A smaller film that’s getting ready to come out that we really haven’t talked much about around here (or anywhere for that matter really) is Resurrecting The Champ. As a matter of fact, I think the last 3 people I’ve talked to all said “Resurrecting The What?”. The film stars Samuel L Jackson (what film these days doesn’t?) and Josh Hartnett. This nice synopsis comes from MoviesOnline:
On May 4, 1997, Los Angeles based-reporter J.R. Moehringer published an article that retraced the life of a former legendary boxer who went from being a Chicago City Golden Gloves Champion to narrowly missing a shot at a title fight and wound up homeless on the mean streets of California. How did a man who Ring Magazine once ranked 58th on a list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, an impressive roster that included Joe Louis, George Foreman, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and Mike Tyson, but did not include Muhammad Ali, end up sleeping under cardboard and fending off punks in dark alleys?
In a heartfelt article entitled “Resurrecting the Champ,” Moehringer explores the rise and fall of his subject, and in the process he confronts not only his subject’s demons, but also his own. Calling him his “180-pound Moby Dick,” Moehringer writes that, like Ahab, he stalked his subject and learned more than he bargained for about himself in the process. He also explained how he gained a greater understanding about “the eternal tension between fathers and sons.”
There is something about rise and fall movies that really get to me. I live in a great city (Hamilton Ontario baby!) and I live in a really great spot… but no more than a 5 minute walk from my place you can find lots of homeless people on the streets. The same is true in any city really. Sometime when I see them on the street I wonder to myself “what is that guys story? How did he get there? He wasn’t born there… what series of events lead him to being right there right now?” Think those thoughts scare me, because I realize we’re all only 1 or 2 tragic or unfortunate events in our lives away from being in the exact same place.
Anyway… all of that was just to say “I’m really looking forward to seeing Resurrecting The Champ”.
