The drama and issues of the Scopes Trial was preserved when the record was used for the play and film Inherit The Wind. The life of the first black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson became encapsulated in the play and film The Great White Hope. In both cases the names were changed to protect somebody.
Actually by changing all the names and scrambling the sequence and combining some characters some dramatic cohesion was gained in the telling of both those stories. In this film for instance Jane Alexander's character is a combination of two of Johnson's four wives, one who committed suicide and another with which he was charged with the Mann Act violation. How could Johnson be charged as such? Very simply, a whole lot of states during the Roosevelt-Taft-Wilson years did not recognize interracial marriage.
With a shaved head and being quite a bit younger than what were used to seeing now, James Earl Jones makes a perfect Jack Jefferson aka Johnson. That voice is still there with that Darth Vader quality that is unmistakable.
Only five years of Johnson's story is told, from his match with former champion Larry Pennell as Frank Brady to his defeat at the hands of the Kid played by then current boxing contender Jim Beattie. Johnson met and beat everybody until 1915 when he may or may not have thrown the heavyweight title to Jess Willard, the real life Kid.
America was quite the racist country in those days, but for some reason the idea of a black heavyweight boxing champion stirred some craziness in some people. Black champions like Joe Gans in the lightweight division and Lampblack Joe Walcott in the welterweight didn't particularly stir up any ire, but Johnson was not a man who played by any rules and mores. His reign as champion coincided with the founding of the NAACP by W.E.B. Dubois and the filming of The Birth Of A Nation and the reception it got. I don't think either was completely coincidental.
The Great White Hope is not chronologically correct, but you are seeing the real Jack Johnson and his times in this film which author Howard Sackler adapted for the screen. On Broadway James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander got Tony Awards as did the play. The play also won a Pulitzer Prize for Howard Sackler. Both Jones and Alexander got Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Actress, but lost to George C. Scott and Glenda Jackson respectively.
This film was also the farewell appearance of Chester Morris who had not done a feature film in 14 years. In that time the screen's former Boston Blackie had done a lot of television work and and stage appearances as well. He plays the part of a fight promoter based on the legendary Tex Rickard and he does pretty good in the part. 14 years earlier Morris's previous big screen appearance had been some god awful science fiction film called The Revenge Of The Creature. I'm glad at least he didn't leave the earthly mortal coil with that as an epitaph.
One other person should get a mention. Johnson married four times, the last three were caucasian. But Marlene Warfield plays his first wife who was a prostitute. She has one scene toward the beginning, but this woman really put some bite into this small role. You will remember her.
I hope that seeing The Great White Hope might make some check out the life and times of Jack Johnson rated by some boxing historians as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. In The Great White Hope his legend is preserved albeit under an alias.
Actually by changing all the names and scrambling the sequence and combining some characters some dramatic cohesion was gained in the telling of both those stories. In this film for instance Jane Alexander's character is a combination of two of Johnson's four wives, one who committed suicide and another with which he was charged with the Mann Act violation. How could Johnson be charged as such? Very simply, a whole lot of states during the Roosevelt-Taft-Wilson years did not recognize interracial marriage.
With a shaved head and being quite a bit younger than what were used to seeing now, James Earl Jones makes a perfect Jack Jefferson aka Johnson. That voice is still there with that Darth Vader quality that is unmistakable.
Only five years of Johnson's story is told, from his match with former champion Larry Pennell as Frank Brady to his defeat at the hands of the Kid played by then current boxing contender Jim Beattie. Johnson met and beat everybody until 1915 when he may or may not have thrown the heavyweight title to Jess Willard, the real life Kid.
America was quite the racist country in those days, but for some reason the idea of a black heavyweight boxing champion stirred some craziness in some people. Black champions like Joe Gans in the lightweight division and Lampblack Joe Walcott in the welterweight didn't particularly stir up any ire, but Johnson was not a man who played by any rules and mores. His reign as champion coincided with the founding of the NAACP by W.E.B. Dubois and the filming of The Birth Of A Nation and the reception it got. I don't think either was completely coincidental.
The Great White Hope is not chronologically correct, but you are seeing the real Jack Johnson and his times in this film which author Howard Sackler adapted for the screen. On Broadway James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander got Tony Awards as did the play. The play also won a Pulitzer Prize for Howard Sackler. Both Jones and Alexander got Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Actress, but lost to George C. Scott and Glenda Jackson respectively.
This film was also the farewell appearance of Chester Morris who had not done a feature film in 14 years. In that time the screen's former Boston Blackie had done a lot of television work and and stage appearances as well. He plays the part of a fight promoter based on the legendary Tex Rickard and he does pretty good in the part. 14 years earlier Morris's previous big screen appearance had been some god awful science fiction film called The Revenge Of The Creature. I'm glad at least he didn't leave the earthly mortal coil with that as an epitaph.
One other person should get a mention. Johnson married four times, the last three were caucasian. But Marlene Warfield plays his first wife who was a prostitute. She has one scene toward the beginning, but this woman really put some bite into this small role. You will remember her.
I hope that seeing The Great White Hope might make some check out the life and times of Jack Johnson rated by some boxing historians as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. In The Great White Hope his legend is preserved albeit under an alias.