Cinderella Man

I thought Cinderella Man was overall a pretty accurate depiction of the struggles families faced during the Great Depression. The movie really emphasized how the families worked and their values such as keeping the family together, the wife being the caretaker, and most importantly the man being in charge of solely getting the money and being totally responsible. The book also expressed the importance of the man being the breadwinner and the guilt associated with not being able to provide. Values went back to very traditional ideals when the Depression started and I think the movie depicted that pretty clearly by extensively portraying the family dynamic. The movie also was a “rags to riches” type story because it showed how the average person could hit rock bottom but with hard work they could pick themselves up and get what they deserved. This ideal was very important to the men because it gave them hope and at the time they loved movies like these.

            I think the movie also did a good job showing the different levels of poverty. It showed the wealthy and how they really weren’t doing as well as they wanted to let on. It also showed the other extreme of living in “Hoovervilles” and how dangerous and panicked that would be. The movie also showed real events like the stock market crash and the fights. I think this movie did a great job at showing viewers some of the major themes of the 1930s. Other than being completely over dramatic it was a really good movie that was almost identical to what we read about in the book.