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Alliance, OH 44601
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CAPSULE COMMENTS
April 26, 2007
The "Sweet Science" (New DVDs)
The following materials are available to Library patrons and may be checked out from the main library.
In spite of a number of excellent reviews this movie did not do well at the American box office grossing only $61,649,308.
It is the story of American boxer, James Braddock who makes a career as a boxer only to break his hand in a match that sends his career down the tubes. Finances become very tight and are made worse by the Great Depression. For years, Braddock works as a docker to support his young family.
Dock work doesn’t pay much so Braddock begins to train again and launches a come back. Eventually a bout is arranged with the reigning heavy-weight champ, Max Baer. If this true story is manipulative of the viewer’s emotions, then so be it – we need heroes and Braddock was one.
The "Cinderella Man" designation was given Braddock by no less than the author, Damon Runyon. For more information on Braddock go to: Biography Resource Center
The Library owns this title in DVD format
According to Sports Illustrated, the author of Rope Burns, the book on which Million Dollar Baby was based, F.X. Toole (A.K.A. Jerry Boyd) spent 22 years working with fighters as a "cutman." So he could be expected to know the sport and tell it like it is. The critics seemed to think so anyway since this film won four Oscars and was nominated for more.
Clint Eastwood plays the aging owner/trainer of an aging gym. His best boy has left for greener pastures. A girl walks into the gym and, bolstered by nothing but sheer determination, asks to be trained as a fighter. Eastwood’s first reaction is – uh-h-h.. negative. But the girl persists in the face of his discouragement. Eventually, possibly moved by a chance to re connect with his estranged daughter, he agrees to train her.
The Library owns the DVD Million Dollar Baby and the book from which it was derived, Rope Burns: stories from the corner, by F. X Toole.
THEY FALL
HARD: a Gil Yates private investigator novel by Alistair Boyle
By day a mild-mannered wage-slave and gardener, by night a clever P.I. who investigates under the name of Gil Yates. Our hero, who is generally paid plenty for his services, is called on by the impecunious son of a prize fighter to investigate the boxer’s suspicious death. One problem, the suspicious death occurred 30 years ago.
Yates takes the case anyway because he hopes to be paid in land where he can begin a new garden.
Investigating a cold case murder would be difficult under ordinary circumstances but in this one Yates finds himself balked by the Vegas police, the Mob, and the Nation of Islam.
