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I watched The Cinderella Man yesterday and came to think ot this thread.

In this excellent movie Russel Crowe plays Jim Braddock, a down-and-out boxer struggling to pay the rent in the middle of the great depression. He then gets a chance to fight a highly rated contender as a last minute replacement, and sensationally beats him. Eventually he even gets a shot a the heavyweight title agaist Max Bauer. It was something in the portrayal of Bauer that caught my attention. He was mainly portrayed like a malicios monster, for ex. telling Braddock's wife she was going to become a widow (Bauer did in fact kill one man in the ring and another man he fought died some months afterwards), and like an arrogant if charismatic playboy with a hollywood smile. But there were always a few redeeming moments for the character, and in the end of the film he was given a scene where he respectfully congratulates the triumphant Braddock.

I got interested in the real Max Bauer and googled him. He seemed a nice enough bloke, who was deeply affected by the deaths he caused, or might have caused. Bauer son was also upset by how his father was portrayed and accused director Ron Howards of making him a villain as a contrast to the hero Braddock. And I think it was clear that Howard on the one hand did want to demonize Bauer for dramatic effect but on the other hand also did not want to be disrespectful to the memory of Bauer by falsely portraying him as a monster. This tension actually made made him a good movie character, probably much better than either the true and perhaps likeable Max Bauer or a wholly evil bad guy type.

Where am I going with this? Well, maybe that every movie based on a source material, be it a book or real events, will have parts that some people with a emotional attachment to the source material will be unhappy about. This is almost unavoildable as a movie adaptation requires making changes to several key parts of the source material. A good screenplay I think finds a balance between being true to the source material and finding a satisfactory dramatic structure fitting for the big screen. But some people with a close association to the source material or a part of it will always dislike any adaptation that makes their area of special intest seem of less worth. And from their point of view (which is also mine at times), this is very understandable. Of course Max Bauer's son didn't like the portrayal of his loved father. I did though.

Anyway, you can't please everybody but yet this is what a big hollywood film tries to do. And this doesn't please everybody either. PJ had a difficult task and and on the whole he completed it very well IMO.