Pete and I actually went to the movies the other night, Cinderella Man. As you would expect from Ron “Happy Days” Howard, it is more than manipulative, totally predictable, and there’s the bootstrap-stuff to boot. Also, the communists die.
Then there were the interminable boxing scenes that I couldn’t even watch. The night just flew by.
Is there slap-fighting? I’ll go see it if they slap-fight.
and where does oates enter into it? warren? joyce carol? quaker?
Joyce Carol Oates is considered an expert on boxing, having written a delightful little defense of the sweet science called On Boxing. Norman Mailer once tried to compliment her on the essay claiming, “I could have written it.” He was obviously wrong. If he had written it the book would have been as bloated as the older Jake LaMotta.
Guy Maddin has a fantastic short film about slap-fighting. Seriously. I wonder what Cinderella Man would have been like directed by Guy Maddin….
Cinderella Man is competent enough–rousing is a good word I guess. It’s old fashioned and proud to be, but it is also frustratingly conservative. Hard-working Yankee ingenuity and individualism will always triumph over brute force,
Roosevelt’s New Deal and those damn liberal union sympathizers. Fuck the commies man; I just want to see somebody’s face get smashed in. Now ain’t that America.
Isn’t Warren Oates an expert on Guy Maddin?