Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Rating:
Summary: A story about America's first Black Social Rebel
Review: "Jack Johnson is a dandy" as the title of his 1927 autobiography states. This film is as well. This film reflects his life in a balanced way. It shows his early life, his quest for the heavyweight title, his personal life during those years, and race relations in America during the early 20th Century. It also shows the hypocritical quest against him by use of the Mann Act, his defeat and his life after boxing. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit he was a social rebel who challenged American segregation, racism, and oppresion on an individual level the way The NAACP, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, SNCC, The Black Panther Party and others challanged American society as a whole.

Jack Johnson believed that any man, including a Black man had a right to live his private life as he chooses. This included dating, having consensual sex, and marrying a woman of their choice regardless of her color, race, religion, national or ethnic background. He also felt that this applied to others as well. Yes, he was a true rebel and an inspiration to those of us who agree with him. I recommend that you read his autobiography as well.

Rating:
Summary: Best Burns documentary in quite some time
Review: After the adequate "Baseball" and downright disappointing "Jazz," some of the luster associated with the name of Ken Burns has worn off in the last few years. I couldn't help but wonder, when I saw that this documentary was in the works, if we were doomed to get more of the same from Burns, especially considering the involvement of Stanley Crouch in the project. Thankfully, it appears that Burns has returned to form with "Unforgivable Blackness."

Really, it is about time somebody did a documentary on Johnson. If he isn't the best heavyweight ever, there are only maybe two others that one could put ahead of him. Only Ali can rival him for mastery of the science of boxing, yet Johnson is comparatively obscure these days.

In many ways, this documentary spends relatively little time on the actual sport of boxing itself, which will be an annoyance to boxing enthusiasts. Personally, I would have enjoyed a more detailed discussion of just how great Johnson's defensive skills and the fact that he was rarely a slugger in the ring (Stanley Ketchel notwithstanding), but this might have been boring to a mainstream audience. Mostly, Burns returns to familiar territory --- race relations in an earlier era --- only with a dynamic personal & rebellious twist in the person of Johnson, who was utterly unconcerned with his critics, be they black or white, and who felt no compulsion to work for the betterment of anyone other than himself.

Even though I was relatively familiar with the government's persecution of Johnson via the Mann Act, it was still amazing to see just how many resources the government was willing to expend in order to bring one black boxer under its control. Laissez faire obviously is in the eye of the beholder.

To Burns' eternal credit, even though he clearly sympathizes with Johnson, he also points out that Johnson drew his own color line once he became champion. Burns has been notorious for serious omissions in past projects, and I fully expected to hear nothing about the fact that Johnson repeatedly refused to give Sam Langford (the greatest heavyweight never to become champion --- end of discussion) a shot at the title. However, Burns does discuss, albeit somewhat briefly, the fact that Johnson spurned other black boxers because there was a) no money in it, and b) the various White Hopes were much easier pickings. Thanks to Johnson, a whole generation of very skilled black boxers missed its opportunity to fight for a championship, and this is a fact that simply cannot be ignored. If Burns had omitted this, it would have badly tainted the documentary. Good for him!

The archival footage is especially splendid, even with the silly little sound effects added in. Also, kudos to Burns for including Bert Sugar in his cast of talking heads. One can listen to Stanley Crouch only for so long; better to have someone who has spent his whole career writing about the sport of boxing actually discuss the sport. The voiceover work is, as usual stellar. The music (provided in part by Wynton Marsalis, I guess) is decent enough.

All in all, this documentary represents the return of Ken Burns to his earlier form, and I hope continues to produce documentaries of this calibre, although it would be hard to find a story as fascinating as that of Jack Johnson.

Rating:
Summary: "Rise," yes. "Fall," no.
Review: Blacks could not fight for the world heavyweight championship in the 19th century. The "world's strongest man," it was thought, could not be black: Blacks were not men. That attitude drove race relations to an all time low between 1890 and 1917. Segregation, disenfranchisement and lynching took root throughout the country. Hanging black men was sport.

Which makes Jack Johnson's bravery remarkable. He refused to be a "complacent negro." When Tommy Burns, then-heavyweight champion, refused to give him a fight, Johnson chased him around the world and forced him to accept his challenge for the world title. Johnson knocked Burns out in 1908, then beat Jim Jeffries, "the Great White Hope," in Reno, NV in 1910. White America, by and large, did not approve. Prosecutors later railroaded him on a false count of transporting women over state lines.

Quite a story, huh? Ken Burns thinks so, and he empties his tool box here, pulling out breathtaking cinematography, top-of-the-shelf voiceovers, and superb period photographs. The director gets a big assist from the wealth of film with Johnson. The speedy jabs and sly charisma fly out of the flickering black and white frames, making Johnson one of Burns' more dynamic protagonists.

That's important, because this is pretty grim stuff. The slurs thrown at Johnson made me shiver, as did the casual assumption that blacks like Johnson were beasts. The boxer, to his credit, refused to bow to any of it.

That's a shining example for the rest of us. It's a problem for "Unforgivable Blackness."

Race is Burns' chief concern, and his documentaries show an admirable frankness in tackling the issue. Johnson, from a distance, seems like the race problem personified: An exceptionally gifted athlete, his considerable talents were overlooked because of his skin tone. It would seem, then, that the hatred demolished Johnson.

Except it didn't. In the face of violent abuse, he smiled, insulted his smiters and slipped back into a well-tailored suit. A $50 speeding ticket? Johnson gives the cop $100 and tells him he's coming back the same way. Attacked for dating white women? He dates another, and another and another. Convicted on trumped-up "white-slaving" charges? Johnson leaves the country and tells people he likes Mexico better.

That makes the "Fall" part of Burns' subtitle problematic. As deeply ingrained as racism was, no one ever stripped Johnson of his title. He lost it not because of his race, but because of his age and his refusal to take Jess Willard (his successor) seriously. He was persecuted, and eventually went to jail. But even in prison, Johnson followed his own drummer, and seems to have lived a fairly happy life after his release in 1921. We should all have falls like that.

Burns says a great deal about America's shameful racial attitudes in the early 20th century, but overreaches when he tries push them down on Johnson's shoulders. Johnson shrugged the hate off and stood tall in the ring. His opponents handed their money over and flooded the arena, screaming and spitting and praying that a white man would knock him out. Johnson smiled, dispatched his opponent and had a great dinner on his enemies' cash. He never fell; his fierce individualism made him soar above his contemporaries.

Rating:
Summary: Ken Burns knows Jack about Johnson
Review: Great job! With an amazing inclusion of actual fight films and newspaper clippings from the era, this is a fine documetary on Mr. John Johnson (aka Jack), the world's first black heavyweight champion. All of the major issues are covered, and the 4 hours goes by quite quickly as an example of good history and good storytelling.

The film doesn't get to this, but the title comes from a 1914 article by NAACP cofounder Dr. WEB DuBois about "Unforgivable Blackness" being the real reason why Johnson was so controversial. See the film, get a history lesson, and you'll understand why.

Rating:
Summary: a history lesson required to appreciate our recent past
Review: I have studied the boxing profession and appreciate Mr Johnson's skill in the ring; however, his strength as a human being transcends even his boxing prowess. Easy to see how Ali drew parallels to his own quest for a place in history. Watch this film and learn about the history of boxing and American attitudes to anything or anyone different.

Rating:
Summary: Jack Johnson was a Man
Review: I knew something of Jack Johnson before I saw this documentary, but Ken Burns tells his story with incredible detail. One of the many revelations for me was the astonishing level of accepted racism that was prevalent at the time. Supposedly reputable newspapers (e.g., The New York Times) and authors (Jack London) are quoted at length, with bigoted excerpts that border on inflammatory. One couldn't imagine hearing something of this nature from today's mainstream media. Just the very idea that a black man/African-American could defeat a white man seemed preposterous to many; so much so that boxers often refused to even fight one. It took Jack Johnson a long time to get a shot at the title; but once he got it, it took white America even longer to get it back. What stands out in this program is the towering figure of Johnson himself.

I couldn't help noticing that Johnson appeared to be the prototype for the modern American athlete. All the brashness, bravado, conceit and over-indulgence that we associate with the "headliners" of today...all this began with Johnson. He seemed to revel in flouting society's conventions. When you think of the arrogance of Ali, the controversy of Jim Brown, the bravado of Namath...Jack Johnson was all this before they were. At the same time, however, I can't help but remember Charles Barkley saying "I am not a role model." Jack Johnson wasn't either, as much as Black America wanted him to be. In the end, he was too loud, too defiant, too controversial. He was too much, really, for the times. But I came away from this program thinking exactly what he wanted his epitaph to be: Jack Johnson WAS a man. No doubt about that.

Five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Another Feather in Ken Burn's Cap
Review: I looked forward to Ken Burn's 'Unforgivable Blackness', the bio of boxer Jack Johnson. He was a man I admire very much-another 'salmon against the tide'. Burns does a magnificent job of presenting the life of Jack Johnson the human being in the racist society of the U.S. in the early 20th Century.

Johnson literally rocked American society because he was very good at one of the few professions Black Americans were allowed to excel at in the 1900s: boxing. Reaching the pinnacle of pugilism made Johnson an icon; evil for whites, and mostly good for blacks-with some reservations. Because of his notoriety, Jack Johnson's personal and sexual behavior became the real focus of his life. White society found a single scapegoat to justify it's own hypocrisy, and a standard bearer for the true basis of America's institutionalized racism: a black man having sex with white women.

Burns spends little time on the mechanics of Johnson's boxing skills; just what made him so much better than his contemporaries? Boxing purists will no doubt be dismayed at this omission. Burns concentrates primarily on the social impact of the great boxer in addition to his personal travails. As one watches the documentary unfold, it becomes clearly apparent that Jack Johnson's one true transgression was the fact that he was ahead of his time. Modern American professional athletics is well stocked with individuals along the Johnson line-whether they know it or not.

With 'Unforgivable Blackness' Ken Burns has done it again. He has given America another good look at itself, in all it's clarity and discomfort. Jack Johnson's life was something too many Americans would like to forget, to consign to the past with statements like 'We are better than that now'. Burn's film shows us how much the past and present are connected, and history is to be clearly seen as the basis of the modern world. Jack Johnson still lives among us today-even though many didn't know it until they saw this documentary.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Documentary.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Jack Johnson
Review: 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.



Rating:
Summary: Burns Misses the point
Review: This is another by-the-numbers entry in Ken Burns catalog of
recent documentaries. The technique is flawless, but stale.
He has become like an assembly line turning out the same thing
over and over again.

The flaw in this particular work was in misunderstanding the
story of Jack Johnson. As much as the story is about
racism, its also about how newspapers and boxing were willing
to fan the flames of racial conflict to sell more papers and
more tickets even at the price of riots in cities.

Burns never quite understood the cynical ways
in which commentators, newspapers and boxing interests were
using Jack Johnson to make money for themselves. The search
for the great white hope was a moneymaking bonanza for a whole
groups of people.

The other part of the story is how newspapers in any era
control the public image of atheletes. They can (and will)
make them into either saints or devils (depending on which
sells better) and usually neither is true.

The true story that needs to be told here isn't just about
racism. Its about how commerical interests, politicians, and
the american press cynically feed off racism to keep themselves
in power and to make money. The media (in particular) always
makes money out of conflict and division.

America's problem isn't just racism, its how easy the entire
public (racist and non-racist) can be manipulated by the coverage
of issues of race.