Rocky Marciano

First of all an interesting footnote, Tony Lo Bianco played Marciano in a 1979 tv film and also appears in this one as slimy mobster Frankie Carbo (he plays a really detestable character). This is a great film about the real life Rocky. Someone once fed some facts about boxing champions into a computer and the computer said Rocky was the greatest champ of all time. This can be debated of course, but this film shows him as not only a great boxer but as a humble, decent human being who literally started out with nothing. It made me angry watching this film as to how poor Italian immigrants like the Marcianos were treated as second class people and labeled as "dagos". In one of his last performances, George C. Scott is wonderful as Marciano's father. There is one mistake in this film, however. It shows Marciano visiting his friend Joe Louis in a Denver mental hospital. In fact, Joe Louis wasn't committed to this hospital until 1970 a year after Marciano was killed in a tragic plane crash.

Just saw this film for the first time and it was great. The cast was well put together and it had a great story. The only failing of this film is that the subject had so many aspects of his life to cover that only a few of them were touched upon. Overall...An excellent biographical film.

For starters, this film was shot in Toronto, Canada. Although none of this film took place in Toronto or anywhere near the Canadian border, it was shot there. I had many problems with this movie. Like its location, the actors they got for the film were wrongly picked. While Jon Favreau did a wonderful job as Marciano, why did they get Penelope Ann Miller as his wife? Yes, she is a very beautiful and talented actress but she was wrong for the role. Why? Have you ever seen what Rocky Marciano's wife looked like? Nothing at all like Penelope. Once you see what she looked like, you will know where I am coming from.

Just like ALI starring Will Smith, this movie is missing something. It does not tell the entire story of the fighter, only a period of the fighters life. While much is left out, there is still a good portion of his life mentioned, and for that I recommend this film to fans only. To those looking to do research, rent the documentary and leave this film on the shelf.

Don't let the 'made for TV' or boxing theme put you off this film. Rent it. Even my wife stayed awake late at night and thoroughly liked this film, much to my surprise. It is well-acted and scripted, and does not really glorify boxing.

"Rocky Marciano" (1999): Can the true life story of a boxer be full of lessons for us all? Yes. Forget that shmucky stuff like "Rocky", "Rocky II", "III", "IV" Sixteen, Twenty seven, Son of Rocky... ad nauseum. This is the modest, gritty, not-pretty, non-romanticized story of an underdog from Day One, who, by sheer determination and little else, rose to the top, and remains the ONLY undefeated Heavy Weight box in history. To do this, you must be something special, even if you ARE modest, have doubts, get pounded around, conned, taken for granted, and trade off family time to earn a living. It's OUR story, if you look beyond the ring. Jon Favreau stars, along with Penelope Miller, Judd Hirsch, a sleazy character by Tony Lo Bianco, and a wonderful character by George C. Scott. This is not the only boxing movie by far, but it is one of the Top Five. ("Raging Bull", "On the Waterfront", "Ali", and "The Boxer" would have to be the others.)