Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Richie-67-485852 One of the best movies out there with our favorite actors to boot awaits any viewer who wants to spend some quality time in the entertainment world and also be introduced to a real story about real people too. There is so much reality going on here it is refreshing to see it. Rocky is not perfect but juvenile delinquent, convict and a dishonorably charged military person. He is dysfunctional, carries lots of mom and dad issues and basically is a mixed up ignorant lost soul. That's why he captures our hearts because there is a little bit of us in his life. Anyone could have got caught up in all that and many did. Here we see the grace of God giving a person a chance to form a different ending with his life other than what the dark forces intended. Imagine if this guy was brought correctly. One of the greatest inspirations stories around. Remember, next time things have you down and it all looks bad, somebody up there...

SimonJack Paul Newman spent his first five years of acting in episodes of various TV series – none of which were noteworthy. His first big screen role was in "The Silver Chalice," a 1954 film that bombed at the box office. Interestingly, Newman won the Golden Globe award that year as the most promising male newcomer. The next year in his life was spent back in the TV dramas. Then came a break with his role as Rocky Graziano (nee, Thomas Rocco Barbella) in this 1956 biopic. The movie is based on Graziano's autobiography by the same title, "Somebody Up There Likes Me." Newman gives a superb performance. I agree with a couple of other reviewers, that this is one of the best boxing movies ever made. Newman showed his acting talents in playing the complex character of the troubled Barbella, growing up during the depression years in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He nailed the accent perfectly. The movie was a smash hit, and all the cast did superbly well in their roles. Pier Angeli played his wife, Norma Unger, daughter of Jewish German immigrants. Eileen Heckart played his mother and Harold Stone played Nick, his dad. Other notable roles were Everett Soane as his trainer, Irving Cohen; and Sal Mineo as a friend from the streets, Romolo. The fight scenes seem realistic. The film, like the book, pulls no punches (what better pun considering the subject?) in portraying Rocky's rocky (oops, another natural, no?) background. The supporting cast all are very good. I don't know how much Graziano gave to this in his book, but it would have been nice to see a little more with Army Sgt. John Hyland at Leavenworth military prison. Rocky actually spent nine months there and was dishonorably discharged from the Army for going AWOL after he punched and knocked out a captain. In the movie, Hyland took Rocky under wing to condition him for a fighting career when he got out. But nothing is shown of this. During Rocky's 1947 World Middleweight title fight toward the end of the film, the camera switches to scenes of family and other folks listening in on the radio. In a few scenes, the camera shows Hyland in civilian clothing listening in a bar with other men. This man likely played a more important role in Graziano's life (and depicted thus in his autobiography) than the movie shows. Apparently, Tony Zale was originally cast to play himself in this film. But when Newman got rough while sparring with him before the filming began, Zale knocked Newman out. So, Court Shepard replaced Zale for the film's final fight scene.Graziano's life had a happy ending, as does the movie. He lost the title the very next year to Zale (1948), but continued boxing for four more years. He won 20 of his next 21 fights, most by knockouts or TKOs, and had one draw. Then, on April 16, 1952, he again fought for the Middleweight title, but was knocked out halfway through the third round by Sugar Ray Robinson. I'm pretty sure I watched that fight on TV with my dad when we lived at Ft. Riley, Kansas, where he was serving in the Army.Graziano had one more fight five months later and he lost the 10-round bout in a unanimous decision. After that, he hung up his gloves. In 1971, he was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. He was a very popular celebrity and appeared as a guest on various TV programs and shows. He made TV commercials and built a local pizza chain In New York – Rocky Graziano's Pizza Ring. Rocky and Norma were married nearly 47 years when he died at age 71 on May 22, 1990. His funeral Mass took place in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. This is an excellent film about a troubled kid from the streets of New York who used his fists inside the ring to turn his life around. The movie won two Oscars and was nominated for a third.

Bill Slocum Paul Newman arrived as a screen star with his performance as street tough Rocky Barbella, the first of many anti-hero roles for one of the best anti-heroes in Hollywood history. But "Somebody Up There Likes Me" plays more for the heartstrings as Barbella transforms himself into honest boxer (and real-life famous middleweight) Rocky Graziano.Newman looks a bit old to play Barbella in his street-kid days, and his Lower East Side diction doesn't convince however many H's he drops. But the film challenges his sturdy charisma by having him play a nasty hood, not to mention saddling him with some hoary lines when pressed to explain why he's so bad."I try tuh turn da leaf, but I can't make it!" Rocky begs his weeping mother (Eileen Heckart) early on. "Sumtin inside of me! I try, and I can't make it!"The film rises above such tinniness with performances by Newman, Heckart, and others who dare to play their parts as if their lives depended on it, as was maybe the case for a then-struggling Newman. Helping also is a surprisingly fun turn in the script. Much of the early heavy melodrama gives way agreeably to a comic sensibility that showcases Newman's sly strengths in that department.Writer Ernest Lehman was a frequent collaborator with director Robert Wise, and they seem to draw the best from each other here. Wise knows he has a melodrama, and sells it with piquant characters and on-location shooting in Barbella's Lower East Side neighborhood that makes the film feel alive. Lehman keeps his story moving while creating a romantic subplot (utilizing the delightful Pier Angeli) that for once doesn't slow down a sports movie.Make no mistake, clichés do abound. When Rocky gets in trouble, it's announced in newspapers with double banner headlines. When he has a bad dream, he starts from the bed like he got zapped in the foot. There are not one but two friendly Jewish-uncle figures ready to counsel Rocky with wise good humor when he's feeling low.I'm not sure what the point was of a lengthy subplot involving a crook from Rocky's past who tries to get him to take a dive; it was based on the historical record but is poorly integrated into the movie. But welcome to the movies anyway, Robert Loggia. It's nice to have you with us.Also welcome here future Disney star Dean Jones and King of Cool Steve McQueen, whom Wise gives a very cool intro by having him literally swipe at you with a switchblade."Somebody Up There Likes Me" is famous both for who is in it and who wasn't: This was supposed to be James Dean's next role before his fatal crash. I wonder how the gentler, anemic Dean would have done playing self-described "scum of the slums" Barbella/Graziano. Certainly he could not have sold the climactic bout with Tony Zale as Newman does with his scowling brio, or carried off the moonier, playful moments that come to define Graziano in the second half."Somebody Up There" may not be perfect, but it delivers a warm and resonant introduction to Newman and a boxing film still punching its weight 56 years on.

Rodrigo Amaro "Somebody Up There Likes Me" is the second film Paul Newman starred as leading actor and the first to become a hit making him a great movie star. Here he plays the legendary boxer Rocky Graziano in his long and very difficult journey to be a recognized boxer. The movie begins showing his tough childhood in Bronx where he participated in robberies, and then went to prison because of his long list of crimes. After he went out of prison, he is drafted by the U.S. Army, but runs away. His luck seems to change when he discover that he can get fast money winning boxing fights. His first friend is Irving Cohen (Everett Sloane, the eternal Mr. Bernstein from "Citizen Kane"), who became his coach, arranging more and more fights to the young talented man. Just like Rocky Balboa who finds Adrienne, suddenly Graziano finds his first love, a young Jewish girl called Norma (Pier Angeli), who like him very much but can't stand his boxing.But the biggest challenge to Rocky isn't in the fighting but it's something more deep. A guy (Robert Loggia) that he met in prison reappears and then makes an offer to the boxer: he must lose a important fight. Why? Because his past on robbery and in the Army may be revealed to the public that really likes this guy. Rocky's always battling with himself trying to understand why bad things happens to him over and over again. OK, you might find the plot very obvious, something that you've seen before, but it has it's good moments and some originality. Newman's performance is a great asset to the film. He is conflicted, lost, sympathetic, angry and yet the audience always like him. Even that the boxing scenes doesn't work so well like in "Raging Bull" it's still worth watching the story of a man who's been beaten too much but don't give up so easily. Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Sal Mineo (Rocky's friend), Eileen Heckart and Robert Loggia (in his film debut) are very good in strong supporting roles. Pay attention to Steve McQueen participation as Fidel, one of the members of the gang in the beginning of the movie. Well directed by Robert Wise. 10/10