25 best boxing movies ever

We take a look at the knock-out movie classics from the world of boxing movies, and pick the prize-fighters from the bunch.

Snatch (2000)

Guy Ritchie’s gangster follow-up to Lock, Stock was a shoo-in for box office success, but Snatch’s knock-out punch was the appearance of Brad Pitt as an unintelligible Irish traveller who can knock out any man with a single punch. The accent was chosen after Pitt asked for a role and Ritchie realised he couldn’t manage English.

Klitschko (2011)

Boxing brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko climb from the mean streets of the Ukraine to the dazzle of heavyweight boxing, in this engaging documentary. Unlike most sports docs, the fact that it deals with two protagonists adds an interesting dynamic – although the bond between the two is close, their boxing styles differ wildly.

Real Steel (2011)

Giant. Boxing. Robots. Based on Steel – a 1956 short story by I Am Legend author Richard Matheson – Real Steel is a totally palatable children’s film. Sugar Ray Leonard oversaw the motion-captured fighting, and he knows a thing or two about putting up his dukes.

The Hurricane (1999)

Denzel Washington does a painfully good job of playing wrongly imprisoned Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in this biographical boxing flick. It’s also (rightly) stamped with the (more famous) Bob Dylan song of the same name.

Girlfight (2000)

Michelle Rodriguez, as a real-world part-time jailbird, is Hollywood’s go-to girl for tough chick roles. So she fills the gloves perfectly in this Cannes award-winning tale of the hard world of female boxing. Of course there’s a love interest too, but plenty of punching stops the romance boiling over.

Raging Bull (1980)

Robert De Niro famously binged his way from 145 lbs to 215 lbs over the course of four months to play brutal boxer Jake LaMotta in his prime and the ruined shell of a man he became. Violent, brutal… and that’s just what the movie censors said. Try not to imagine being his wife.

Rocky (1976)

If you’ve never seen the first instalment of the Rocky series, prepare to be surprised. A far cry from the formulaic sequels, the 1976 original was good enough to scoop Best Picture. Stallone wrote and starred, while several of his family filled minor roles to cover holes in the sub-million dollar budget.

Cinderella Man (2005)

Russell Crowe finds his way back into the ring in Ron Howard’s story of a down-on-his-luck Jersey boxer who breaks his best hand. Luckily Paul Giamatti is on hand as his friend/coach to coax him back to form. Renee Zellweger plays the unimpressed wife.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Clint Eastwood (who also directed and wrote the music) plays the grumpy trainer who decides to prove his skills by training Hilary Swank to welterweight glory. So far, so formulaic, but it’s not the saccharine tale you might imagine. A foursome of Oscar gongs made for a happier ending than made it into Million Dollar Baby’s final cut.

The Fighter (2010)

One minute you’re knocking Sugar Ray Leonard to the canvas, the next you’re living in a crack den while your brother attempts to get out of his boxing career rut. And HBO’s making a documentary of your fall from grace. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale star in this tense, classy biodrama.

Tyson (2008)

This documentary on the former undisputed heavyweight world champion earned itself a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and follows Tyson’s own reflection on his life and career, following his difficult childhood and rise to the top of the boxing world.

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Paul Newman stepped in to replace the late James Dean as boxing legend Rocky Graziano in this silver screen adaptation of his career. It’s also one of the first films in which Steve McQeen appeared, paving the way for his iconic Hollywood journey.

The Champ (1931)

Nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, The Champ was specifically written for Wallace Beery (who turned down a US$500,000 role elsewhere for the job). He plays a former heavyweight champion down on his luck and living with his eight-year-old son in Mexico. Plagued by drinking and gambling problems, stepping back into the ring is his only option to save them both.

Blue Blood (2006)

This tough-edged documentary follows five Oxford University students and their journey to make it into the Oxford University Amateur Boxing Club squad to earn their right to trade knuckle blows with students from the University of Cambridge. Who needs rowing, eh?

When We Were Kings (1996)

Leon Gast’s compelling documentary about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s 1974 Rumble In The Jungle explores the cultural and political significance of the fight, which took place in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) – then a brutal dictatorship. But while it looks at Ali’s popularity and his hopes regarding both Africans and African-Americans, it also devotes plenty of time to the bout itself, in which Ali’s tactics proved decisive in beating heavy hitter Foreman. It bagged the Best Doc Oscar.

The Harder They Fall (1956)

Humphrey Bogart’s final film role (he died of cancer a year later) casts him as a down-on-his-luck sportswriter hired to publicise the career of a huge, likeable, but ultimately untalented boxer who can’t stop winning – chiefly because all his fights are fixed by Rod Steiger’s crooked promotor. When the boxer is brutally beaten in a heavyweight final and paid a pittance of the ill-gotten proceeds, Bogart’s guilt forces him into publishing an exposé of the sordid affair.

Champion (1949)

A noirish drama that explores the brutality of life as a prizefighter, Champion sees Kirk Douglas battering his way to success in the squared circle – but at considerable cost to his own morals. Lauded for its gritty, intense and realistic fight scenes, the film earned Douglas an Oscar nomination, and actually received the golden statue for its editing.

Body and Soul (1947)

Another film noir from the ’40s that examines the various tolls taken by a boxer rising through the rankings while dealing with widespread corruption (look, there’s a huge clue in the title!), Body and Soul makes an interesting – if thematically similar – companion to Champion. Interesting note: to add fluidity to the filming of the fight scenes, director Robert Rossen operated the camera while wearing rollerskates and being pushed around by an assistant.

The Set-Up (1949)

Surprise, surprise: it’s another mid-century movie about the crooked world of prizefighting. This one, directed by the legendary Robert Wise, has a twist: the ageing fighter being set up to take a dive by his promotor only finds out about the fix halfway through the fight – and then faces a battle between his dignity and his head. Possibly the inspiration (at least partly) for the beginning of Bruce Willis’ story in Pulp Fiction.

Rocky IV (1985)

Where the first Rocky film was a gritty slice-of-life drama, by the mid-‘80s it had become an increasingly cartoonish franchise. It reached its zenith (or its nadir, depending on your view) with this outrageous propaganda piece – in which Rocky fighting the Cold War by proxy against chilly Russkie pugilist Ivan Drago (played with panto-villain relish by Dolph Lundgren). Entirely ludicrous, it’s nonetheless interesting as an example of how far a film series can drift from its roots.

The Boxer (1997)

Boxing’s often used in film to explore social and political conflicts – and never more so than in Jim Sheridan’s drama. Reuniting with In the Name of the Father star Daniel Day-Lewis, Sheridan’s film follows a former Provisional IRA member who sets up a boxing club after a long stint in prison. Naturally, his past catches up with him.

Ali (2001)

Will Smith has claimed that his favourite performance is his titular role as “The Greatest” in Michael Mann’s biopic – which follows Ali from his early days as Cassius Clay to the infamous Rumble In The Jungle. Mann’s visceral boxing scenes pack a hefty punch, but it wasn’t enough to win Smith the Oscar – not quite the champion of the world, then.

On the Waterfront (1954)

Elia Kazan’s classic crime drama doesn’t feature any action in the ring, focusing as it does on union corruption and mob violence. It does, however, contain probably the single most famous speech about boxing in the history of the cinema, in the form of Marlon Brando’s “I coulda been a contender” scene. Magnificent.

The Ring (1927)

Astonishingly, Alfred Hitchcock directed this boxing melodrama – his fourth film – when he was just 28 years old. The silent film follows a fairground pugilist nicknamed One-Round, whose fiancée falls for a more sophisticated Aussie heavyweight boxer. The Ring finds the young director already indulging his taste for visual motifs (check out all the circles!) and editing trickery – borrowing from Russian cinema’s montage techniques.

Kid Galahad (1937)

Michael Curtiz’ movie sees a trusting, naive bell boy recruited as a prizefighter, after demonstrating superb boxing talent in a street brawl. His manager, played by Edward G Robinson, uses him as a way to muscle in on Humphrey Bogart’s racketeer – but when the boxer falls in love with the manager’s young sister, things quickly go south outside the ring. It was remade as a musical in 1962, with Elvis Presley in the leading role.