Bert Marcus' Champs is an in-depth look at the rise of three of the most successful boxers of the last few decades, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins. Through these three men's stories, Champs dissects not only the state of Boxing in America and its influence on society, but it also uses their story to challenge the perceptions of the American Dream, poverty and racism in America. Chronicling the lives of these three men from an early age, Champs captures how boxing is essentially the best and worst aspects of the American Dream, giving these underprivileged men and woman a chance to escape from their impoverished upbringings, figuratively and literally fighting their way out. The promise of fame of fortune is real, and there are success stories, but the film also reminds the viewer that for as many people who escape via boxing, there are others that simply aren't good enough. This is a film that uses the sport of boxing and these men's stories to comment on urban poverty and racism, capturing how these impoverished environments create this survival of the fittest mentality, something that is inherently a major part of boxing itself. Make no mistake, Champs is not a film that simply wants to condemn boxing as a violent and barbaric sport with no intrinsic value, quite the opposite, but the film captures how the sports itself needs a massive makeover as it pertains to the business and regulation side. Champs paints a portrait of boxing as the lone wolf sport, where boxers don't have the same support systems and structure other sports have, whether it be the NFL, NBA, or NHL. Without this association or structure, boxers are routinely taken advantage of, with boxing being the best example of Laissez-faire capitalism run amok. From a technical perspective, Champs is a mostly talking heads type of documentary, but I really enjoyed the re-creation footage used to capture the fighters early struggles, being beautifully shot in a way that evokes a meditative state. While uneven and unsure of itself at times, Champs is a film that finds itself overwhelmed at times wrestling with the relationship between boxing and other sociopolitical issues, whether it be racism, the prison industrial complex, and poverty.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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