Irish Boxing Film – Strength and Honour
Jul 25th
Strength and Honour is a boxing film that was shot in Cork, Ireland. Filming took place in the city and county including Kinsale, Rochestown, Passage West and the un-opened maternity ward of the Cork University Hospital as well as the new airport.
The film had its market premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007, and won the “Best Picture” and “Best Actor” awards at the Boston Film Festival.[1]
It was released on the 20th of November 2007 in Ireland and was tested on a limited capacity in the United States on the 7th of December 2007.
Plot
Strength and Honour tells the story of an Irish-American boxer, Sean Kelleher (Michael Madsen), who accidentally kills his friend in the ring and promises his wife that he will never box again. However, years later, when he discovers that his only son is dying of the same hereditary heart disorder which has taken his wife, he is forced to break his promise in order to raise the substantial funds needed for the surgery that could save his son’s life.
Strength and Honour is a story of hope and love, sacrifice and devotion, set against the violent underground world of bare-knuckle boxing.
Strength and Honour also had official selections from film festivals all across the globe, including selection for some of the world’s most prestigious non-competitive festivals such as Cairo, Cambridge, Portugal, Moscow, Rome, Seville and Shanghai. A great honour was the Film’s selection by the Beijing Olympics Committee for their Sports Film Screening Week in 2008.
In 2009, the Film was selected to screen at the Writers Guild of America and received a review in the Los Angeles Times that described it as ‘another Slumdog Millionaire’. Later the same year, Michael Madsen and Mark Mahon appeared on the TODAY show in New York, as there was such strong word of mouth about the Film.
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The Longest Yard is a 1974
May 17th
The Longest Yard is a 1974 American comedy sports-drama film about inmates at a prison who play American football against their guards. Burt Reynolds portrayed Paul “Wrecking” Crewe in the original, and the coach Nate Scarborough in the 2005 remake. The 1974 original was also the basis for the 2001 movie Mean Machine (a shortened version of the title used for the original’s UK release), starring Vinnie Jones as Danny Meehan, based on the character of Paul Crewe, and featuring association football instead of American football. Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke appeared in the 1974 version as did the country legend George Jones.
Plot
The protagonist is Paul “Wrecking” Crewe (Burt Reynolds), former star pro football quarterback living with his wealthy girlfriend (Anitra Ford) in Palm Beach, Florida. After a fight with her, he gets drunk and “steals” her expensive Citroën SM automobile. He is surprised when a fleet of police cars follow him. Briefly evading them, he exits the vehicle and sends it off a dock into the bay. He is caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Crewe has difficulty getting along with the guards as well as with his fellow inmates. The convicts despise him because he was dismissed from the National Football League for point shaving. As his only friend, an inmate nicknamed Caretaker (James Hampton) put it, “Most of these boys have nothin’, never had anything to start with. But you, you had it all. You could have robbed banks, sold dope or stole your grandma’s pension checks and none of us would have minded. But shaving points off of a football game, man, that’s un-American!” (a similar line in the 2005 remake is spoken by the same character, this time played by Chris Rock). Moreover, the sadistic, power-hungry warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert), a football fanatic who manages a semi-pro team made up of the prison’s guards (most of whom are big and fast enough to play professional football), wants Crewe to help coach the team. Responding to pressure from the guard’s leader and coach, Captain Wilhelm Knauer (Ed Lauter), Crewe refuses. He is harassed by the guards and given backbreaking work as punishment. Crewe relents and agrees to form a prisoner team to play the guards’ team in an exhibition “tune-up” game. Crewe finds that most of the inmates have no football experience, and he has no idea if they have enough talent to take on the guards. Adding to Crewe’s problems, the black inmates refuse to play for they “no longer play ball for the Honkie’s amusement,” and like the other inmates are distrustful of Crewe’s point shaving history.
Crewe eventually builds trust amongst key members of the prison community. Promising them that they can inflict excessive injuries on their opponents, he manages to form a team capable of playing the guards. The team includes the most dangerous and violent prisoners. Among the most impressive are Samson (Richard Kiel), a seven foot tall former professional weightlifter, and Connie Shokner (Robert Tessier), a fearsome serial killer and martial arts expert. With the help of the clever Caretaker, veteran former professional player Nate Scarborough (Michael Conrad), “Granny” Granville (Harry Caesar), long-term prisoner Pop (John Steadman) — who remains in prison far past his original sentence for having struck Warden Hazen when the warden was just a rookie guard — and the warden’s amorous secretary (Bernadette Peters), Crewe molds the prisoners into a smoothly working football team which comes to be named the “Mean Machine”.
Before the game, a jealous homosexual arsonist named Unger (Charles Tyner) schemes to kill Crewe by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. (Unger was about to return to general population after Crewe turned him in to the warden for informing on the prisoners’ team during practices.) Caretaker is killed in the blaze in Crewe’s cell after he goes there to retrieve X-rays for Crewe, who is sitting in Caretaker’s cell with Nate.
As the game starts, the “Mean Machine” does well, and at halftime the game is close, with the guards leading, 15-13. Hazen is angry that the prisoners have gained self-respect and a sense of accomplishment, and that they are in a good position to win the game. Hazen has always believed he must rule by fear, through brutality and intimidation. He corners Crewe in the locker room and berates him for trying to actually win the game. He tells Crewe that he has Unger in custody and that Unger will testify that Crewe was an accessory to Caretaker’s murder, keeping Crewe in his prison until he’s “old and gray,” unless Crewe loses the game to the guards by at least 21 points. Crewe reluctantly and angrily agrees, but obtains a promise from Hazen that if he cooperates and throws the game as ordered, the prisoners will not be harmed. However, Hazen immediately breaks this promise, telling Captain Knauer to order his players to “inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as humanly possible” as soon as they are ahead by 21 points. Crewe quickly makes several deliberate mistakes putting the “Mean Machine” down by more than three touchdowns, 35-13, then takes himself out of the game. With the prisoners demoralized, the guards as ordered take out their anger on the prisoners, causing several injuries.
At this point, a stunned Crewe asks Pop if it had been worth it — trading the opportunity to strike the warden in exchange for a life sentence. Pop states that, for himself at least, it was worth it, and Crewe goes back into the game with a renewed sense of purpose. At first, the prisoners are angry with Crewe and provide him with no protection or cooperation. He quickly convinces them of his change of mind, and with the help of two quick touchdowns followed by a drop kick field goal, soon gets the “Mean Machine” back into the game. Nate, despite his bad knee, goes into the game to score one of the touchdowns, and, after doing so, is immediately cut down at the knees by guard Bogdanski (Ray Nitschke), crippling him. However, by this time the prisoners have rallied and their spirit cannot be broken. They have also turned the tables on the guards in terms of the violence, including a clothesline from Samson that apparently breaks a guard’s neck, and Crewe deliberately and repeatedly throws the ball as hard as possible at Bogdanski’s genitals.
Driving downfield for the game-winning score, a running play up the middle is stuffed and Crewe calls the team’s final timeout with seven seconds remaining in the game and the prisoners down 35-30 with the ball on the guards’ one-yard line – the “longest yard” of the title. Crewe walks off the field to the sideline and his teammates begin to follow. Crewe gathers them together for a last moment of reflection and steeling of their resolve and purpose. “We’ve come too far together to stop now. For Granny. For Nate. For Caretaker. Let’s do it!,” and the Mean Machine offense storms back onto the field for the game’s final play. In a long slow-motion sequence, Crewe takes the final snap and bootlegs to his outside right, but sensing the defense may have it covered before he can score, he reverses direction, then builds up a full head of steam and cuts in and attempts to hurdle several defenders into the end zone. The first hit helps propel Crewe up and over the defenders and over the goal line into the end zone where they all crash down as Crewe scores the winning touchdown with no time left, the “Mean Machine” winning, 36-35.
As the prisoners and the crowd celebrate, Warden Hazen is furious. Crewe walks across the field in what appears to be an attempt to mingle with the crowd and escape. Hazen sees this and orders Knauer to shoot Crewe. Knauer calls out to Crewe several times as Hazen barks for him to shoot. At the last moment, Crewe picks up the game ball and walks back towards Hazen. Crewe then hands the ball to Hazen, telling him, “Stick this in your trophy case.”
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Cinderella Man
Apr 16th
James J. Braddock is a hard-nosed, Irish-American boxer from New Jersey, formerly a light heavyweight contender, who is forced to give up boxing after breaking his hand in the ring. This is a relief and an upset to his wife, Mae, who cannot bring herself to watch the violence of his chosen profession, and yet knows without him boxing they’ll have no good income.
As the United States enters the Great Depression, Braddock does manual labor to support his family even after badly breaking his hand. Unfortunately, he can not get work every day. Thanks to a last-minute cancellation by another boxer, Braddock’s longtime manager Joe Gould offers him a chance to fill in for just this one night and make a little money. The fight is against the number two contender in the world and Braddock is seen as little more than a convenient punching bag.
Braddock stuns the boxing experts and fans with a third-round knockout of his formidable opponent. He believes that because his hand is now healed, he is fit to fight. Against his wife’s wishes, Braddock takes up Gould’s offer to return to the ring.
Mae resents this attempt by Gould to profit off her husband’s dangerous livelihood until she discovers that Gould and his wife also have been devastated by hard times.
With a shot at heavyweight champion Max Baer a possibility, Braddock continues to win. Out of a sense of pride, he uses a portion of his prize money to pay back money to the government given to him while unemployed. His rags-to-riches story gets out, the sportswriter Damon Runyon dubs him “The Cinderella Man” and before long Braddock comes to represent the hopes and aspirations of the American public coping with the Depression.
A title fight comes his way. Braddock is a 10-to-1 underdog. Mae is terrified because Baer, the champ, is a vicious man who reportedly has killed at least two men in the ring. He is so destructive that the fight’s promoter, Johnson, forces both Braddock and Gould to watch a film of Baer in action, just so he can maintain later that he warned them what Braddock was up against.
Braddock demonstrates no fear. The arrogant Baer attempts to intimidate him, even taunting Mae in public that her man might not survive. When he says this, she becomes so angry, she throws a drink at him. She cannot bring herself to attend the fight at Madison Square Garden Bowl or even to listen to it on the radio.
On June 13, 1935, in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, Braddock defeats the seemingly invincible Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world.
Reaction
Although the movie received very good reviews from most critics and audiences, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%, it fared relatively poorly at the box office during its first several weeks. During its North American theatrical run, the movie (which cost $88 million) had earned only approximately $60 million.
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese
Mar 19th
Beginning in 1964, where an older and fatter Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) practices his stand-up comic routine, a flashback shifts to his boxing career in 1941 against his opponent, Jimmy Reeves, in the infamous Cleveland bout. Losing the fight by a fixed result causes a fight to break out at the end of the match. His brother Joey LaMotta (Joe Pesci) is not only a sparring partner to him but also responsible for organizing his fights. Joey discusses a potential shot for the title with one of his Mafia connections, Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent), on the way to his brother’s house in their neighborhood in the Bronx. When they are finally settled in the house, Jake admits that he does not have much faith in his own abilities.
Accompanied by his brother to the local open-air swimming pool, a restless Jake spots a 15-year-old girl named Vickie at the edge of the pool (Cathy Moriarty). Although he has to be reminded by his brother he is already married, the opportunity to invite her out for the day very soon comes true when Joey gives in. Jake has two fights with Sugar Ray Robinson, set two years apart, and Jake loses the second when the judges rule in favor of Sugar Ray because he was leaving the sport temporarily for conscription in the US ARMY. This does not deter Jake from winning six straight fights, but as his fears grow about his wife, Vickie, having feelings for other men, particularly Tony Janiro, the opponent for his forthcoming fight, he is keen enough to show off his sexual jealousy when he beats him in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como (Nicholas Colasanto) and Vickie. The recent triumph over Janiro is touted as a major boost for the belt as Joey discusses this with journalists, though Joey is briefly distracted by seeing Vickie approach a table with Salvy and his crew. Joey has a word with Vickie, who says she is giving up on his brother. Blaming Salvy, Joey viciously attacks him in a fight that spills outside of the club. When Tommy Como hears that the two of them rose fists in a public place, he orders them to apologize and tells Joey that he means business. At the swimming pool, Joey tells Jake that if he really wants a shot, he will have to take a dive first. In the fight against Billy Fox, Jake does not even bother to put up a fight. Jake is suspended from the board on suspicion of throwing the fight, though he realizes the error of his judgment when it is too late. This does little to harm his career, when he finally wins the title against Marcel Cerdan at the open air Briggs Stadium.
Three years pass and Jake asks his brother if he fought with Salvy at the Copca because of Vickie. Jake then asks if Joey had an affair with his wife. Joey refuses to answer and decides to leave. Jake decides to find the truth for himself, interrogating his wife about the affair when she sarcastically states that she had sex with the entire neighborhood (including his brother, Salvy, and Tommy Como) and “sucked his brothers cock” after he knocks down the bathroom door where his wife is briefly hiding from him. Angrily walking straight towards Joey’s house while Vicki tries to stop him. Jake enters Joey’s house and brutally assualts him in front of Vicki and Joey’s wife and children. Defending his championship belt against Laurent Dauthuille, he makes a call to his brother after the fight, but when Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end, Jake says nothing. This drags Jake down to when he eventually loses to Sugar Ray Robinson on their final ( very violent) encounter, letting Sugar Ray land several hard blows on him as punishment for what he did.
A couple of years later, in the middle of a photo shoot, Jake LaMotta surrounded by his wife and children, tells the journalists he is officially retired and that he has bought a new property. After staying out all night at his new nightclub in Miami, Vickie tells him she wants a divorce (which she has been planning since his retirement). Arrested for introducing under-age girls (posing as 21-year-olds) to men, he serves a jail sentence after failing to raise the bribe money by taking the jewels out of his championship belt instead of selling the belt itself. In his jail cell, Jake brutally pounds the walls whilst sorrowfully questioning his misfortune, as he sits alone crying in despair. Returning to New York City, he meets up with his estranged brother Joey in a parking lot where they share a nervous hug. Going back to the beginning sequence, Jake refers to the “I coulda’ have been a contender” scene from On the Waterfront complaining that his brother should have been there for him but is also keen enough to give himself some slack. Darting across the room at the information of the crowded auditorium by the stage hand, the camera remains pivoted on the mirror as LaMotta chants ‘I’m the boss’ whilst shadow boxing. The film ends on an ambiguous note with a biblical quote: “All I know is this: Once I was blind, and now I can see” — symbolizing that even men like LaMotta can be redeemed
Will Smith Plays Boxer Muhammad Ali
Mar 10th
Ali is a 2001 American biographical film directed by Michael Mann. The film tells the story of boxing icon Muhammad Ali (Will Smith) from 1964 to 1974 featuring his capture of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston (Michael Bentt), his conversion to Islam, criticism of the Vietnam War, banishment from boxing, his return to fight Joe Frazier in 1971, and, lastly, his reclaiming the title from George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle fight of 1974.
The movie also discusses the great social and political upheaval in the United States following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ali opened on December 25, 2001 and grossed a total of $14.7 million in 2,446 theaters on its opening weekend. The film went on to gross a total of $87.7 million worldwide. The film holds a 68% “fresh” rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The film had generally favorable reviews with the acting being well received by critics in general. Roger Ebert derided the film with two stars in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, and mentioned, “it lacks much of the flash, fire and humor of Muhammad Ali and is shot more in the tone of a eulogy than a celebration” In Variety magazine, Todd McCarthy wrote, “The director’s visual and aural dapplings are strikingly effective at their best, but over the long haul don’t represent a satisfactory alternative to in-depth dramatic scenes; one longs, for example, for even one sequence in which Ali and Dundee discuss boxing strategy or assess an opponent”, but did have praise for the performances: “The cast is outstanding, from Smith, who carries the picture with consummate skill, and Voight, who is unrecognizable under all the makeup but nails Cosell’s distinctive vocal cadences”. USA Today gave the film two and half stars out of four and claimed that, “for many Ali fans, the movie may be good enough, but some perspective is in order. The documentaries A.K.A. Cassius Clay and the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings cover a lot of the same ground and are consistently more engaging”.
In the New York Times, Elvis Mitchell proclaimed Ali to be a “breakthrough” film for Mann, that it was his “first movie with feeling” and that “his overwhelming love of its subject will turn audiences into exuberant, thrilled fight crowds”. J. Hoberman, in his review for the Village Voice, felt that the “first half percolates wonderfully — and the first half hour is even better than that. Mann opens with a thrilling montage that, spinning in and out of a nightclub performance by Sam Cooke, contextualizes the hero in his times”, concluded that, “Ali’s astonishing personality is skillfully evoked but, in the end, remains a mystery.
Against the Ropes a 2004 drama movie – Directed by Charles S. Dutton
Mar 2nd
Against the Ropes is a 2004 drama movie. It was directed by Charles S. Dutton, in his motion-picture directorial debut. It is a fictionalized account of the American boxing manager Jackie Kallen, who was the first woman to become a success in the sport. Luther Shaw most likely represents James Toney, A boxer whom Kallen managed to a title despite a rocky relationship.
Against the Ropes grossed less than $6 million in the US and was panned by critics, in part because of the resemblance to nearly all the other boxing movies, such as the Rocky series. As with other such movies, its climax is a bout for the championship.
Plot
The film begins with Jackie learning the boxing game with her father and uncle in a small gym when she is just a small girl. Later, she becomes the assistant to a Cleveland boxing promoter. Jackie’s boss then begins doing business with Sam LaRocca, a sports manager, during a middleweight championship fight. After the fight, LaRocca asks Jackie what she thought of the fight. Obviously unimpressed with Jackie’s knowledge of boxing, LaRocca offers her the fight’s loser’s contract for a dollar. She goes to visit the fighter at home, only to find him addicted to drugs. Enter Luther Shaw, a small time hood, based partly on James Toney. Kallen watches in mixed horror and fascination as Shaw pummels the former middleweight champ. She offers to manage him professionally. Although Shaw is at first hesitant, he eventually signs on with Kallen. Because of LaRocca, Kallen can’t find Shaw a fight anywhere in Ohio, so the two are forced to go on the road until Shaw makes a name for himself. However, Jackie begins to get swept up in all the attention she gets for being the first female boxing promoter. Her attention eventually shifts from Shaw to her own media persona as Shaw’s number of wins continues to climb. Finally realizing that she is not paying enough attention to her only client, Kallen agrees to sell Shaw’s contract to LaRocca on the condition that he be given a championship fight. LaRocca agrees, setting Shaw up for a shot at the title before he could possibly be ready. Kallen arrives at the fight and stands in Shaw’s corner as he goes on to win the title.
Box Office
Against the Ropes opened up at #8 at the box office, grossing $3,038,546 in the opening weekend. The film was released on Feb 20,2004 to 1,601 theaters (widest release) gathering an average of $1,897 per theater. The film closed its box office run after seven weeks, gathering $5,884,190 from the domestic market and $730,090 from overseas for an international total of $6,614,280
What other great boxing movies are there?
Feb 26th
Rocky is a 1976 American film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but good-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in Philadelphia. Balboa is also a club fighter who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship when the scheduled contender breaks his hand. Also starring in Rocky are Talia Shire as Adrian, Thayer David as George Jergens the fight promoter, Burt Young as Adrian’s brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky’s trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as the champion, Apollo Creed.
The film, made for only $1.1 million and shot relatively quickly (28 days), was a sleeper hit; it made over US$117.2 million and $225 million worldwide, the highest grossing film of 1976, and won three Oscars, including Best Picture. The film received many positive reviews and turned Stallone into a major star. It spawned five sequels: Rocky II, III, IV, V and Rocky Balboa.
In November 1975, Rocky Balboa is introduced as a small-time boxer and collector for Anthony Gazzo (Joe Spinell), a loan shark, living in Philadelphia. The World Heavyweight Championship bout is scheduled for New Year’s Day 1976, the year of the United States Bicentennial. When the opponent of undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is injured, Creed comes up with the idea of fighting a local underdog and, because he likes Rocky’s nickname, “The Italian Stallion”, he selects the unknown fighter. He puts it in light by proclaiming “Apollo Creed meets ‘The Italian Stallion’”.
To prepare for the fight, Rocky trains with a 1920s-era ex-bantamweight fighter and gym owner, Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith), while Rocky’s good friend, Paulie (Burt Young), a meat-packing plant worker, lets him practice his punches on the carcasses hanging in the freezers. During training, Rocky dates Paulie’s shy, quiet sister, Adrian (Talia Shire) who works as a clerk in a local pet store. The night before the fight, Rocky confides in Adrian that he does not expect to beat Creed, and that all he wants is to go the distance with Creed (which no fighter has ever done), meaning that lasting 15 rounds (the typical scheduled length of championship fights at the time) against him would mean he “… wasn’t just another bum from the neighborhood”.
On New Years Day, the climatic boxing match begins. Creed does not initially take the fight seriously, but Rocky unexpectedly knocks him down in the first round and the match turns intense. The fight indeed lasts 15 rounds with each fighter suffering many injuries; as the final round bell sounds with both fighters locked in each other’s arms, an exhausted Creed vows “Ain’t gonna be no re-match”, to which an equally spent Rocky replies “Don’t want one”. After the fight, Rocky calls out for Adrian, who runs down to the ring. As the ring announcer declares the fight for Apollo Creed by virtue of a split decision (8:7, 7:8, 9:6), Adrian and Rocky embrace while they profess their love to one another, not caring about the results of the fight.
The information above has been sourced from wikipedia and was submitted by one of our blog followers Plasterer London
Film resurrects champ but takes punch at journalism.
Feb 20th
I saw “Resurrecting the Champ” last week, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett. Part of its allure is that it combines two of my favorite subjects — boxing and the newspaper business.
The main reason, though, is that the movie sprung from a Los Angeles Times Magazine story written by J.R. Moehringer, a colleague in the Orange County office while he worked on the story 10 years ago.
Pretty cool to have your story become a movie. That’s probably what Moehringer once told himself.
On second thought. . . .
The screen version features Hartnett as a Denver sportswriter who meets a homeless man claiming to be a former ranked heavyweight contender. That’s a story in anybody’s newspaper, and it’s the one Moehringer pursued with gusto when he met his down-and-out subject in a Santa Ana park.
In the movie version, Hartnett’s story dazzles everyone until, oops, it’s discovered not long after that the guy isn’t really who he said he is.
And so we get a movie that beats up the newspaper business for being so hot for a story that it doesn’t bother to check things out.
The reporter is reduced to a bum in his own right who, even after learning the truth, is reluctant to publicly acknowledge it. He’s not only lazy; he’s unethical.
I kept thinking, Moehringer must have been perfectly thrilled at the filmmakers’ telling the world that the movie was inspired by his story.
It might make me wince, but I could handle a story about a wayward reporter. “Shattered Glass” did it very well. The Jayson Blair story is still out there to be told about the New York Times reporter with a propensity to invent things.
That’s why “Champ” is so irksome — in real life, the reality was exactly the opposite of what the movie depicts.
Rather than running with the story, as would be the temptation, Moehringer put so much time into it that he eventually learned — to his great distress — that the guy posing as former contender Bob Satterfield really wasn’t him.
I remember us talking in the office when he learned the truth. He acted as though the world had come to an end. All that time spent on the story, he lamented, for naught. He assumed the story was dead; I suggested he write a saga for a national magazine and describe how he’d been duped.
Relaunch as a new blog!
Feb 20th
Resurrecting the Champ is a 2007 drama film directed by Rod Lurie and written by Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett, based on the L.A. Times Magazine article by J.R. Moehringer. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, and Alan Alda, among others. It was filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.The film is set in Denver, Colorado.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews, with a 59% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One reviewer praised the newsroom scenes as “authentic” and noted that the film was above all “about fathers and sons, a male weepie” rather than being primarily focused on journalistic ethics or sport.
In an article about the film Los Angeles Times reporter Dana Parsons has said that the film largely distorts the actual events. In the film the reporter, Kernan Jr. (who works for a major Denver paper), does not learn that Satterfield is an impersonator until after the article is published and then seriously considers ignoring this fact for the sake of his burgeoning career. In reality the actual reporter, J.R. Moehringer, did extensive research and discovered the boxer’s true identity long before any article was ever published. Moehringer then changed the focus of the article to “describe how he’d been duped.” Parsons goes on to express irritation that the film depicted journalism in such a disparaging light.
The film earned $3,172,573 in the United States and Canada.
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