The 5 Essential Boxing Movies

I’ve gone on record saying that baseball is the sport that best translates to film. I stand by that, but there’s probably no sport that works best for our most dramatic themes, from physical to psychological, from the rise to the fall to the redemption, like boxing. What follows is what I’m calling The 5 Essential Boxing Movies, those that best represent every part of the subgenre, from classic film noir to pay-per-view extravaganzas.

I would like to note that I have decided to exclude every Rocky film. I know that it may seem weird to have a list of essential boxing movies and exclude the most famous franchise, but if those films were included, this list would just be Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky IV, Creed II, and Raging Bull. Yes, I am using the release of Creed III as an excuse to appease the SEO gods, but no, we don’t have the time to talk Rocky. Everybody else has already.

The Set-Up (1949)

There is a reason that film noir, the genre popularized in the ’40s and ’50s, has used the dark, violent world of boxing to tell its dark and violent stories. The seedy underworld of boxing is the prime place to put these people, with characters who are involved in fixing fights, betting on matches, or running illegal operations. This allows filmmakers to explore themes of greed, power, and corruption.

There’s also a reason that, when discussing this movie, everyone references the line, “You’ll always be just one punch away,” since that’s the theme of the movie. It’s a story about a boxer whose manager bets against him…without telling him. That’s the exact day that this washed-up fighter has decided he’s gonna go down swinging. 

This is that “in the ring” noir pulp and it’s the best representative of the genre. 

The Great White Hope (1970)

Famed sportswriter Joe Posnanski diverted from sportswriting in his 2019 book The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini, only to find his way back in the early pages of the forward to mention famous black boxer Jack Johnson – the inspiration for the 1970 play (the one that made D.C.’s Arena Stage famous and helped spawn the American regional theatre movement) and the 1975 film The Great White Hope. 

Posnanski gives context when he writes, “For seven long years, the heavyweight champion of the world had been Jack Johnson, a source of great embarrassment for much of America as he was black.” This naturally spawned the search for “The Great White Hope,” the white boxer who could take the crown. Posnanski even goes on to mention that former champ James Jeffries came out of retirement for, as Jeffries put it, “the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro.”

James Earl Jones, who originated the role at Arena Stage (beginning his legacy as one of our nation’s great thespians), plays the Johnson stand-in, Jack Jefferson, exactly the way Posnanski portrays Johnson in his book, as “flamboyant and independent and unapologetic.” All of the things that white people hated about him, all of the things that put a ticking timebomb on his career, all of the things that made this Muhammed Ali-before-Cassius Clay so interesting on both the stage and this strong movie. 

Hard Times (1975)

There’s also the world of boxing that isn’t glorious. It isn’t Pay-Per-View or HBO Boxing or Las Vegas. It’s bare-knuckle fighting. It’s underground. It’s the kind of fighting where chickens are the undercard. 

Hard Times reflects the historical context of the Great Depression and folks’ need to make a buck, leading to the emergence of illegal underground activities such as gambling, bootlegging, and, of course, fighting. Director Walter Hill is one of my favorites (48 Hours and The Warriors, among others), and his portrayal of this world is unflinching and raw, capturing the desperation and violence that characterized the era. The film focuses on the character of Chaney, played by one of America’s best manly men, Charles Bronson. Chaney is a man who uses his fists to survive and thrive in a harsh and unforgiving world, which speaks to the enduring appeal of the “lone hero” archetype in American cinema.

Raging Bull (1980)

Even though it seems like a slam-dunk for the genre (a knockout punch? I don’t know…), there have only been a handful of boxing movies that have tackled the issue of toxic masculinity head-on. Few, if any, have done it as tactfully as Martin Scorsese’s 1980 opus Raging Bull.

Throughout the film, Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro, in a role that buddy Al Pacino called “one of the greatest performances (of) film history”) embodies many of the traits associated with toxic masculinity. He is aggressive, controlling, and quick to lash out at anyone who challenges him or makes him feel vulnerable. He is emotionally stunted, unable to connect with others on a deeper level, and prone to using physical violence to express his frustration and anger. These traits are particularly evident in his relationships with his wife and brother, both of whom he treats poorly and abuses emotionally and physically. He doesn’t understand that the way he treats people in the ring is not the same way he should treat them outside of it. It’s an issue we see with professional athletes of every sport. 

It’s about how treating an athlete like a god is terrible for both society (leading to more of the same) and the man himself (and his inevitable self-destruction). 

Southpaw (2015)

Many boxing movies are “rags to riches” movies, where we see our lonely, broke, directionless protagonist work his way up through the ranks, American Dream style, finding happiness and bounty on his rise to the top. Take Rocky for example: He’s the muscle for a loan shark and tries working up the courage to talk to the woman who works at the pet store. He’s a regular guy whose life is forever changed for the better when he is plucked from obscurity to fight world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.

Southpaw, another film about a lefty boxer, played in this film by the always strong Jake Gyllenhaal, is really a “riches to rags” story. Billy “The Great” Hope has already worked his way up – bouncing from foster home to foster home, he found his talent in boxing. He’s got a beautiful wife (Rachel McAdams), a darling little girl, and all the fame and fortune anyone could want when the movie starts. However, he loses it all when tragedy strikes. His wife, his child, anything that made him feel on top of the world, it all goes poof. It’s about his great fall, from riches to rags, and his determination to regain whatever he can. It’s excellent.