Hands of Stone (2016)

Writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz has captured the true story of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán and has been able to turn this rags to riches to dissipation and back story into far more than just a boxing story. This is a film that focuses on the interpersonal and professional relationship between a fighter and his trainer and it works well.The story is a rise, fall and rise again story of legendary Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán (Edgar Ramírez) who climbed into notoriety in 1968 as a 16 year old in his first controversial appearance at Madison Square Gardens. In June 1980, he defeated Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond) to capture the WBC welterweight title but shocked the boxing world by returning to his corner in the November rematch, saying 'no mas' (no more): he was retiring from boxing. By the time of his actual retirement in 2002 at the age of 50, he had 199 fights under his belt with 103 wins and four titles as a lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight. The film however focuses on his relationship with legendary boxing trainer Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro) whose own exploits in the boxing world made him the first trainer to be inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.The cast is splendid – and in addition to Ramirez, Raymond, and De Niro there are fine supporting roles by Ana de Armas as Roberto's wife, Rubén Blades as Carlos Eleta, John Turturro as Frankie Carbo, Pedro Perez as Plomo, and Ellen Barkin as De Niro's wife, and Reg E. Cathey as Don King.For boxing fans and for those who respect the history of sports this film is a must. But beyond the boxing and historical aspects, the interacting between Ramírez and De Niro is richly rewarding and Oscar worthy performances. Grady Harp, December 16

The sad thing is, this is a movie that every American should see and understand, but that that is almost impossible, there's just too much disinformation standing between us and the truth.This is not a big film but that Robert De Niro was willing to lend his considerable talents to it speaks volumes about its worth. The story is a true one more than difficult to find in news reports at the time and so all the more jarring when told with the passionate clarity that it gets here. I admit I have a very personal point of view about this movie. I was stationed in Panama when Duran was fighting. I wish I could have seen him fight, but the closest I came was being outside a stadium and being stunned at the uproar coming from it. I asked someone what was going on and they said Roberto Duran was fighting. Roberto was more than just a fighter to Panamanians, he was their hero. The Chorrillo district he grew up in was mostly slum. To come up from such poverty seems more than heroic to anyone familiar with the area, it's downright miraculous.As Ray Arcel, his trainer, said, Roberto had some of the best instincts he'd ever seen. He was a natural fighter. His weakness was he was also a man prone to excess and excessive pride and the film does not shrink from those flaws. But to its credit it also doesn't shrink from putting the US in a less than admirable light.There's more that isn't mentioned in this film, such as the highly suspicious way General Torrijos, president of Panama, died, or the extensive prostitution our military base promotes which Roberto would have witnessed. Still this movie is a vast improvement over the usual way Hollywood portrays Central America.The acting is excellent throughout though I especially enjoyed Ana de Armas' portrayal of Roberto's wife, Felicidad, for the memories it gave me.

"In 66 seconds Roberto Durand changed my life." Ray Arcel (De Niro) was one of the best boxing managers in history until he crossed the mob. He promised to step away from the game, but then he met Roberto Durand (Edgar Ramírez). Both lives, and the sport of boxing is changed forever and the only person that can stop Durand's rise is himself. I was looking forward to watching this movie since I am a huge sports movie fan and it had De Niro in it. First of all this was a very very good movie that had great drama and great acting. The fact that this is a true story made this even better and I do recommend this movie. That being said, I watched the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about this subject a few years ago, and to me that was better than this. That being said, the movie is still very good and if you haven't seen the documentary you will love this, as for me I really really liked it. I think my problem was that the movie stayed so true to the actual story, even the fights are shot for shot how they actually happened, that it didn't really add anything that I hadn't known already. Overall, a great movie that is worth seeing because the story is full of everything a movie should have. The documentary, however, was better and it hurt the movie for me a little bit. I give this a B.

It's an excellent movie, The Drama, the life of Roberto, the problems between USA and Panama are very well explained in this movie, Robert De Niro plays Ray Arcel at the perfection, also did Edgar and Usher with Duran and Sugar Ray, they make a really nice copy between the best boxers of those years, for me the movie was great, note the budget that they use to do it...I came to the cinema to see a good movie and it leave me with a really nice impression!! If you want to see full actions in the fights this is not the right movie, but they change all the action for the camera movements and the focus on the reactions of the boxers, It's a nice way to make the movie closer to the emotions...