When growing up I regularly watched boxing matches. It always was an event when Mike Tyson or “Prince’ Naseem were fighting. Tyson was so explosive that you knew in advance that you were going to see a short match, but that it would be spectacular. Times have changed though and I haven’t followed the world of boxing anymore, which also meant that I didn’t know anything about boxer Manny Pacquiao, the subject of this documentary.
He grew up in the Philippines and learned how to box. He was so successful that he made the leap to America where he managed to make a name for himself. He did so by becoming the first boxer who managed to get the title in 8 different weight classes. This documentary, in its 88 minute running time, tries to give an idea of the man behind the success but unfortunately doesn’t succeed in that goal. It becomes clear that he’s very talented and ambitious as he decided to go into politics in the Philippines. The movie shows him in office a couple of times and states that he might not be spending as much time on it as he would like, but does show enough of it to give the viewer a good idea about his motivation to do so and what he wants to accomplish with it. It is an example of an issue which you see several times concerning various subjects.
The main reason for this to me is the fact that you don’t hear Manny himself talk a lot. I got the feeling from watching this documentary that he’s a man who surrounds himself with the wrong people who exploit the situation resulting in him not always bringing things to the table. The dark sides of Manny are mentioned (like the fact that he likes to gamble and wasn’t fully committed to his wife), but again it is only casually mentioned without any depth to it. If you love boxing though and watched his May 2nd matched against Floyd Mayweather (a fight which at a time didn’t seem realizable) you might be interested in seeing this. If you don’t know anything about this fighter you won’t have become much wiser after seeing Manny.
