Baers portrayal in Cinderalla man??

I doubt that there was a civil suit, because you cannot libel the dead, and the family would have been aware of this.

I think that Ron Howard was aware that his portrayal of Max Baer, was not an authentic one.

 

The actor certainly did a great job of mimicking his style.

I do remember some flack from Baer's family after the movie came out, but lawsuit IDK.

Seems these movies have to have a bad guy...makes it more dramatic. What would Game of Thrones be without all the bad guys?

 

I liked the portrayal of Baer in Carnera the walking mountain.

 

I doubt there was any lawsuit following the gross injustice done to Max Baer in that mostly fictional film.One thing I know, Max Baer was a *****cat
outside of the ring who had the greatest personality of all the heavyweight
champions, bar NONE. I will never forget watching a fight on my tv and
the former champion Max Baer vaulted over the ropes to be introduced into
the ring, looking like the picture of health for a 50 year man. A couple of weeks later Baer died alone in a hotel room from a heart attack. A sad ending
to the Livermore Larruper, Max Baer...

 

He is accurately portrayed in the book upon which the movie was based, which is a great read and well researched.

The liberties were taken as they often are in the "based on a true story" style, for dramatic effect.

 

The movie made Max out to be an ogre, which he wasn't. He could have been the greatest but he was not dedicated to the sport.

 

That is the problem, it isn't. Most people alive today who know of Baer, only know of him because of the movie...

 

I was disgusted by it as well, Ron Howard can suck my sack after that horrible portrayal of Max Baer. Over look a mans legacy just to make your sentiment rubbish, Hollywood all over I guess. That shouldn't have been allowed in an ideal world.

 

R, you told it as it IS. He was the most lovable of heavyweight champions, always poking fun at himself. In the movies he is
portrayed as a cad 'to give the film some color for entertainment".
Well how would these posters feel if it was their relative who was
vilified and demeaned for the simple reason to "make money" ?
I as a boy growing up never read or heard of the Max Baer
portrayed in that mostly fictional picture...You know why not?
Because it wasn't true. :good

 

It was a predictable and eye-rolling portrayal, but these kinds of films are trying to tell a very involved, drawn-out story within a two-hour timeframe and they need to both cut to the chase and dumb it down sufficiently so that it will make sense to more than a just a bunch of boxing nerds like us that bother to pay attention to these things.

Could they have told the story of Braddock without making Baer look like an A-hole? Sure, I suppose. But in doing so you run the risk of derailing the story's focus and detracting from the central theme, which is to play up Braddock's ascension and eventual triumph. It makes people feel more to have Braddock pitted against a bear-like ogre in order to play up the magnitude of the upset and to give more of a feeling of glory in the victory. What fun is it to beat a nice guy, after all?

I didn't lose any sleep over it, that's for sure.

 

I find it comical that people think portraying Baer as someone who talked "smack" to an opponent before a fight wasn't accurate.

The guy was brutalizing Primo Carnera, beating him practically to death, and laughing the entire time.

Chris Arreola knocked out Molina and then kissed him and laughed, and people thought Arreola was the biggest jerk in the world. Baer humiliated Carnera the whole night and nearly killed the guy. And he thought it was hilarious.

I didn't find anything about the portrayal of Baer out of line from what I've seen of the guy.

He loved to humiliate opponents. He loved to backhand. He was dirty as hell in the ring and cruel.

If he was nice to reporters afterward, fine. If he was nice to fans and signed autographs freely, great. If he was a great joke teller and had the people around him laughing all the time, outstanding.

But you can watch his fights and see what a total cruel jerk he was to his opponents.

 

Not sure if Max Baer Jr sued or not but he did make the media rounds about how his father was unjustly portraed and Howard said he knew that's not how Baer really was but he was supposed to be seen through the eyes of Braddocks family.
Its all on Google for more info.

 

He remained friends with Carnera after the fight, so Carnera obviously didn't take it personally.