Champion
by Mark Robson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arthur Kennedy, Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, Paul Stewart, Ruth RomanDirector: Mark Robson
Cinematographer: Franz Planer
Editor: Harry W. Gerstad
Producer: Robert Stillman
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Writer: Carl Foreman
Writer: Ring Lardner
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Republic Pictures
Movie Reviews of Champion
Movie Review: Good boxer film
Summary: 4 Stars
The film follows Michael `Midge' Kelly, and his brother Connie (Kirk Douglas and Arthur Kennedy)- who walks with a cane throughout the film, although why is never answered, who bum across the country to L.A., after they buy into a scam. They are forced to work as hashslingers at a diner. Midge screws around with the owner's daughter, Emma, then dumps her after a shotgun wedding. Connie, however, is unrequitedly in love with Emma Bryce (Ruth Roman), but sticks with Midge when he tries to become a boxer, by tracking down a trainer/manager, Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart), they'd met on the way. Thus begins his career as an up and coming middleweight, all the while keeping his marriage a secret.... While the film's cinematography, and use of black and white shadows is first rate, the script is laden with the stylized writing style of the period, and works more as a moral melodrama than a film noir. The acting also suffers from the non-naturalistic acting style of the 1940s, as well as some very fake boxing sequences. In one particularly bad moment- where a newsreel sports reporter wants to show a devastating KO by Midge, there is a replay in slow motion that only highlights the obvious- that the punches thrown land a good foot or more from the actors. Midge also takes punches no mediocre boxer would take, much less a champion. The training sequences are much better, and editor Harry Gerstad won an Oscar for it. Yet, the acting by Douglas, despite the stylization, is far more rooted in the real world struggles of boxing.
At its core, though, Champion- like Raging Bull, is not a boxing movie, merely a film whose structure uses boxing to tell its tale. Midge, like Jake La Motta, is not a nice guy. He's a user, a liar, and egoist, and a bit of a sadist. We learn, in early scenes with Emma, that he was abandoned as a child, by a father who left and a mother who could only take care of sickly Connie, and grew up in an orphanage. One merely needs to hear the word orphanage to understand the rage that lights Midge's eyes from the first shots of the film, as well as the few moments he speaks of his hatred for poverty and the condescension it brings. Yet, despite his personal decay, Midge is a savvy guy, realizing that boxing is `like any other business, only here the blood shows.' And it does in this film, as well. If only Ron Howard's film had such sanguine hues I may have never rediscovered this gem of a film, and bravura performance by Douglas.
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