Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall Of Jack Johnson
(PBS)

Raging Bull
(MGM)

Over the years, Hollywood has churned out plenty of boxing movies that tell more or less, the same story: down and out kid rises from the slums and out of his sad existence by punching his way to glory and into the history books. This year, Clint Eastwood turned the genre on its ear with Million Dollar Baby and Ken Burns did a superior job in detailing the life of one of the sport’s most contentious figures, Jack Johnson.

The first Afro-American to win the heavyweight championship title, Johnson was a lightning rod for controversy, due to his unwillingness to be anything other than his own man. A powerful fighter, he refused to knuckle down to the racism that was so prevalent in America in the early 1900’s and consistently challenged the system that forbade his entry into the world reserved for whites. As his fame and fortune grew, so did the hatred for his lifestyle that included fast cars, fancy clothes and white girlfriends. Johnson eventually got his shot at the title, but spent the rest of his life being persecuted by both whites and blacks for not respecting “his place.” Burns excels at telling these kinds of stories and brings to it, his typical flair for detail and depth of research. While much of Johnson’s life is told through narration and still photography, there is also restored footage of some of his most famous fights and it’s a thrill to watch the man trounce his opponents in long, grueling matches that often lasted for 20 rounds. Johnson’s story brings to light the ugliness of America’s racial politics and how those politics were used to actually change the laws to support the notion of white supremacy.

Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull examines the career of the “Bronx Bull” - New York’s Jake La Motta by painting a most unflattering picture of a man who bullied everyone who came in contact with him and who, despite winning the middleweight crown, led a fairly miserable life. Robert De Niro won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1980, not only for giving a mesmerizing performance, but, for gaining 60 lbs. in order to accurately represent the boxer’s physical condition in his later years. A difficult film to watch, De Niro is loathsome as the uneducated prizefighter whose only real outlet for communication was with his fists, yet it’s impossible to take your eyes off him every moment he’s on screen. In his first major role, Joe Pesci plays Jake’s brother and manager, Joey and Cathy Moriaty makes her film debut as Jake’s wife Vickie.

While shooting Godfather II, De Niro read La Motta’s autobiography and immediately connected with the main character. Scorsese did not however, and went on to direct films such as Taxi Driver, New York, New York and The Last Waltz. De Niro was persistent and eventually convinced Scorsese of the film’s potential. To set it apart from several other boxing movies that same year, it was shot in black & white – a stunning use of shadows and light that managed to look like vintage stock, but with the clarity of modern equipment. Like Kill Bill Volume 1, the brutality of the fight scenes is muted by the lack of color, without diminishing any of the visceral excitement. The deluxe, two-disc edition features no less than three full-length commentaries, documentary footage from the actual La Motta fights, shot-for-shot comparisons between the newsreel footage and Scorsese’s eerily accurate re-enactments. -- David Bassin