Rocky Marciano

Like Babe Ruth, Marciano and his inspiring story provides much opportunity to tell an exciting and moving tale. In both movies about Ruth, Hollywood erred. In this latest attempt about Marciano, the producers likewise failed. The major depictions, of Rocky and his manager, Al Weill, are both inaccurate. For all his well-known frugality, Marciano was not the vicious, money-hungry pug shown here. Jon Favreau physically resembles the Brockton Blockbuster, and his ability to mirror Rocky's crab-like style in the ring are fine. But unfortunately, Favreau is the victim of an extremely poor teleplay, regarding the title character. In the 1979 tv-movie about Marciano, Tony LoBianco was given a more realistic depiction of Rocky, and performed it well. Here, it seems as if someone has a vendetta about The Rock. As powerful and courageous as he was inside the ring, outside he was---as is well-documented---a gracious, very likeable person. A true credit to himself and his sport. Sportswriter Jimmy Cannon wrote of Marciano that he "...was like a rose in a garbage dump." As for Weill's character, he is shown to be a milquetoast in the latest Marciano film. In reality---as demonstrated in Vincent Gardenia's '79 version---Weill was a thoroughly despicable person. The major reason Marciano retired in 1956 was that he absolutely despised Weill. Though fight fans might enjoy the ring action in the latter film, these critical errors completely undermine the effort.