Release Year: 1955

Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: Delbert Mann

Writer: Paddy Chayefsky

Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Esther Minciotti, Betsy Blair

Whether it's the Lord of the Rings' scrappy Frodo Baggins or the 2012 Gonzaga basketball team, everyone loves an underdog.

Joining the ranks? Marty. 

This movie tells the story of—you guessed it—Marty, a chubby, lonely butcher in Bronx, New York. He's falling in love for the first time while his family grapples for happiness as postwar American society is shifting underneath their feet.

The movie began its life as a teleplay in 1953, with Paddy Chayefsky writing and Delbert Mann directing. Think of a stage play mashed up with a Lifetime Channel production, which you could watch with your family on the living room TV before cable was a glimmer in anybody's eye. Producers Hecht-Lancaster-Hill saw potential in bringing it to the silver screen, which they did in 1955, keeping on Chayefsky, Mann, and most of the actors… except the romantic duo at the center of the plot.

The film stars Ernest Borgnine (in a role that finally broke him out of his dramatic career playing mobsters and heavies) and Betsy Blair (who finally made her way off the McCarthy-Era blacklist at the urging of her then-husband Gene Kelly) as homely Marty and plain-Jane Clara, who find love in a place that only seemed hopeless.

The film, a character-driven indie-style production released by the studio system before that kind of thing happened on the regular, was far more successful than anyone expected it would be. In fact, it turned a $343,000 mini-budget into a little bit of profit and tons of critical acclaim.

Borgnine won an Oscar for his turn as the butcher, as did writer Paddy Chayefsky and director Delbert Mann, and the movie nabbed Best Picture. Not bad for a bumbling, softhearted, achingly sincere, dialogue-heavy film about Italian-American immigrants just trying to do the best they can in the Bronx, huh?

Think of Marty as the first indie film: the big-boned, lovable uncle of Sex, Lies, And Videotape; Dear White People; and Boyhood. Or think of it as one of the first Italian-American slice-of-life flicks: the grandpappy (or should we say "nonno") of Big Night, The Godfather, and everything Scorsese ever directed. 

Or hey—just think of Marty as the original underdog movie.

However you think of it, give it a watch. We swear on a stack of newly-cut prosciutto: this butcher-finds-love story has stayed fresh for more than sixty years. (We just wish our prosciutto would behave the same way.)

We can't help feeling that Marty feels fresh to death, even though it's old enough to get its AARP card. Why's that? We have a theory: truly modern love.

While fairy tales and rom-coms waste time with looks and cliché romance, Marty recognizes that true love is a relationship where partners mutually respect and support each other. Think Bey and Jay, or 'Ye and Kim. Just like Jay produces hits and Bey keeps dropping those surprise albums, the couple in Marty is primed to succeed and support each other doing so… albeit in a more on-the-DL, 1955-type fashion.

Marty is totally ready to take his career to the next level by buying the butcher shop from his retiring boss. While others throw him shade about the enterprise, his love interest, Clara, tells him to go for it, sure he'll be great. In turn, Marty tells Clara not to worry about relocating out of the city to take a position as head of a high school science department. If she gets lonely, he'll borrow his cousin's car and come visit.

Even though these advancements could introduce distance and busyness to this budding relationship, Marty and Clara recognize that mutual support is key to a happy, long-term commitment. And that's some real, stay-fresh romance between a power couple who live life on their own terms.

The filmmakers were working over half a century ago and still come off as socially visionary. The movie itself is pretty much a period piece, so squarely set in the Bronx that in can feel like a piece of anthropology. So how did the filmmakers pull off such a modern love story?

For all of us, lovers and loners, film nerds and rom-com fans alike, it's definitely worth a good think. And a good watch. And—if you're big softies like us—a good happy-cry.