I remember watching A Season on the Brink with my dad, a basketball junkie and long-time coach, who was utterly incredulous with the casting of the late Brian Dennehy as Bobby Knight. Braddock is mostly memorable for needlessly depicting Max Baer as a cartoonishly evil antagonist better suited to a Rocky sequel than as a representation of the historical figure and hero to a marginalized demographic Baer actually was.įor ESPN, a network that catered to hardcore sports fan, presenting true stories the core audience would know while offering enough drama to appeal to casual demographics, this was an especially tricky proposition. The otherwise forgettable dramatization of Great Depression-era boxing champion James J.
Dramatize reality too much, however, and you end up with something like the 2005 film Cinderella Man. Even the best biopics or based-on-a-true-story adaptations take certain liberties with reality either for runtime or dramatic effect.
