User Reviews

James Earl Jones steps into the metaphorical Hollywood ring playing the first African-American to break the colour barrier as Jack Jefferson (based on real life boxer Jack Johnson). Not only that but he also goes on to become the first African-American to win the World Heavyweight Champion. After winning the Championship, the boxing community was deeply outraged by such events, that Jefferson becomes an instant target of racism as scouts were splurging around looking for their next "White Hope". If that isn't enough, the outrage is turned up another notch in both the white and black community as Jefferson is currently in a relationship with a Caucasian woman Eleanor Bachman (Jane Alexander). And while Jefferson keeps knocking down all these tough guys to their feet, these detractors use underhanded tactics to finally bring him down.

Under the direction of Martin Ritt (who directed such classics as "Hud" and "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold"), and based on a play by Howard Sackler (who also wrote two "Jaws" scripts), the movie is one to likely hold one's interest but it doesn't measure up the long-running very successful play. The primary struggle this movie has is the standard clichéd look at the world of boxing during that time period (early 1910's) and the somewhat theatrical performance by James Earl Jones. The story feels too narrow thin and Jones' performance is way too powerful (I'll give him a break it was his first starring role), but the film is very lopsided and awkward in its delivery.

With that said, Jones gives an amazing performance and the powerful bass voice he possesses will deliver the message across from here to kingdom come. Is it possible that they refrained from a cool cat like Sidney Poitier character to a more loud, eternally defensive character to add more tension for the character and the predominately bigoted Caucasian characters? It also seems interesting that even through trials and tribulations, Jefferson still has a smile on his face, even though his smile is obviously superficial. Jones was excellent in his Oscar nominated role complete as a weighs in a grimaced expression faced with an angering interior.

Aside from Jones' powerful performance, Jane Alexander was wonderful as she reprises her Broadway performance as the troubled caught-in-the-middle Caucasian love-interest to Jack. We feel her pain as bi-racial relationships was not tolerated in that time period, let alone when this film was released in 1970 for that matter. but her anguish will likely melt your heartstrings in the right place. It's too bad she never rose further in the film industry as other divas in the 1960's and 1970's.

The film loses its panache once Jefferson is forced to leave the United States for (Cuba?)and issues start to drag on for too long making the movie not intended for cinema. It starts to become formulaic and predictable. But in all fairness "The Great White Hope" set the bar for other boxing movies of this calibre like "The Hurricane" and "Ali". The boxing scenes feel real and authentic, but the issues on racism in movies have been going on for years that it's something I've seen thousands of times. But at the end, the powerful message left me with a lump in my throat. It was that powerful.

Even though this movie was lopsided and not very setting at times, it still grabs your attention and delivers a very powerful punch. I recommend this movie mostly to the performances and the characters especially from James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander and for the supporting stars as well like Hal Holbrook, Moses Gunn, Robert Webber, Beah Richards and R.G. Armstrong. If you ever have a chance please feel free to watch this movie and feel intrigued by it.

Despite the bad news that I'll relate shortly, this is one heckuva film with bravura performances by James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander.

But first, the bad news. The emphasis here is not on boxing, and as a result there is darned little boxing action. And, I watch a fair bit of boxing on cable, and what boxing there is here is not done very convincingly. However, the emphasis here is on a study of the main characters.

James Earl Jones plays Jack Jefferson here, representing the real historical figure Jack Johnson. Jane Alexander plays his White mistress. And it is miscegenation that drives the plot here. The story differs from the real life figure in that Jack Johnson was married 3 times, each time to a White woman. In the story, as in real life, it is the miscegenation which leads to the improper use of the Mann Act as a means to derail Jefferson's career. Rather than go to prison (which Johnson eventually did), Jefferson escapes to Europe and then Mexico.

While this was not Jones' first film, it was the film which propelled him into big-screen stardom. And make no mistake, it is a bravura performance, although a couple of times he seems to be acting as if on stage; however, that does not detract from the film. As is Jane Alexander's performance. It is the strength of these two performances which leads me to assign the film an "8" (were it not for the poor boxing segments, I would have given it a "9"). The film was Jane Alexander's debut in cinema.

Veteran actor Chester Morris has a role as Pop Weaver. It was Morris' last role; he committed suicide as a result of having stomach cancer. Hal Holbrook has a small role, as does Beah Richards, one of my favorite Black character actresses of the time. Lou Gilbert is the boxing manager and Joel Fluellen plays the trainer; both excellent performances.

********THIS MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER******** ********THIS MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER******** ********THIS MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER******** This film was beautiful and heart-rending. To correct another reviewer, YES, this does have a boxing scene in it. A wonderful one. I actually had to step out when the main character was about to get his first big match, so it may even have two scenes. But really the beauty is in the drama and the almost Shekespearean tragedy. Does the hero triumph in the end? No, but neither do his enemies, for thought they revel in it, it is all of humanity that suffers a loss in this man's defeat.

I.K. from Scandinavia has posted a review of this film that can only be viewed as blatantly racist. According to this person, "I only wanted to see this movie because of Jane Alexander and Karl-Otto Alberty, both favorites of mine." FINE. Whatever your reasons, yo saw the movie. And you didn't like the movie. Fine as well. Perhaps you don't like this type of movie or perhaps James Earl Jones didn't convince you or any other number of reasonable opinions. But to call this movie a typical boxing movie is completely ignoring the touchy subject matter. It's like you fastforwarded all the talking parts. From the looks of it, all the other movies you've reviewed involve espionage and very white European spies operating during WWII. A keen interest in Hitler as well.

But you offer no other clue as to why this film had nothing to offer to you, save this telling remark, "although it has some provocative scenes (black man having sex with white woman)." Since when in the past 40 years has this ever been called "provocative" except from ignorant bigots such as yourself? I have petitioned the administrators to remove your racist review and I hope that they will remove this response to it as well, seeing as there will be no need for it. I truly hope your shortsighted views are not indicative of your country of origin (although I doubt it) because you are a terrible representative and a shame to your fellow countrymen.

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.

James Earl Jones's acting was superb and he certainly deserved his Oscar nomination for best actor. Jane Alexander provided a moody portrait of the white Australian woman who loved him deeply but could not cope with him with eventual tragedy occurring for her. Her Oscar nomination for best actress should have been in the supporting category.

Other than Jones, the other characters here aren't able to develop. Rather, we have a film here when everything happens too quickly.

Beah Richards, as his beloved mother Tiny, is effective but she only appears in one scene in the film. Ditto with the black woman who portrayed his common law wife.

It appeared that racism was alive and functioning in England as well when Jones and Alexander went there for his fighting opportunity and to get away from the racist charges that plagued him.

The dilemma confronting Jefferson (Jones) regarding whether to throw the fight so that he can get his sentence reduced is never fully worked on in this film which really has some weak writing.

Martin Ritt's "Great White Hope" is loosely based on the public life of famed black heavyweight champ Jack Johnson, who won a series of highly promoted boxing matches during the early 1900s. The film's derived from a Howard Sackler play by the same name.

Loosely affiliated with communist movements, Ritt spent several years under a Hollywood blacklist. When McCarthyism died down, and directorial reigns were returned to him, Ritt made a series of socially conscious films, most about struggles for equality, or which portrayed the downtrodden (African Americans, Native Indians, society's poor and marginalised) in a sympathetic light. In this regard, "Hope" deals with a black man who finds himself besieged by both a white status quo and black groups which wish he'd dump his white lover and stop pandering to white gaze's.

"The Great White Hope" is an interesting film, very underrated, but its script is thin and can't accommodate any of the ideas it pretends to be about. Ritt's direction is classy throughout, and the film sports a powerful performance by actor Jams Earl Jones; he plays Johnson as an overwhelming bear of a man.

Incidentally, "Hope" ends with our hero losing a climactic match. Johnson won this match in real life, but the film's going for a more generalised sense of failure. The real Johnson would die in a car crash after being refused a meal at a "white's only" diner. Today, activists continue to fight for the expungement of Johnson's criminal record (he was arrested on the basis of the racist Mann Act).

7.9/10 – Thin but underrated.

I'm reminded of the tag line to the 1962 Western film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" - "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

"The Great White Hope" is a thinly veiled portrayal of the first black world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, who reigned from 1908 to 1915. The 'real' story put to celluloid would have been even more compelling than what was presented here, and I have to wonder why virtually every boxing story about real fighters put to film follows this pattern of poetic license. It was true as far back as 1942's "Gentleman Jim" (about champion Jim Corbett) right up to the modern era's "The Hurricane" (Rubin Carter). An exception might be the 1956 film "Somebody Up There Likes Me"; former champ Rocky Graziano gave the picture thumbs up regarding his life story.

Apart from the historical aspects though, and treating the picture as a fictional story, the movie is actually quite compelling and provocative. I must say, I never considered James Earl Jones as the athletic type, but he's really sensational as Jack Jefferson. His physique supports the idea that he's a formidable boxer, though not in the same way as Stallone's Rocky who was cut to the crisp in "Rocky III". As Jack's girlfriend Eleanor, Jane Alexander delivers a stunning performance culminating in that Mexican breakup scene that's heart rending in emotional impact. That has to be one of the most intense personal scenes ever put to film, the result of which ends in tragedy that's almost unbearable.

Even though this is a largely fictional film portrayal, I was still left somewhat frustrated by the lack of historical perspective as to when events were taking place. Reference was made at one point to the onset of World War I, but even then it was referred to as 'the war' which might offer some doubt to the casual viewer. For those interested in the picture's real life counterparts, former champ Brady (Larry Pennell) coming out of retirement represented James J. Jeffries (it didn't happen that way); Cap'n Dan (R.G. Armstrong) is a stand-in for former champ Gentleman Jim Corbett, and Jefferson's final rival in the ring, simply called The Kid, would have been Jess Willard, who actually did take the title away from Jack Johnson in Havana on April 5th, 1915. That fight went twenty six rounds and ended in controversy for many years, furthered by Johnson's signed statement that he threw the match in exchange for fifty thousand dollars (which he never got) and a government promise not to hassle him any more. In reality, the 'Galveston Giant' as he was known, simply ran out of gas and fell to a thunderous right to the jaw.