With enough subplots and secondary stories to fill a 10-episode miniseries, “Hands of Stone” is unable to find its center.
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He may have a victor here in the biopic of Roberto Duran in which DeNiro will play Ray Arcel, a longtime trainer who came out of retirement to work with Duran. But Duran is a hothead who’s badly in need of discipline. This film portrays him differently.
Answer: In boxing there are no bad guys or good guys. Just people trying to make a living, and trying to live up to their pride and to try to become someone. A sport that has been shown many times is boxing. The hunger you suffered, the sacrifices that you made. I just love Juliette [Binoche]. As a boxing fan of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, not to mention old school boxing history, while Jakubowicz smartly includes recreations of iconic images and fight techniques, he keenly focuses on the unseen images of Duran’s life in Panama and that behind the camera, letting the audience see Duran’s generosity with his fellow Panamanians, serving nearly as Robin Hood to the community.
“I had never boxed before, I knew nothing about this”.
The film combines two of Hollywood’s most exhausted tropes: the life-skimming biopic and the in-search-of-redemption boxing pic. It really puts out how much it is about strategy and tactics and technique. Although Hagler won the unanimous 15-round decision, Duran accomplished something no boxer to date had been able to do: he went the distance and proved that Hagler wasn’t invincible. American troops respond with force to protesters outside the Panama Canal as young Roberto barely escapes. But they were also fighting for something more than just money.
He had psyched out Leonard the first time they fought. (“Hands of Stone” co-star) Ruben Blades … said to me that success is like a cake that looks incredible from the outside. Oftentimes when you bite it, it’s filled with broken glass. He wanted to laugh through his fears. I couldn’t understand, like the press of the world, didn’t know what was going on that day.
He’d fallen out of shape in the months between the two fights. That’s why it’s so hard to speak about movies or your characters when you’re in the process. Have you kept up with that at all? I would never train in the same way. Of course I’m not at the same weight. Ramirez is a tough guy and ideal to play a boxer who never lacked toughness, inside or outside the ring.
The doc, 30 for 30: No Más, directed by Eric Drath, has haunted me ever since I saw it, in large part because Duran appears to have been haunted since his actions in 1980. It was very important to get as close as possible to the reality of a boxer.
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Unfortunately, Hands of Stone barely scratches the surface, choosing to focus on Duran’s rise and rivalry with Sugar Ray Leonard, but in the boxing world, Duran had more moments than a film could cover, so let’s revisit 10 of these great moments in the career of a boxing legend. When he goes on to win the bout, taking home the championship belt, we see the Panamanians glued to their TVs, and storming the streets in celebration, but still can’t quite feel as if boxing justice has been done. The real trouble with the Leonard character is that he actually comes off as likeable and root-worthy, whereas our hero Duran squanders any chance for our sympathies by remaining the same brash, self-aggrandizing child from the first frame to the last. It was a very formative experience for me.
