Boxing Films

Boxing films form a sub-genre which dates back to the days if silent films, and they were at the height of their popularity during the 1940s and 1950s when nearly 60 films focussing on fighters (or former fighters) were released. Nine of these features were "B" films based on a popular comics hero, the fighter Joe Palooka.

This was also an era when boxing was an enormously popular sport, and millions crowded around radios, and later TV sets to hear and then see not only championship matches but weekly slates of those who would never, in the words of On the Waterfront's Terry Malloy, "be a contender." A scene from early TV coverage is recreated in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), arguably the greatest of all boxing films.

Two familiar types of protagonists tend to be featured in the best boxing films. There is the fighter who is torn between the marketability of his physical strength and skill and his higher, more spiritual aspirations. He may forsake a career as a violinist for the ring (Golden Boy, 1939), or choose to fight in order to aid his family (Body and Soul, 1947; The Champion, 1949). The world of boxing proves a dangerous temptation, and the hero must endure the torment of a divided self as indicated in the title of the former film, or become hopelessly corrupt as in the latter. The other type of hero is presented as a powerful naïf who falls under the influence of shady underworld characters and without ever understanding why suffers humiliation and defeat (The Set-Up, 1949; On the Waterfront, 1954; The Harder They Fall, 1956).

The loss and alienation experienced by these protagonist is often expressed in their relations with family members, particularly brothers, wives, and mothers. But this alienation also suited the spirit of the post-World War Two Era linking the boxer to the existential hero who must face the most difficult choices alone without any clear set of traditional moral guidelines.

2. Harder They Fall, The (1956) Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956) (TV) Quiet Man, The (1952) Killer's Kiss (1955) Harder They Fall, The (1956) Golden Boy (1939) Champion (1949) Body and Soul (1947) On the Waterfront (1954)