BoxRec

Belated movie review, as I ordered this off of Amazon and it was made some years ago....

For a film that was relatively unknown, and was shot primarily in Europe and had moments of not so good dubbing in English, I liked the film overall. It starts off as him as a child, and him becoming a circus strongman and wrestler in a travelling sideshow. His introduction to boxing occured, according to this movie (at least), was when a boxer challenged him to a fight in one of those winner take all carnival matches, and Carnera beat him. A former boxer, turn trainer and manager sees this and offers to take Carnera under his wing.

Not to give the entire film away, but it does address the issue of fixed fights. Apparently Carnera knew nothing of it, and when he did find out he was more than crushed, and the reasoning for this (according to the film) was that they wanted to keep Carnera in the limelight and winning, but they knew he wasn't ready for the big time just yet so it was a matter of giving him more time until he was ready for the big leagues.

The poor man, apparently, was robbed blind from all his major contests and after losing to Max Baer had to travel third class back to Sequels, Italy among the poor immigrants. The film ends essentially there, with mentions of his children becoming doctors and psychiatrists and it ends with a quote of his that every punch he ever took, was so that his children could study and not live the life that he did growing up with nothing.

Overall, I'd give it three out of five stars. I just wish it could have been done by a real major motion picture studio and with a higher class of actors, cus such a story as Carnera's would have been up for nomination at least at the Golden Globes, though such institutions have seldom been kind to boxing movies.

check out the film
THE HARDER THEY FALL
starring Humphrey Bogart.
Its really good.

Caractacus wrote:check out the film
THE HARDER THEY FALL
starring Humphrey Bogart.
Its really good.

Excellent film. But sad enough to make some cry. I nearly did.

Caractacus wrote:check out the film
THE HARDER THEY FALL
starring Humphrey Bogart.
Its really good.

Granted, it is an all-time classic movie, let alone an all-time great boxing movie.

Of course I have seen it. And of course, the film apparently struck a nerve enough to make Carnera sue MGM.

That being said, just how much of Bogart's last film is true.... will always be a question left unanswered.

I do not believe, one iota, that Carnera was a "manufactured" fighter like many say that he is. The evidence for that, in my view, is that no manufactured fighter could have withstood the kind of punishment and fight back (broken ankle and all) against Max Baer for eleven rounds. Manufactured fighters blow up and fizzle out completely when struck hard. Carnera, if manufactured, was only manufactured to a point (until he became a genuine threat).

HomicideHenry wrote:

Caractacus wrote:check out the film
THE HARDER THEY FALL
starring Humphrey Bogart.
Its really good.

Granted, it is an all-time classic movie, let alone an all-time great boxing movie.

Of course I have seen it. And of course, the film apparently struck a nerve enough to make Carnera sue MGM.

That being said, just how much of Bogart's last film is true.... will always be a question left unanswered.

I do not believe, one iota, that Carnera was a "manufactured" fighter like many say that he is. The evidence for that, in my view, is that no manufactured fighter could have withstood the kind of punishment and fight back (broken ankle and all) against Max Baer for eleven rounds. Manufactured fighters blow up and fizzle out completely when struck hard. Carnera, if manufactured, was only manufactured to a point (until he became a genuine threat).

Ditto this.
I always saw him as a decent fighter from the films I have seen on him. Somewhat of a precursor to the European heavies of the last decade!