X
- 1999
- WinStar Cinema
- 1 h 34 m
- 1999
- WinStar Cinema
- 1 h 34 m
Summary A documentary highlighting three young boxers from the mean streets of Brooklyn and their coach as they prepare for the 1997 Golden Gloves Tournament, giving equal attention to their experiences in and out of the ring.
Directed By: Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen
- 1999
- WinStar Cinema
- 1 h 34 m
- 1999
- WinStar Cinema
- 1 h 34 m
On the Ropes
80
User Score
Generally Favorable
8.0
Summary A documentary highlighting three young boxers from the mean streets of Brooklyn and their coach as they prepare for the 1997 Golden Gloves Tournament, giving equal attention to their experiences in and out of the ring.
Directed By: Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
80
85% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
80
85% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A sports documentary as gripping, in a different way, as "Hoop Dreams."
Walking out of the theater, I felt so bereft that I couldn't speak. And it doesn't hurt any less thinking about the movie now, as I write this.
The documentary has no narration, and uses excellent expository camerawork to say things that no narrator could equal.
In recording life as it unfolds in the course of a year, On the Ropes not only defies prediction as to its outcome but is in some ways downright confounding...as involving and suspenseful as the best fictional films.
What the film lacks in freshness...it makes up for in its sympathetic and compelling portrayal of its subjects.
Burstein and Morgen take all this in from an unobtrusive middle distance, letting the subjects themselves slowly complicate the profusion of athletic and ghetto-real clichés that fly scattershot in the early going.
The story of a trainer and three of his boxers trying to break away from the confines of a gym in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Each story is strong, gripping in its own way. But you've heard them all before.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
8.0
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
8.0
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company
Highway Films,
Magnolia Mae Films,
The Learning Channel (TLC)
Release Date Sep 24, 1999
Duration 1 h 34 m
Genres
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
