Has anyone else seen it? Howard is one of my favourite fighters to watch, so I was pleased when they announced that a film was to be made about him and that his family were going to co-produce it. That said, I watched it with no expectations and thus wasn't too disappointed when overall it turned out not to be very good (imo). There were some nice nods in it though, especially Morales as Saldivar (I'm a soft twat when it comes to modern greats playing past greats), and it gave you a chance to play spot the cameo all the way through (there are dozens of them). John Noble was very good as Eddie Thomas too. I'd heard rumours that they'd brought Barrera on board to play Saldivar initially, so it was probably one last chance for Morales to stick two fingers up at him . Ironic in a way, because Barrera actually looked more like Saldivar imo and had some stylistic similarities too. Never in Saldivar's league as a fighter though . If not a memorable film on it's own merit, it was, at least, a nice acknowledgement to a great fighter and perhaps the greatest pure boxer/textbook technician that these islands have ever produced. Anybody got any thoughts on it?
Hmmm....I rate Saldivar, but have never 'got' his high stature. Ribs, there's no one better to give me the lowdown :good
I think it's probably 'Max and Joe' that you're talking about, the TV film about Schmeling and Louis. Just a few in one scene in Spanish iirc during the promotion of Winstone-Seki. Most of his other scenes are in the actual fights.
The Max Schmelling movie was released in 2010. Henry Maske played Max. Haven't seen it but it was directed by Uwe Boll who many believe is the worst director in mainstream cinema. Boll fought Lowtax from Somethingawful.om in a real boxing match when he ripped into him on his site. Low tax came in dressed as Apollo Creed an got stopped!
Longcount, Boll is abysmal...but maybe, just maybe, the Schmeling film not being based on a video game means it might be below average rather than codswallop ;-) Ribs: Saldivar enlightenment, please :good
:think I thought you were quite up on Saldivar, flea, unless I'm thinking of someone else. I once hashed this one out with Addie ages ago when I was a newbie. Saldivar's record and the footage that we have of him are self explanatory. What don't you 'get' about him, so to speak? Edit: Obviously I don't mind elaborating if you want me to, just that I thought that I'll probably end up telling you what you already know.
Did they play the 2nd Winstone Saldivar fight as a robbery, tin?. Winstone seemed an unusual choice narratively of fighter to make a film about, unless it was just going to be straight forward fan service for him, which it seems from what i've heard it was. The Duran film is going to struggle to avoid the same pitfalls imo.As great as Duran was, not sure there is anything there from his life or mentality that can produce an interesting film beyond just pure boxing fun and fan service.I can see it ending up being the scarface of boxing films. These kind of films really need a top director and writer to find an interesting approach to things to make them memorable films in their own right imo
Yeah, they played the second fight as a little bit of a robbery. They built Seki up as this hard punching pressure fighter too. :roll: Straight forward fan service is a pretty good description actually. Winstone losing his fingers and becoming world champion, triumph over adversity etc etc was the thing, as you'd expect. I've got a feeling that the Duran film is going to be an abomination from the histrionic way that they've been talking about Leonard II and **** all else. You're right really, these sort of films need the right crew to bring out the best cinematic stuff rather than painting it by numbers for the sake of it. They had Junior Witter as Ramos too, ffs . The cameos are quite neat if you like that sort of thing.
I think the Duran film will work if it focuses on his youth in Panama as well as his career. I got to spend some time around him and his son last year and once you get past the 'punching a horse' anecdotes there is some interesting stuff.
Trouble is mate that it looks as though as it's going to be mostly based around the packing-in job of the Leonard rematch. Jacubowicz isn't a director/writer of any real note or talent and seems to view Leonard II as this great mystery that needs to elaborated upon and solved, where the simple truth is that Duran was a fat, untrained ******* who was narrowly losing a farce of a fight and didn't want to give Leonard the satisfaction. It might be an ok showcase for Bernal, Pacino, Rodriguez though, as these things go.
I like Saldivar, have seen a fair bit of him (nit everything) and am aware of his quality run before his initial 'retirement'. Just not sure he's the top 50 lock most make him to be :-(
Saldivar is like a more conisistant and longer reigning Olivares, without the patchy Featherweight form IMO