UKC

I know very little about boxing but I have an interest in genre films and alongside zombies and submarines, boxing is one of the oldest and most enduring film genres. Off the top of my head I can’t name any from the 1920s and 1930s but there’s The Harder They Fall and Champion from the forties, I think maybe a lacklustre Paul Newman effort in the 50s and 60s and a load from that period that aren’t coming to mind, obviously the Rocky franchise, Raging Bull, The Champ, Diggstown, opening scene of Broken Arrow and Snake Eyes etc.

I am interested in hearing from people who “know” boxing, about which film most realistically depicts boxing. I can only say which ones are CONVINCING to a layman and this may differ from what is ACCURATE.

My convincing ones (aside from Carl Weathers and Mr. T in the Rocky franchise) are:

Southpaw

Creed (specifically the amazingly choreographed single shot round)

Bleed for This

but far and away the most convincing for me:

Walter Hill’s “Undisputed”, an unacknowledged fictionalisation of Tyson’s time in prison, starring Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes.

I welcome anyone saying I am way off!

Special mention to Streets of Gold featuring the most homoerotic training montage ever. Snipes again! Makes the Rocky III montage look like a Chuck Norris classic 

Like you, I‘m not a boxing fan. But two films I found brilliant: Clint Eastwood‘s “Million Dollar Baby” with Hilary Swank, which got four Oscars, and the documentary “When We Were Kings” about the 1974 Foreman/Ali fight in Zaire.

The Fighter and Cinderella Man are 2 that come to mind 

Whilst not a fictional movie, there are dramatised scenes in it

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jul/16/right-to-fight-review-...

Fight to Right documentary is a super interesting documentary about women in America literally fighting to have the right to fight in the early 1970s. Some pretty powerful/emotional stuff

Thanks

Million Dollar Baby is a good call re: a major one that I’ve actually not seen (also haven’t seen The Champ).

The Fighter I didn’t much care for, due to Bale’s overly “mannered” performance and it being a David O Russell film (I mostly run cold with him, although I do keep watching his work!).

I do recall Wahlberg being excellent in it

Cinderella Man another good call. 

Million Dollar Baby is a good call re: a major one that I’ve actually not seen (also haven’t seen The Champ).

The Fighter I didn’t much care for, due to Bale’s overly “mannered” performance and it being a David O Russell film (I mostly run cold with him, although I do keep watching his work!).

I do recall Wahlberg being excellent in it

Cinderella Man another good call.