Thoughts on the Portrayal of the Great Depression in the Movie Cinderella Man:

   

     Each individual is said to be the sum of his or her experiences and surroundings. Just as people are conglomerates of events that take place in their lives, the other people with whom they surround themselves, and their specific time and location in space, the memories of these people are too. As time moves forward, history becomes, essentially, a conglomeration of the memories of many, rather than specific memories of single individuals. Even events reported and recorded in history books cannot are not completely factual; the primary sources come from individual, perhaps even biased, perspectives. What becomes most important is the essence, the main idea, of what happened. 

     Films are an excellent way to communicate history. For lack of time (moviegoers do not always have the greatest attention span), filmmakers must have discretion in what to include, from modifying and/or fabricating dialogues to dramatizing tragedies and glories. 

     The movie Cinderella Man is based on true events. It is a successful film because it tells the story of one man in a way that mirrors the experiences of the masses during the Great Depression. One of the most important components of the film was the evocation of emotion from the viewers. This is more simple to do if the film focuses on one perspective. So, the filmmaker chose to villain-ize Max Baer, making the underdog win of James Braddock more triumphant. The filmmaker also chose not to dwell on Baer's personal life and jewish heritage. Another artistic liberty taken was with the age of Braddock's children. They were made younger, causing the audience to feel more pity for the family in their hard times. 

     In the film, Braddock becomes a hero to many as a man who remade himself through strength and hard work, despite the ubiquitous Depression. His story was uplifting to others because they identified with him. The majority of people in America still believed in the "self-made man." They valued hard work and perseverance, trusting that, with enough of each, any man could rise to, maybe not fame and fortune but, a comfortable lifestyle. This mindset was a form of Social Darwinism: the weak and lazy will not succeed. When the Depression hit, many men could no longer provide for their families and they took it as personal failure. Braddock for example first tried working with a broken hand, but then had to, in his mind, stoop to receiving government assistance, standing in bread lines and taking loans. Still unable to put away his old mindset in light of the times, Braddock returned all he had taken from the government when his personal financial situation improved. 

     The film not only captures one lower middle class man's stubborn pride and financial struggle, but also shows how the Depression affected multiple rungs on the social ladder, including women and upper class men. For example, the characterization of Braddock's wife reveals the fear of many women of the time; the fear of their husbands leaving out of selfish survival and the fear of having to send their children away to more able family members -- yet another instance of the typical 1930s Social Darwinistic mindset. Men who had previously been substantially wealthy, like Braddock's manager, felt they had to hide their depressed situation. The manager stayed in his luxurious apartment, but tried not to invite anyone over out of embarrassment. He had had to sell all his furniture and miscellaneous items of value. 

     While not necessarily completely factual, the film still paints a picture of what life must have been in the 1930s. The audience is exposed to the bread lines, the scrappy meals, the sacrifices of each family member for the good of the family unit, multiple levels of society from people living in Hoovervilles to the owners of the boxing company, the self-judgment and the shame of embarrassment, and, most significantly, the emotional strength of the people of the Depression.