This morning, i failed to wake up at dawn to do my qt!! argh, but there's always tml. But as a result of waking up late, my youngest sister was late, and my 2nd sister was also latE! A chain of events man. Oh well, tml tml tml is a new day!
And i was stuck in rush hour for super long just to go for my physio appointment when i realised that i totally cannot make it already. the physio there is real strict, late and she will not see you. So rather than waste my time going there pleading with her, i just stopped at a carpark, and made another appointment another time. See? Consequences of just waking up late.
So i decided to just stay at the carpark lot and read my book, while waiting for rush hour to pass. No point squeezing, stopping and going, and just inching forward. Waste of time. So out whipped the book Cinderella Man!
I remember watching this movie with zixu and jas last year at marina square. It was real early then and there was nobody at the shopping centre. The theatre was barely 10% filled too, but we enjoyed the show. It was a true story btw.
It was set in early 1930, during the time of the great depression. James J. Braddock was an up and coming boxer, winning many fights and invested in stocks and shares until the market came crashing down. He lost almost everything, and he even lost his ability to fight. He was out of job, poor, had 3 kids and a wife, had trouble paying for electricity, and sometimes even having to starve himself.
He tried to continue fighting, but kept losing and even broke the bones in his right hand, the only good hand he has in boxing and eventually, his license as a boxer was revoked. Desperate, he had to find work at the shipyard. He was lucky he got picked along with 8 others out of 50 and went on to work. With only his weak left hand, he struggled to hide his disability and managed to get by in the few months.
One day, his manager and good friend managed to offer him a boxing match, in which he was supposed to be fodder for his opponent. But surprisingly, he knocked his opponent out in 3 rounds, and his opponent was supposed to be 1 of the heavyweight championship contenders! And more remarkably, his left hand was super strong.
This way, he went on to continue defeating his more illustrious opponents and eventually being the no. 1 contender. Now, the champion, Max Baer was a brute. He grew up in a slaughterhouse, which is where he got his sledgehammar-like right fist. 2 opponents have died when being hit by it, having their brains smashed inside.
By now, Braddock was dubbed Cinderella Man, giong against the odds to fight back, and yet his wife, was so fearful of his life after learning of Baer and told him she wasn't behind him, when all along, he has fought, with his wife in mind. The following is an excerpt from the book where his wife Mae wanted to pray for him, before the final fight:
Mae walked alone for a long time through the deserted streets of Neward. The shadows stretched until they darkened the streets. All was quiet until she came to Father Rorick's church.
Though no regular service was scheduled for this hour, people were streaming through the open doors. Inside the lights were bright. Mae wondered as she crossed the courtyard if a funeral or even a wedding was in progress. Then Mae spied Father Rorick at the door and approached him.
"Father?" she asked, puzzled. peering around him, Mae saw that the church was full to brimming, with people lining up in the aisles as well.
"Hello, Mae," said Father Rorick.
"I came to pray for Jim."
"You too?" said the priest. he stepped back, directing her gaze to the church's interior. "So have they."
Mae blinked, surveyed the full pews, the people in worn clothes praying on their knees in the aisle, and shook her head.
"I don't -" Her voice faded as realisation dawned.
"Maybe sometimes people need to see someone do it so they can do it themselves," said Father Rorick. "They think Jim's fighting for them."
Mae looked over the crowd again. She saw men from the docks, vagrants from the street, women and children who'd been abandoned - all of them thrown aside by the world, challenged to summon enough fight inside themselves to keep going. They looked up to her husband, Mae realised, all of them. Jim Braddock had become their example...if he could fight and win, maybe they could too...
"Yes," Mae whispered. "I understand now,"
Mae turned, hurried into the street. As her heels clicked down the sidewalk, she noticed knots of men and women gathering in doorways, outside of shops. Through open windows and doors radios blared. They were all tuned to the same station - the announcer excitedly teasing the title fight about to begin.
The same thing was happening at Quincy's bar, in Sam's butcher shop, at the docks, the rail yards, the coal shuttles - even the Newark relief office. Anywhere there was a radio, a crowd of hungry, eager people crowded around to listen.
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This part brought me to tears, because it was in this part that Mae realised that her husband was no longer fighting for dignity, or fighting for himself, his pride, but that he's fighting for all the people in america who has lost hope, hoping that he would triumphed against the odds and be their inspiration to do so too. Mae's realisation culminated in her going all the way to the boxing ring's changing room where she met her husband.
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Jim rose, caught her up in his powerful arms. They kissed and kissed again. mae's words flowed in a torrent. "I don't know what i was saying, i'm always behind you jimmy, with you and inside you and in love with you. So you just...just you remember who you really are. "
"Who's that?"
"You're the Bulldog of Gergen," she said, smiling through her tears. "The pride of New Jersey. You're everybody's hope and your kids' hero and you're the champion of my heart, James J. Braddock."
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Superb story.
