The Big Picture · Review · Rankings
March 3, 2023/ 78 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
A Creed III review, then Sean counts down his ten favorite boxing movies while Amanda pushes back.
11 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘Creed III’
Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut. Sean and Amanda both liked it without loving it; the fatherhood subplot and the anime-inflected fight camerawork land, the metaphor-made-literal choice in the final bout doesn't. Jonathan Majors as Damien Anderson dominates the first third, then vanishes for 45 minutes. No Stallone, no Rocky, and (Amanda's chief complaint) the Bill Conti horns never play.
Sean's Top 10 Boxing Moviescounted down 10 to 1; listed best-first
No. 1, and nothing else was ever in the running. Made for $960,000, grossed $225 million, won Best Picture over Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President's Men. Sean puts it fourth in that race and still calls it Pantheon.
No. 2. Leon Gast's Rumble in the Jungle doc, an hour and a half of Ali in the Congo. Sean calls it a natural double feature with Creed III and the reason Michael Mann's Ali always felt redundant.
No. 3. De Niro's Jake LaMotta, plus the body transformation he's still known for. Not the most technically accurate boxing, but that's not the point.
No. 4. Ryan Coogler at 29. 'This movie rules': the dirt-bike ride to Meek Mill is Sean's evidence.
No. 5, and the saddest on the list. John Huston assimilating into New Hollywood; Stacy Keach and a young Jeff Bridges. 'I'll watch Fat City till I die.'
No. 6. Robert Wise, 72 minutes, Robert Ryan as an over-the-hill fighter battling a corrupt sport, the kind of corruption Sean notes is still around 75 years later.
No. 7. Walter Hill's bare-knuckle picture with Charles Bronson. 'Just a good fight movie.'
No. 8. Robert Rossen's anti-capitalist morality fable, John Garfield Oscar-nominated, script by soon-to-be-blacklisted Abraham Polonsky. Watching a boxer's soul get methodically corrupted.
No. 9. Stallone writing, producing, and directing the movie that built the Sly mythology. 'Corny as fuck,' and Sean was moved anyway.
No. 10. The Anthony Quinn film, though Sean's real love is the 1956 Playhouse 90 teleplay with Jack Palance, about an aging, brain-damaged boxer pushed into pro wrestling.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The rest of the Rocky & Creed saga Rocky IIIRocky IVRocky VCreed IIParadise Alley
Coogler, Jordan & Majors elsewhere Fruitvale StationMagazine DreamsBlack PantherBlack Panther: Wakanda ForeverJudas and the Black MessiahKing RichardQueen & Slim
Boxing pictures left off the list Rocco and His BrothersThe FighterMillion Dollar BabyCinderella ManSouthpawOn the WaterfrontThe GreatestAliSomebody Up There Likes Me
Names dropped along the way The HustlerAll the King's MenThe Color of MoneyJoeThe Karate KidThe Karate Kid Part III Heart Huckabees
Scorsese, Mann & Hackford tangents GoodfellasThe DepartedThe Wolf of Wall StreetTaxi DriverSilenceThe IrishmanThiefHeatDolores ClaiborneThe Devil's Advocate
The 1976 Best Picture race NetworkAll the President's MenBound for Glory
Franchise fatigue and the year ahead Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaBlack WidowShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten RingsThor: Love and ThunderEternalsAvengers: EndgameJurassic World DominionSpider-Man: No Way HomeScream VIJohn Wick: Chapter 4Cocaine BearAirBeau Is AfraidFast XMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part OneBarbieOppenheimerThe Super Mario Bros. MovieThe Dark Knight Rises
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The WireFriday Night LightsSurvivor's RemorseThe Twilight ZonePeter Pan (Mary Martin)The Sound of Music
Games Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!Duck Hunt
Ads FanDuelCarvanaBoar's HeadNetflix (FIFA World Cup game)Quaker