Film

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Name: Somebody Up There Likes Me
Genre: Drama
Released: 1956
Cast: Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Sal Mineo

Biopic

Paul Newman's breakthrough as Rocky Graziano, a street kid turned middleweight champion. A crisp, muscular biography that moves with real purpose, letting Newman's intensity and charm do the work. It's about hunger—for respect, for escape, for something beyond the streets. Shot in that gleaming MGM house style of the 1950s, it feels both intimate and epic. For anyone who loves boxing films or want to see Newman before he became an icon.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like scrappy, hot-headed underdog stories told through reform-school and street-corner grit, where the rough edges matter more than polish, and you enjoy Newman playing a live wire.

Skip it if you want a lean, modern sports film, since this is a sentimental, episodic 1950s drama with a stagey, talky rhythm and a fair amount of melodrama.

What it asks of you: It runs just under two hours and moves in episodic chapters, so you need patience for its slow build and its sincere, unembarrassed earnestness rather than quick wit.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Raging Bull1980

Scorsese's masterpiece about boxer Jake LaMotta, shot in black and white with a brutality that makes the ring feel like a confessional. Newman's film is about becoming a champion; this one is about what winning costs you.

But Three hours, deliberately harsh, and LaMotta is a man you don't like. The fight scenes are visceral to the point of being difficult to watch.

Champion1949

Kirk Douglas as a boxer clawing his way up from nothing, with real grit and moral ambiguity. Made just before Newman's film, it has similar DNA but darker—a template for how to shoot the boxing life with style and speed.

But It's in black and white and feels staider than Newman's picture. The pacing occasionally drags in the middle.

The Hustler1961

Paul Newman again, this time as a pool player, with the same hunger and charisma but operating in a smaller, colder world. Directed by Robert Rossen, who understood men gambling everything on their talent. A companion piece in spirit.

But It's slower and more meditative. If you want movement and energy, this introspective pool hall noir might feel slight.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Somebody Up There Likes Me

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Rogue Cop1954

Both are MGM dramas from the mid-1950s about men trying to escape their origins through willpower and circumstance; both use the studio system's visual style to make moral struggle look beautiful.

A Robert Taylor crime film about a cop on the take, but shot with real style and moral complexity. It has the same MGM gloss as Newman's film and the same interest in men corrupted and redeemed by circumstances. But here the arena is the police precinct, not the ring, and the stakes are darker.

But It's obscure for a reason—pacing uneven, and Taylor's performance, while committed, lacks Newman's magnetism. The plot sometimes feels like a formula being worked through.

Gentleman Jim1942

Errol Flynn as boxer James J. Corbett in a film that's lighter and more entertaining than you'd expect. The boxing is shot beautifully, and it has real warmth and humor about the sport and the era.

But It's a studio product from a different era, sometimes glossy to the point of glibness. Flynn's performance, while charming, lacks Newman's intensity.

Rocky1976

The fairy tale version of the boxing story: a nobody gets a shot. It's populist and deeply effective, with real craft in how it builds Stallone's journey. A different tone but the same essential myth.

But It's sentimental in ways Newman's film resists. If you want grit over inspiration, this will feel soft.

Body and Soul1947

John Garfield as a boxer corrupted by money and fast living—a harder-edged take on the rise-from-nothing story. Shot with real style and moral seriousness, it's the noir version of Newman's film.

But It's in black and white and the pacing is uneven. Some scenes feel theatrical in ways that date the film.

The Great White Hype1996

A sharp satire about boxing as spectacle and business, with Samuel L. Jackson and Jeff Goldblum. It's funny and angry about the sport in ways that illuminate what Newman's earnest film took for granted.

But It's broad comedy and sometimes the targets are obvious. If you want reverence for boxing, this demolishes it.

Fat City1972

John Huston's portrait of small-time boxers in California, unglamorous and true. Jeff Bridges and Stacy Keach as fighters going nowhere, with a melancholy that's devastating. It's what happens when the dream doesn't work.

But It's bleak and deliberately anti-climactic. There's no triumph here, which may feel like a waste of your evening if you came for a rise-and-shine story.

Cinderella Man2005

Ron Howard's film about boxer Jim Braddock during the Depression. Russell Crowe gives a solid performance, and it has real craft in the boxing sequences and the family drama. A spiritual cousin to Newman's film with a bigger budget.

But It's earnest to the point of sentiment, and Howard's direction sometimes smooths over the roughness that makes these stories compelling. It feels safe.

Midnight Express1978

Both follow a protagonist rising through physical and mental discipline to transcend impossible circumstances, but where Graziano's journey is triumphant self-making, this one is survival through desperation in a system designed to break you.

Alan Parker's film about an American imprisoned in Turkey for drug smuggling. It's visceral, urgent, and about a man using every resource of body and mind to escape. The boxing film's engine—desperation, training, escape through physical will—transplanted into a prison narrative. Relentless and not for the squeamish.

But It's brutal and sometimes exploitative. The film has dated in its depiction of Turkey, and the interrogation scenes are genuinely difficult to watch. Also, it sidelines the real moral complexity of the protagonist's situation for drama.