I liked the Tyson documentary but this one is a lot different when compared to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this, it had real heart and made me wish I had a better relationship with my own brother.
You go on these Internet blogs and people say the meanest things. - Hayden Panettiere
I agree, this is one of the best sports documentaries ever made. Its about so much more than sports. The relationship between the brothers is amazing, as is their integrity as humans. I also wish I had this type of relationship with my own brother.
shareI liked it very much too.
And I like the values. In a way, people live out stories that express values, when they are big stars. For example, if the brothers fought each other now, the moral of the story would be, "show even brothers enough money, and they will attack each other like wolves." But if you want to make a story to express that moral, you need some other brothers, not these brothers. The Klitschkos stand for family first.
Very well said David. The one the thing that comes through clearly from this documentary is that the Klitschko brothers have been brought up to be good people, despite being raised in desperate conditions. After the fall of the USSR, the easy thing for them to do would be to become mob enforcers in the utter chaos of the early 1990s. But they did things the right way. The pattern repeats itself, when it comes to the decision not to sign with Don King and the integrity they have shown through out their professional careers.
As for the choice not to fight each other, despite what might be the biggest pay day in boxing history, it shows that they honor the promise to their mother and that they truely love for each other. As I die-hard boxing fan, I can honestly say, I don't need to see that fight. The way these guys hit, someone could get killed or suffer permanent severe injuries.
The Klitschkos will always have a unique legacy in boxing lore, not only for their world class ability, but for their intelligence, integrity, and the fact that they are genuinely nice people who are willing to use their position to make life better for others.
chas437: "The one the thing that comes through clearly from this documentary is that the Klitschko brothers have been brought up to be good people, despite being raised in desperate conditions."
And they weren't the one making these conditions desperate. They take after their father, who doing his duty as a soldier made conditions after the Chernobyl disaster less desperate, even ultimately at the cost of his life.
chas437:"After the fall of the USSR, the easy thing for them to do would be to become mob enforcers in the utter chaos of the early 1990s. But they did things the right way. The pattern repeats itself, when it comes to the decision not to sign with Don King and the integrity they have shown through out their professional careers."
Exactly.
The contrast with Tyson (in his movie) couldn't be sharper.
Or consider almost everybody in the documentary Facing Ali, even young Joe Frazier "borrowing cars and not giving them back", in other words working as a car thief. (He was laughing; the people whose cars he stole probably weren't.)
This is the criminal class speaking. These are treated as victims of racism and all deserving of our sympathy and identification, but anyone who thought that these kids coming into the neighborhood was trouble was right, and Tyson went to Cus Damato with the idea that he could always rob these soft White folks. These are not primarily people who rose above bad neighborhoods, these are primarily the kind of people who created bad neighborhoods in the first place. When Tyson explains the thrill of going into someone's shop, and they know you're a bad one and they watch you and watch you, but you are more intently concentrated on stealing from them than they are on not being robbed, and they make a single lapse and you steal from them - what is this but the voice of the kind of kid who makes it hell to run an honest business, and thus who makes the honest businessmen move out and who makes neighborhoods bad?
When Tyson says that originally he got into boxing to learn to mug people better, what could be clearer? Boxing is a glorification of the violence of evil men. (It must be hard for the people who were robbed and assaulted by these sporting heroes when young to see who society praises and rewards, the innocent victims or the neighborhood threat.)
With glory, even false glory, comes money, and with piles of money there is no longer any incentive to mug people on street corners. (Though wife-beating etc. remain attractive.) But that's all the "character forming" there is.
If you wanted to make a movie about what made George Foreman a better man, it would be about Jesus not boxing.
With the the Klitschkos, everything is different. One path opened before them, offering immediate rewards and leading to a life of criminality; the other led to sports and the physical toll of sports and the discipline of sportsmanship. They chose the better path.
chas437: "As for the choice not to fight each other, despite what might be the biggest pay day in boxing history, it shows that they honor the promise to their mother and that they truely love for each other. As I die-hard boxing fan, I can honestly say, I don't need to see that fight. The way these guys hit, someone could get killed or suffer permanent severe injuries."
If the Klitschkos ever fought each other, the first injury would be to their mother's heart.
chas437: "The Klitschkos will always have a unique legacy in boxing lore, not only for their world class ability, but for their intelligence, integrity, and the fact that they are genuinely nice people who are willing to use their position to make life better for others."
Yes.