Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2005Ken Burns’s documentary style is so unencumbered; the subject matter is effortlessly presented. His regular mix of photos, subtle sound effects, excellent musical score, and actor readings of historical text hasn’t changed since his breakthrough of The Civil War. And it doesn’t need to. Even though this 220-minute production is a biography–on heavyweight champion Jack Johnson–the film resonates about the how race was dealt with in the early part of the 20th century. Four decades after the Emancipation, the American black was still struggling to find elementary terms of equality. Along came a strong and headstrong man who took on sport decades before Jackie Robinson and became the key figure in heavyweight fighting, a champion against the longest odds.
Samuel L. Jackson voices Johnson’s words with great verve and helps create an absorbing picture of Johnson along with various historians and boxing experts laying down the tale of the tape. Here’s a man so smart and patient in the ring who took great liberties in his day-to-day life, unafraid to showcase his success, and ruffle the morals of the time (including, most scandalously, marrying a white woman). Viewing film of his prizefights, the amateur eye can understand Johnson’s style and bravura. Burns’s certainly takes his time and, as usual, has a vast awry of facts of how the world reacted to news of Johnson’s success and the conspiracy which led to his downfall. The highlight, natch, are two of Johnson’s epic fights near the end of his reign as champ (and the search for a “Great White Hope”). The appearance of James Earl Jones (who won a Tony for his portrayal of Johnson in 1959) and Wynton Marsalis’s musical score are grand touches. –Doug Thomas
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March 5, 2010
#1
Once again Ken Burns focuses on racism when in reality, more people probably hated Johnson because of his personality (read arrogance, impertinance and cockiness) that would have angered people if he was white
Yes there was racism, but Johnson’s crime was marrying a white women, when at those times Jews married Jews, Italians married Italians, Lutherians married Lutherians, Chinese married Chinese etc.
This was similar to Burns in “baseball” about Ty Cobb, when in Cobb’s day, it was more of a crime to be an atheist than a racist, and for Jackie Robinson, when it was just as much about job security that Blacks would take jobs from Whites
It no different than the harrassment men get for keeping their hair long in the 60′s.
The guilty white political correctness of Burns can’t focus on the reality of the past and ruins the truth being told
March 5, 2010
#2
This documentary does nothing but feed all sorts of mistruths
and misconceptions about Jack Johnson, race relations at
that time in american history and boxing.
Jack Johnson was a good boxer. He chased the champion, got
a match with him and beat him. His road to the championship
wasn’t all that unusual for the time (white or black). And
he got his title shot because he was good and because there
were more than a few white people behind him. Among other
things, what it took to chase Tommy Burns was MONEY. And
the money that got Tommy Burns into the ring was
white money.
After he won the title, he proved that money and celebrity
can buy most anything in america regardless of color. He was
not a “victim” during his years as champion, he was a great
success. He also wasn’t particularly brave about anything.
Aside from the Mann Act conviction, the law left him alone.
He wasn’t (for example) arrested after winning matches or
ever in danger of the typical lynching. In America, if you
win, you have celebrity, you have money, you can largely get
away with whatever you want.
The most confusion about Jack Johnson exists in the image the
racist created in the public mind about him. “They” wanted
him seen as the “uppity negro” chasing after the white women
and being disrespectful. But in fact, Jack Johnson was no
different in attitude toward the public or opponents than
any other past boxing champion of that era. He ran with
prostitutes like every other boxing champion.
The fight with Jim Jeffries was a disgusting spectical that
had little to do with Jack Johnson and everything to do with
promoting a boxing match as a race war. White America (and
Black America) were put at each others throats over a boxing
match. Riots broke out. And as much as it was about racism
in America, it was also about using racial hatred to make
money. Johnson and Jeffries were incidental to what was really
going on and didn’t make the real money out of the fight.
The worst thing that happened to Jack Johnson was that he was
convicted on a manufactured charge. But they didn’t take the
title away from him and money spoke again with him getting
out of the country.
He eventually lost the title because all boxers have a rise
and a fall. They wear out and lose. Nothing horrible happened
to Jack Johnson in all of that.
And when he returned to the US, he did his short jail-time
in almost joke-like conditions. He wasn’t killed or mistreated
in prison or a victim.
The problem Jack Johnson had in his boxing career and now is
that white & black America both wanted to use him as a symbol
of their own problems with each other (hate in one case and
pride in the other). He could never be just a boxer or just
a champion because most of america wanted to see him used as
part of one agenda or another.
And in his later life, again, he was never a victim. By boxing
standards of the time (white and black) he lived a good life.
Cut short by tragedy of course, but still a good life.
The most important thing I can say about Ken Burns project
is that nobody should think that they are getting close to
the “real” Jack Johnson through it. Most of what your getting
is the public image of Jack Johnson that was created to whip
up the crowd at the time.
March 5, 2010
#3
Excellent biography.
After looking at the first DVD only, I must say i am totally shocked at some of the brazen behavior of a black man in the early 1900′s. This man was with white women openly, used to threaten white men when they didn’t pay up, even drove an expensive car in the roads of Chicago when he was doing well. I kept looking at him saying had it been me, I wouldn’t have been that gutsy and brave! Not only that, at his peak, he was making 3000.00 per week. In the 1900′s this is unbelievable for black man. I came back with such a sense of pride. He was more than a fighter. He showed us he was a man unafraid of confronting what society said he could not do. Plus, he was alone.
Remember, civil rights only took off in the 60′s. and 70′s. So, to see Jack Johnson at this early time being so confronting, was a real eye-opener for me.
March 5, 2010
#4
The documentary ‘Unforgivable Blackness’ by Ken Burns aired on PBS, Monday and Tuesday of January 17th and 18th, 2005. I was going into with negative feelings, considering how awful of a filmmaker and bad historian Ken Burns is. I was completely taken by surprise by the documentary. It turned out to be one of the most stunning I’ve seen in a long time. The story is about Jack Johnson, a black boxer who rose to the top of the boxing world during the early 20th century.
His life story ranges from exhilarating and exciting to tragic and shocking. The extreme racism of the American press and public, his easy victories over white boxers, and his heartbreaking relationship with his white wife all add to powerful experience. Its as though Johnson was taking on the world all by himslelf and was not afraid to fight. If one things Muhammad Ali was daring for his time period, one has not seen anything yet. An unforgettable documentary and a superb job by Ken Burns.
March 5, 2010
#5
Jack Johnson is one of the Greatest Champions Ever.however when Jack Johnson was Domianting in the Ring,Racism was Dominating outside of the Ring which it still does to this day,but even worse. He was the kind of Brother that was truly free&didn’t care. Ken Burns really does a Great Job here&the Soundtrack by Wynton Marsalis is cool.this is a Story that is long overdue to be told&also show the realitys of Surroundings.it wasn’t that long ago.