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A brilliant film that helped define a genre

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Here is a very special film. While not a biography, it is biographical, while essentially about a fighter, it is not a fight film. I think the world first saw multiple award winner James Earle Jones as the impoverished father of a baby girl who is bitten by a rat while living in a run down tenement block. This was in the now rare, Emmy award winning TV series "East Side West Side". The series ran one season and also gave us a glimpse of the powerful talents of George C. Scott as the central character. The outstanding episode that Jones guest stared in was titled "Who Do You Kill" It was essentially here, in 1963, we were first introduced to the raw potential of this dynamic Afro-American actor. A few years later, Scott and Jones would appear on theatre screens together. "The Great White Hope" would have to be one of the best (if not 'the best') film to show the extent of racial intolerance that existed in 1900 American society and particularly in sporting circles. For many, this film will be exhausting to watch, both for the strong situations it examines and the astounding performances of the two main leads.It's easy to see why both these performers won Tonys for their roles in the stage play, and Oscar nominations for their film portrayals of the same characters. Matin Ritt, a survivor of the House of Un-American Activities witch-hunt, is absolutely the right Director ('Edge of the City', 'Hud', etc). Just as Burnett Guffey ('Here to Eternity', 'All The Kings Men" etc) is the right Director of Photography. They have created a film that sparkles in all departments. While you don't want it to end ~ you are relieved when it does.I'm sure the transfer of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize winning play to motion picture (both penned by Howard Sackler) must have brought with it greater personal connection for the audience. It's also interesting to note that one of the integral supporting characters (Pop) played by veteran actor Chester Morris - in his last film (befor suiciding while dying of cancer at age 69) also guest stared in an episode of "East Side West Side" shortly after the James Earle Jones Ep. His episode: "The Name of The Game" aired in 1964.If you like great drama with a background set in historical fact, be sure you see "The Great White Hope"....Ken Roche.

The title is no misnomer:although the movie tells the story of a black champion,"they " get out of their way to thwart this living "threat " for the white race;as users noticed it ,do not watch it if you expect "rocky": it's its exact contrary ,a failure story.James Earl Jones portrays this fighter with a great dignity till the last pictures:he is bullied ,humiliated,persecuted;the best scene is for me that ridiculous performance of "Uncle Tom's cabin" on stage,with Jones and Alexander wearing wigs ,and playing the slave and Evangeline .If Jones is not Rocky,Jane Alexander is not Adrian either;first of all ,she is white and well meaning were not prepared to accept it at the time (we are far from "guess who's coming to dine" in which a white bubble head girl is to marry a black future Nobel Prize).Alexander's transformation is extraordinary: a shy elegant lady in the first sequence,then a defiant woman during her "questioning",a partner who accompanies the champion in all his sufferings and humiliations -she is sublime as Eva ,the part of a little girl- and finally a broken human being,living in poverty,beaten by the man she loves in spite of all.This is a movie for people with a strong heart ,and Martin Ritt was always an activist director ;I'd tone it a bit : he had always thought that France was the country where there was no racism (see also "Paris blues ,1961):it's wishful thinking.That said ,you should not miss this courageous work.

The Great White Hope demonstrates why a great play doesn't always become a great motion picture.Based on the real Jack Johnson, the first black man to win boxing's world heavyweight championship, The Great White Hope is the story of Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones), the first black man to win boxing's world heavyweight championship. I'm not entirely sure why they fictionalized a true story. Maybe it was out of respect for Johnson's real life or maybe Howard Sackler, who wrote the play and adapted it for the big screen, just didn't want people complaining about any dramatic license that he took.Anyway, Jack Jefferson fights his way to the top of the boxing world and then wins the title when the man who retired as champion returns to the ring to defend the white race against the black interloper. For a while, Jack's on top of the world. He's got the title belt, money and his white fiancée Eleanor (Jane Alexander). His only worries are his common law wife Clara, the authorities trying to find something to arrest him on, and the chance that someone might just try and kill him, either for being a black champion or bedding a white woman. The feds eventually do nail Jack on a charge of taking a woman across state lines for the purpose of having sex with her, a law meant for pimps and prostitutes but turned against Jack and Eleanor.Jack and Eleanor flee the country and he tries to make a living as a fighter in Europe. That doesn't work out. Both because some countries don't want anything to do with him and because Jack isn't content to just fight a series of bums and collect a paycheck. Jack has to be the best in the world and everyone has to acknowledge it. Unable to fight, his money run out, Jack ends up driving away everyone he cares about until the feds finally corner him in Mexico and a terrible tragedy forces Jack to take a deal. He'll throw a fight and lose the title to a white fighter and they'll drop the charges against him. But during the match in Cuba, Jack just can't go through with it. He lets the white boxer beat on him for 10 rounds but won't go down. Then his pride rears up and Jack tries to win, but he's been hurt too bad and goes down for the count.The only real problem with The Great White Hope is that a lot of the story I just told you never ends up on the screen. Except for the final scene in an open air stadium where an ocean of white men in ties and hats cheer in bloodlust to see the black champion beaten, everything in this film could fit neatly on a theater stage. But the motion picture frees a story from the limitations of the stage. You can change scenes, move actors around and do all number of things impossible in live theater. On stage, you usually have to hear a lot of the story. In a movie, you can see all of the story. With The Great White Hope, it's a movie where you hear most of it. Jack Johnson's life is a great tale but when you compare this with other boxing movies like Rocky or Raging Bull, you can see how clinging to the form and function of the play forces Sackler and director Martin Ritt to leave out things they don't need to leave out.While the plot is somewhat cramped, the sterling performances more than make up for it. Hal Holbrook shines in a small role as an overly clever district attorney who doesn't want to bring Jack Jefferson down but feels he must. Jane Alexander is also quite fine as a woman truly and deeply in love with her man but still not entirely free from what it means to be a white woman loving a black man in the dawning of the 20th century.First and last, though, The Great White Hope is James Earl Jones' movie and he dominates it from beginning to end. His Jack Jefferson is a towering figure of joy and unrelenting strength. He shows us the heart of a man who genuinely loves life and revels in it. Then he shows us inside that heart an angry insistence that he go through life on his terms and no one else's. Not the white promoters, not the black people who cheer for him, not even the terms of the woman he loves. Jack's constant smile is both an expression of his deep happiness and a baring of his teeth at everyone and every thing in the world.The Great White Hope also does a decent job for a piece of entertainment at giving people a deeper look into American racism. This film is about how racism is not just hate, though epithets like the N-word get thrown around a lot, but is also about an idea that the world is white people up high, black people down low and how both whites and blacks internalize that idea until they don't even realize how it shapes their thoughts and emotions.This film has most of the problems of plays that turn into movies, but it also has the major advantage of such work. Plays can overcome a lot of problems if they give an actor the sort of material with which he can stand up and thunder. James Earl Jones thunders in The Great White Hope and you'll enjoy watching him storm.

Before I fully begin, let me make one thing clear: The emphasis in this film is not boxing, but the life of a boxer (Jack Johnson) played by James Earl Jones (Darth Vader).In telling the tale of Johnson's life this movie depicts the racial boundaries going on in America in the early 20th century. Unlike many films which tell a tale of racial injustice, this film manages to do it:a) Without sugar coating anything. b) Without being over-dramatic.I saw it today on television and I didn't know what to expect before it started. I was interested to see it because I've heard references made to it in the past and was curious. I can say for certain that giving this film a chance, and watching it beginning to end, is the best movie-related decision I've made in a long time (at least ten-thousand times better than deciding to rent Resident Evil 2). In watching this I got a deep sense of reality. A big reason for this is a simply phenomenal performance by James Earl Jones, as well as solid acting on the part of Jane Alexander and many of the supporting cast members.I couldn't believe that IMDb only has 8 reviews of this movie (at least at the time of me writing this), and due to some folks totally missing the point of it, it has a somewhat sad rating. SEE this film if you are into compelling stories about interesting people which are well written and acted.DON'T see this film if you expect Rocky III.There are a lot of good movies out there and I enjoy all manner of cinema, but I can say without a doubt in my mind that The Great White Hope has made it into the realm of my favorites. 10 out of 10