By Mary Shaffer
and Jerry Bunin
The Tribune

Filmmakers have long used boxing to tell distinctly American stories.

Movies portray boxing as a way out of crime, poverty and ethnic isolation and into the American Dream, as a corrupt business that taints everyone involved and tarnishes the American dream, and as biographies of real fighters showing the kind of men attracted to a brutal sport.

The spirit of boxing is aptly captured in "On the Waterfront," a 1954 film about union corruption. Boxing is a backdrop, but it explains the hero's motives and his relationship to the world.

As punchy ex-prizefighter Terry Malloy, Marlon Brando criticizes his brother (Rod Steiger) for forcing him to take a dive in a fight he could have won. "I coulda been somebody, Chahlie! I coulda been a contender, instead of a bum, which is what I am. You was my brother, Chahlie. You shoulda looked out for me a little."

The fight game is also a background in "The Hurricane," a possible Oscar contender set for a Dec. 29 release and starring Denzel Washington as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

It is the true story of a middleweight contender who saw fighting as a way out of the ghetto, but was wrongly imprisoned for 20 years for a triple murder he did not commit until a black teenager and three white activists, aided by Bob Dylan's popular song, gained his freedom.

Many fight films depict how boxing gives the underclass a shot at success.

Sylvester Stallone's triumphant "Rocky" (1976) is typical. Inspired by unknown Chuck Wepner going the distance against Muhammed Ali, "Rocky" finds you cheering because a classic underdog makes the most out of his one chance at success.

On the down side, "Boxing is like any other business, only here the blood shows," according to "Champion" (1949), the "story of a boy who rose from the depths of poverty to become champion" and winds up thoroughly corrupted.

As the unscrupulous and arrogant fighter, Kirk Douglas is so obsessed with seizing his chance at greatness that he tramples his loyal manager, crippled brother and three girlfriends to reach the top. "It's every man for himself," he says. "Nice guys don't make money. I'm not going to be a 'hey you' all my life. I'm gonna make something of myself."

"Champion" was directed by Mark Robson whose "The Harder They Fall" (1956) is one of the best films about an industry where the managers and promoters treat boxers as child-like commodities to be exploited and then discarded when their bodies and spirits are broken.

Humphrey Bogart (in his last film role) plays a cynical, unemployed reporter hired by Rod Steiger to promote "Toro" Moreno, a 7-foot Argentine boxer with "a powderpuff punch and a glass jaw." Steiger "fixes" several fights to build Toro up as a contender and then bets against him in the hopelessly one-sided championship bout.

Budd Schulberg's story leaves everyone making money but the naïve boxer whom the conscience-stricken Bogart helps escape before writing an expose of the racket he helped to promote.

In "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962), screenwriter Rod Serling's moving adaptation of his original 1956 TV drama, the promoter/manager is also the enemy.

After being knocked out in his final fight by a young (pre-Muhammed Ali) Cassius Clay, "Mountain" Rivera (Anthony Quinn) faces the grim reality of life after boxing without skills, education, money or family.

His chance to change is sabotaged by his conniving manager whose life depends on the proud Rivera who "never took a dive" becoming a wrestler to pay off the manager's gambling debt.

A similar situation occurs in "The Set-Up" (1949), a powerful film noir starring Robert Ryan.

Based on a narrative poem and told in real time, Art Cohn's taut screenplay follows 80 minutes in the life of a veteran boxer before, during and after his last fight in Paradise City.

Director Robert Wise depicts boxing as smoky arenas, bloodthirsty audiences, ruthless gamblers and promoters who bet against their fighters, worried wives unable to watch husbands beaten, and the locker room where boxers on the rise and ebb dream of being "one punch away" from a title shot.

Cinematic boxing biographies paint both sides of the fight business.

There are triumphant portraits like "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956, also directed by Wise), which made Paul Newman a star when he replaced the late James Dean as Rocky Graziano who rose from juvenile delinquent and Army deserter to middleweight champion and Italian-American hero.

The flip side is "Raging Bull" (1980), often called the best film of the 1980s. Brutish Jake "The Bull" LaMotta (Robert DeNiro) can't express himself except through violence, which brings him success in the ring while destroying his marriage and himself.

When he first saw the film, LaMotta said, "I kind of look bad in it. Then I realized it was true. That's the way it was. I was a no-good bastard."

The amazing DeNiro trained with LaMotta for a year before filming and then gained 50 pounds to play the aging boxer after he retired.

In filming the extraordinary fight sequences, director Martin Scorsese was influenced by earlier fight films like "Champion," but set a new standard with his violently poetic, graphically realistic slow-motion close-ups.

"Raging Bull" earned eight Oscar nods, winning for actor and editing.

Only "Rocky" (seven nominations and Oscars for picture, director and editing) and "On The Waterfront" (12 nominations and eight Oscars, including picture, actor, director, writing, editing and cinematography) were more honored.

Eight more boxing dramas were nominated in major categories, with four winning Oscars for writing, editing or cinematography.

The last to win an Oscar is "When We Were Kings" (1996), the engrossing documentary about the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship match in Zaire arranged by Don King between Muhammed Ali and a young George Foreman.

Leon Gast, who spent 23 years getting his film made, combines original footage with contemporary interviews to explore the personal and historical significance of the event and its participants.

He provides a nostalgic look back at the irrepressible Ali (just named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated) in his prime as he beats Foreman both in the match and the hearts of the African people.

The film celebrates the Sweet Science, described in "Champion" as "the only sport in the world where two guys get paid for doing something they'd be arrested for if they got drunk and did it for nothing."

• "Body and Soul" (1947)
• "City for Conquest" (1940)
• "Don King: Only in America" (1997)
• "Fat City" (1972)
• "Gentleman Jim (1942)
• "Kid Galahad" (1937)
• "Golden Boy" (1939)
• "The Great White Hope" (1970)
• "The Prizefighter and the Lady" (1933)
• "Pulp Fiction" (1994)
• "The Quiet Man" (1952)