surprise. Rocky 4 and 5 were ok for what they were but they weren't serious films, and Balboa got back to what he was even though it was beyond ridiculous in premise, it was maybe the best at catching the spirit of the first Rocky, the atmosphere. So of course I'll watch Creed. Sly is an interesting dude, you watch the first interviews of him and he is so humble when he was the hollywood outsider, since then, he's turned into an egomaniac who still has those moments when he shows his sensitivity and thoughtfulness about things. I thought his comeback with the rambo,balboa and the undesirables or whatever series that was shows just how you can never count out a talent like that. Fucking ridiculous how he loads up on those roids though, surprised he can live through that shit.
 
The first Rocky was a great film. People forget that because the sequels were completely different in tone. They turned into summer-blockbuster type movies. But the first one was basically an indie film that won best picture.

I liked the Rocky films as a kid (including my at the time very unpopular opinion that Rocky V was the best, over everybody else's Rocky IV) but rewatching them as an adult there is a consistent anti-boxing tone throughout them that I don't really like.

Gladiator with Cuba Gooding Jr is a pretty good boxing film. Somebody up There Likes Me is a good watch although a little slow in places, but if you enjoyed Rocky you'd probably enjoy that one. Undefeated was pretty cool.

Raging Bull is probably my all time favorite, but do bear in mind that LaMotta happens to be my all time favorite fighter as well so that may have some influence on my opinion lol.
 
Saw this on Fat Dan's twitter so thought this would be a good place to post it. Haven't seen this movie in a looong time, so ridiculous, lol.

 
Great White Hype

This is underrated. It was definitely made by boxing fans.

If I remember correctly Killer's Kiss (1955) had good boxing action, and it's good overall.

The Harder They Fall (1956): exaggerated Carnera story with an old Bogart.

Both versions of Requiem for a Heavyweight (the original live on TV version might be better than the more famous remake)

Fat City (1972): John Huston film with a young Jeff Bridges playing a journeyman.

Hard Times (1975): has some of my favorite fights scenes, even if it's not technically boxing.

Diggstown is good as already mentioned.
 
stallone's a piece of work, capitalizing on the vietnam war and the cold war (when it was just about totally exhausted) when he didn't seem to be about any of that stuff as a man, he avoided vietnam in real life and then he place rambo 4 in afghanistan and dedicated the film to them in the credits. Intelligent, creative cat just a little bit opportunistic and insincere. Or at least that's how you have to look at it, he's taking the road of the politician more than the artist, pandering to one thing one day, another the next. Anyway, i always thought he had the talent not to do that, it's mentally lazy, a term he's used before.
 
Diggstown is pretty overrated imo.

Hmm...

Rocky 1(all of them in their own right)
The Hurricane
Gladiator
The Fighter
Raging Bull
Cinderella Man (One of my favs)
Million Dollar baby
Soutpaw

Those are pretty good. Creed and Hands Of Stone are coming soon to the theaters as well, looking forward to those two.
 
Best docs

Unforgivable: The Jack Johnson story - that guy was the real deal. Nothing like him before or since. I could watch this once a month

When we were Kings - pretty decent

Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story - pretty engaging.

Assault in the Ring - really good

Movies -

Million Dollar Baby - best ever.

Rocky - Stallone wrote and directed and stared in this gem. I loved the idea of a guy just wanting to show people he could go the distance

The Great White Hope - the absurdity of boxing on display

Honorable mention

The Hammer - I enjoyed this movie more than I expected
 
Raging Bull all day.

i got no argument with that, i recall when i was a kid and that movie came out, much was made of the makeup work, i have to say, it doesn't look that impressive today, overdone and i think the extra blood does show the maker's scrorcese's true disdain for the sport. Still, great movie, great drama, great performances, just about everything is great and lots of unintentional(or maybe intentional) humor from pesci and deniro. Also, one other interesting fact, the real lamotta took issue with all the cussing, isn't that something?
 
Not sure why isn't mentioned as the top boxing movie , maybe because of its mainstream success and great actor selection
But real steal is arguably the all time best boxing movie worldwide
 
Only Ali could do those types of things. Eddie Futch said that he went to look at the young Clay in the early sixties to see if he could back his talk up. He wasn't too impressed but did see the speed and more importantly, the heart which he became known for. He said he was sparring with guys who could hurt you and he had his characteristic hands down to his hips. Ali also was kindhearted and rarely showed his mean streak in sparring, this gave Holmes the impression that he was better than ali in 75 and he told a reporter "I'm the real champ, Ali just has the belt". Well, Ali's people told him about it and Ali put a whupping on Holmes that he never forgot. I also read that Ali beat on his younger brother, Rahman, to try and discourage him from going further in pro boxing. Outside of that, Ali was rarely a mean guy and then too, his laziness was getting to him as he got older and he just didn't want to exert himself (common with all athletes).

This was a good read. You know a lot about Ali, huh? I remember you telling another story about how he was young and was sparring with the same guy who ko'd him the day before, something like that. Even when he was young he had brass balls. Kind of dumb too, i guess, but then again guys didn't know how dangerous that was compared to nowadays. Was that a normal thing to do back in the day, like just get ko'd and spar again the next day?
 
Not sure why isn't mentioned as the top boxing movie , maybe because of its mainstream success and great actor selection
But real steal is arguably the all time best boxing movie worldwide

Are you fucking with me?
 
This was a good read. You know a lot about Ali, huh? I remember you telling another story about how he was young and was sparring with the same guy who ko'd him the day before, something like that. Even when he was young he had brass balls. Kind of dumb too, i guess, but then again guys didn't know how dangerous that was compared to nowadays. Was that a normal thing to do back in the day, like just get ko'd and spar again the next day?

oh, people always knew about brain damage but they do what people always do when they do something dangerous, the rationalize and dismiss it. Abe Simon wrote a great article in the 40's or 50's about the effects of getting punched, he was a challenger of Joe Jouis, they actually had the symptoms pretty figured out even way back then. I think also that america has gotten softer (good in some ways bad in others) and so it's harder to exploit men in the same way that was very common in the early part of the last century. I wouldn't doubt that going right back to sparring was unusual at that time, fighting only weeks after brutal fights was normal before the Paret fight. Truth is, if you're any kind of fighter, you don't want nothing to do with vulnerability, i've been knocked down, never out, but I jumped right back up and continued until the other guy wanted to stop. It's not the job of a fighter, never was to decide when and how to lighten up, it's the trainer's job. Ali was one of a kind, Cooper and Frazier hit him as well as a man can be hit, later on shavers did too, kind of punches that would kill a civilian and Ali never stayed on the canvas for more than 3-4 seconds.
 
I did like the fighter. But really only because it was about Mickey Ward. And why the fuck did they end the movie before his fights with Gatti? That's like doing a movie about Michaelangelo and leaving out the part where he paints the Sistine Chapel.






Or the part where he hits Master Shredder with his nunchucks.


IMO liked it mostly because of his brother Dicky, thought that was the most interesting story and performance in there (which there was plenty of). The regular main story was okay but Dickey/Bale stole the show deservedly. Blue collar working slum Amy Adams was also nice to have in there.


I think it really fell apart after Casey Jones when they started adding pointless characters like Manta Ray in a giant push just to sell more toys
 
oh, people always knew about brain damage but they do what people always do when they do something dangerous, the rationalize and dismiss it. Abe Simon wrote a great article in the 40's or 50's about the effects of getting punched, he was a challenger of Joe Jouis, they actually had the symptoms pretty figured out even way back then. I think also that america has gotten softer (good in some ways bad in others) and so it's harder to exploit men in the same way that was very common in the early part of the last century. I wouldn't doubt that going right back to sparring was unusual at that time, fighting only weeks after brutal fights was normal before the Paret fight. Truth is, if you're any kind of fighter, you don't want nothing to do with vulnerability, i've been knocked down, never out, but I jumped right back up and continued until the other guy wanted to stop. It's not the job of a fighter, never was to decide when and how to lighten up, it's the trainer's job. Ali was one of a kind, Cooper and Frazier hit him as well as a man can be hit, later on shavers did too, kind of punches that would kill a civilian and Ali never stayed on the canvas for more than 3-4 seconds.

Yeah I was talking to Seano awhile back and he was telling me how often Paret fought throughout his career and how that probably caused alot of brain damage on him before that last Griffith fight. So I went and looked at his boxrec, guy was frequently fighting every month or two, it's crazy to think about guys nowadays doing that but that's just the way it was for guys back in the back in the day.

And just to add an even crazier stat, I just randomly went back to look this up: Greb fought 25 times in 1925, lol, craziness. Basically two fights a month in one year. I know a lot of the opponents weren't very good but that's a ton of time in the ring.
 
Not sure why isn't mentioned as the top boxing movie , maybe because of its mainstream success and great actor selection
But real steal is arguably the all time best boxing movie worldwide


"OH NO, you did NOT just spit your JUICE in Zeus' FACE!"



I was contemplating having that as my sig for a while, then I thought better of it.
 
I searched and couldn't find anything, so forgive me if this has been done before. But what do you think is the best boxing movie, or which one is your favorite?

Personally, my favorite is still The Great White Hype. It's hilarious and pretty accurate.

And did anyone ever watch the movie Undefeated with John Leguizamo? If was an HBO movie about 10 years ago or so. I thought it was pretty good.

Undefeated is pretty badass.

I think the best boxing movie has to be rocky 4. Encapsulates everything cool.

On just a great boxing movie with quality I think Cinderella man is head n shoulders above the rest
 
i saw diggstown when it came out, can't remember much of it at all, that's not a good sign for a movie in my mind.
 
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