Cinderella Man: An American Life

"A person can learn quite a bit about life in America during the Great Depression just from watching the film, Cinderella Man."

I agree with this statement because, in the movie Cinderella Man, there are many different representations of what life was like in the 1930s and all of these representations are accurate. In the movie, James Braddock goes through a very rough time just like a lot of people did during the Great Depression. He has to scramble for jobs and beg for money throughout the majority of the movie. His wife and family also suffered and they are not able to provide for all of their kids. These depictions of what James Braddock had to go through are very historically accurate to what he actually went through in real life and what a lot of people had to go through. 

In the movie, there is a scene where James and many other people lined up to work day jobs on the docks. This is a very accurate depiction of what the docks would be like on a weekday. Most of the men that didn't have a job would want to make money by working jobs that required manual labor on the docks. This was hard for James Braddock because he suffered a broken hand from one of his fights. He had to learn how to work with one hand. James Braddock

The way that his family is portrayed in the movie is very similar to how families lived during the great depression. His family had to give send their kids to different family members because they were not able to feed them. One scene in the movie shows Mae taking a piece of steak and putting it into her purse so she can feed it to her kids. This happened to a lot of people during the great depression. James is seen wearing nice clothes even though he is very poor. Many people during this time period would do this so others would not think they were poor. There is also a scene in the movie where Mae sees a man leaving his wife behind. This was very common during the depression. People could not afford a divorce so it was called a "poor mans divorce." Life for a Family in the 1930s

The Braddock Family

There is also a variety of groups of people that are represented in the movie.  There are the upper-class people, the people that ran the boxing matches were seen as upper class. The middle class, Joe Gold who was the manager of James Braddock was a part of the middle class.  The lower class, James Braddock is portrayed as a part of the lower class. They also had the people that lived in the Hoovervilles, James's friend Mike had to live in the Hoovervilles because he couldn't afford to live in his house anymore. All of these groups are apparent in real life and are shown in the movie.

Image of a Hooverville

Cinderella Man does a very good job of showing what life was like during the great depression. It shows what life was like for a lower-class man during the great depression and what he had to do to make money. It showed what it was like for a lower-class family of five and how they sometimes had to split up to be able to survive. Lastly, it showed all of the different classes of people through that time. I really enjoyed this movie and plan on watching it again.