Two titles released today that probably won't attract much attention but are certainly worth a look. Both deal with the extraordinary life of Jack Johnson, the 1st African-American boxer to win, against all odds, the world heavyweight title.



In usual Ken Burns style, it mixes archive footage and photos with interviews and voice-over narration from actors reading historical texts. This is high quality stuff folks and not only for boxing fans as it provides a fascinating social and political portrait of "Jim Crow" America at the turn of the 19th century. Heck, I watched this last night and was absolutely riveted to the screen for 3 hours and 40 minutes. And I'm not even American.



Directed by Martin Ritt in 1970, this could be considered an accompanying piece to the above (or vice-versa) if you will. It is an adaptation of Howard Shackler's stage play, based upon the true story of Jack Johnson (who for some reason, is called Jefferson in the film). James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander starred in the play and reprise their roles in the film. Both were nominated for an Oscar in 1971. This one is dirt cheap too around 7 - 8 bucks.

While I have not seen the new documentary, The Great White Hope is phenomenal. I'll be picking both of these up!

Forgot to mention:

The two-part documentary airs on PBS Monday-Tuesday January 17-18, 2005, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET

Thanks. Looking forward to this.

Been waiting for months for The Great White Hope to be released. I've only seen it once but remember Jones' performance to be super.

waiting...waiting