How Does Howard Present Hope In Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man

The visual text, “Cinderella Man”, directed by Ron Howard, is centred around James J. Braddock, otherwise known as Jimmy Braddock, a washed-up ex-Boxer living in 1930’s New Jersey with his wife, Mae, and three kids, during the height of the Great Depression. When his manager and friend, Joe Gould, gets him a one-time-only fight after he loses his boxing license, everything begins to change and Jimmy’s luck begins to improve. Not only that, but he becomes a national icon and a symbol of hope for all the people affected by the Depression in the United States. There are two main ideas in the text, “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Hope”. Both of these ideas are relevant to people in today’s society. The director uses visual and oral techniques in order to portray these ideas.

The director uses the visual techniques of camera shots, costumes and lighting and the oral technique of dialogue to portray the idea of, “Overcoming Obstacles”.
A camera shot that shows the idea of, “Overcoming Obstacles” is a closeup shot of Mae filling up a near-empty milk bottle with water because they can’t afford to pay for milk, after Jimmy becomes injured with a broken hand, unable to fight anymore, and loses his boxing license. This is relevant to the idea of “Overcoming Obstacles” because it shows that they’ve come across an obstacle: the crippling poverty that the Great Depression caused in most families in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It’s shows that they’re so poor that they can’t even afford basic necessities, and that it is an obstacle they need to overcome.
In the text, whilst Jimmy and his family are poor and have nothing, the general lighting of most of the shots in the text is quite dark and gloomy. However, once Jimmy wins fights and is able to afford to bring his kids home after they had to be sent to Mae’s sister’s house, they immediately run around the house and turn on all the lights and lamps. The lighting of the text after this event is generally bright, and progresses to get lighter throughout the text. This change in lighting portrays that they have overcome an obstacle.
In the one-time fight against Corn Griffin, Jimmy is seen wearing a boxing robe that doesn’t belong to him and has the name of another boxer, “John Carston”, on the back of it, as he has lost his boxing license and is too poor to afford his own robe. However, in the fight against Max Baer, after Jimmy has made his comeback into boxing, we see him wearing his own robe with his own name on the back of it. This is the director using costumes to show Jimmy’s progression and him overcoming the obstacle of poverty.
The director uses the oral technique of dialogue to portray the theme of “Overcoming Obstacles”. A quote that shows this is, “I know what I’m fighting for… Milk”. This is a quote made by Jimmy during an interview before the Max Baer fight, when he is asked if he thinks he can win. This quote shows that Jimmy has an end goal: to overcome the obstacle of poverty and pull his family out of the grips of the Great Depression. He knows that if he wins the Max Baer fight, he will have finally overcome the obstacle and be able to provide for his family.

The director uses the visual techniques of camera shots and the oral techniques of dialogue and music to portray the idea of, “Hope”.
A camera shot that is used to portray, “Hope” is a mid-shot of Jimmy, Mae, Joe and his wife sitting at a dinner table in a fancy restaurant, a restaurant too expensive for any of them to afford.

This shot represents the result of all of their hope, a destination they would have never reached without the hope they had. It shows the result of all the rough times they had experienced whilst clinging onto the hope that things would improve in the future. Lastly, this camera shot represents, “Hope” in the text as it shows that things are going to improve more in the future, and they could only get better from there.

A piece of dialogue from the text that portrays, “Hope” is made by Mae Braddock, Jimmy’s wife. It is, “You are the Bulldog of Bergen. You’re everybody’s hope and the kids’ hero. You are the champion of my heart.”. This quote shows, “Hope” as it shows how much everyone believes in Jimmy and his ability to beat Max Baer and how much they hope that he does. It shows that they see his hope for the future and they share that as well. It also shows the hope that he represents for the people of New York and all the other people in the country that were affected by the Great

Depression.
In the text, whilst Jimmy is poor and can’t get any work, he goes for a walk around the poorer parts of the city. A Great Depression-era song, “Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz” by Eddie Cantor, a song about the extreme poverty of the Depression and the lies told by the government, plays in the background. This plays in a situation when Jimmy is in the situation the song speaks of, and at a time when he has no hope. This is the director using music to portray the idea of, “Hope” and the lack of it. This also carries on throughout the text, as when Jimmy begins to win fights and gets his spirit and hope, and money, back, the music is brighter, quicker and happier. This also mostly plays during and after fights, showing that those are the times he is the most hopeful and knows what his objective is: to improve the living conditions for his family. This change in music shows that Jimmy is becoming hopeful again.

Both the ideas of, “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Hope” are relevant to people in today’s society.
The idea of, “Overcoming Obstacles” is relevant to people as all people are hit with obstacles, while they are in varying degrees of severity, they still can affect people in many different ways. The obstacles that people face also make them stronger, like they did for Jimmy, and help lead people to a better and brighter future. An example of an obstacle people are facing in society today is the current flooding and extreme weather occurring in the lower North Island and the snowstorms occurring in the South Island. The people affected by this weather are facing a huge obstacle, as many are without power, homes, food, water and other basic necessities. This obstacle also impacts on their everyday life and how they live, as most lack necessary items and are unable to travel anywhere, like to work or school.
The idea of, “Hope” is relevant to people in today's society because, when things get bad or people encounter obstacles, people need hope to get them through those times. Hope is necessary in knowing how to recover from the situation and knowing what your final objective is, like Jimmy did in the text, and having a clear final objective is necessary to getting past obstacles or rough patches. To use the example of the extreme weather occurring in New Zealand currently again, the people affected by this weather need to hold onto hope to recover from the situation that has been thrust upon them. They need to believe that conditions will improve and that everything will return to normal in order to recover from this event.
The visual text, “Cinderella Man”, directed by Ron Howard, contains two main ideas, “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Hope”. These ideas are relevant to people in today’s society. The director uses the visual and oral techniques of camera shots, lighting, costumes, dialogue and music to portray these ideas.

By Isaac Quirke.