Champion

Rating:
Summary: CHAMPION-- The title says it all!
Review: Before "Raging Bull" and "Rocky" there was "Champion". This movie was one of Stanley Kramer's first and it is stark and powerful in a very compelling way. The incredible film editing won an Academy Award in 1949 and it is up there with "The Harder They Fall" among boxing cinematic masterpieces. If you want a "reel" experience and boxing is of interest to you, this flick is a must see.

Rating:
Summary: Hard hitting early pugilist flick
Review: Interesting that right around the same time--the late 40s--three different films were all released with basically the same theme and plot: The Set-Up (w. Robert Ryan); Champion (w. Kirk Douglas); and Body and Soul (w. John Garfield). Ryan's film is a very good piece of work while the Garfield film is, by today's standards, heavy-handed, thus dated. But the Kirk Douglas film is, in fact, the Champion.

The boxing scenes are realistic--in spite of Douglas' recent nose job, made during filming, preventing any of his sparring partners to hit anywhere near his schnozz. But more than anything else, it's Douglas' tremendous charisma and energy that raise this film above the norm. Douglas, as did Garfield in the earlier Body and Soul, plays a guy mired in poverty who sees boxing as a quick way out of the hole and, once initially successful, wants nothing but more: both money and success. And nothing standing in his way will prevent him from getting what he wants. But while Garfield's portrayal of selfishness is forced and, as well, entrenched in cliched dialogue, both Douglas' acting and the far more intelligent script make Midge Kelly's (Douglas) relentless quest for power tremendously believable.

Arthur Kennedy is Connie, Midge's brother whose leg was busted when he was a kid and now walks with a cane. The three--yep, count 'em, three--women in Midge's life add a lot of juice to the film and a nice touch is the casting of a brunette who's Midge's girl when he's poor and two blondes when he's rich and successful. Back in them days, blondes were IT. (Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield carried on the tradition).

Champion gives you a great view of life in the late 40s as well. It's also interesting that the director, Mark Robson, was part of the Val Lewton school of horror directors (which also included Robert Wise), so makes excellent use with his cinematographer of light and shadow. This is not exactly a film noir, but does have several noirish traits--camera lighting, and thematic corruption and desperation.

This is more a precursor to Raging Bull than Rocky; the latter character is always good, while DeNiro's character is akin to Midge Kelly--rising quickly from a life in the streets to attain fame and fortune, even if toes get stepped on and hearts gets smashed to pieces (Rocky would never do stuff like that).

A strong piece of cinema; recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not so much a Noir, more a greek tragedy
Review: Kirk Douglas as the classic greek tragic figure: a hero with a fatal flaw.
Arthur Kennedy and Kirk Douglas play down-on-their-luck brothers (Connie and Midge Kelly, respectively) travelling west to take possession of their part ownership of a restaurant. When they arrive they discover that they had been scammed. Along the way out to the restaurant, Midge made a little money at a boxing exhibition where he caught the eye of a promotor. Midge and Connie work for a while at the restaurant, but Midge's single-minded pursuit of a better life and the respect he feels he deserves causes him to abandon his newly minted wife and head out to seek his fortune in the boxing ring. Midge is a single-minded character like none you've ever seen. This single-mindedness drags him down, extinguishing his humanity as he climbs his way upward. As with most tragic heroes, he finally sacrifices himself when he allows his misdeeds to finally engulf him.
Kirk is fabulous. The fight scenes are convincing and well filmed. The story hops along. This movie represents Arthur Kennedy's most accessible performance as the humane, crippled brother representing the greek chorus reminding the main character of his morality. This is an excellent movie.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly fascinating
Review: Kirk Douglas plays an emotionally bankrupt man driven by poverty and anger to become a champion prizefighter. His energy and confidence attract love and loyalty from people who contribute to his success but become hurt and disillusioned by his ingratitude and betrayal. The plot is fairly simple, but the film holds interest through its portrayal of a man devoid of self-understanding, whose ambition can never truly be satisfied despite his apparent success. The most intense scenes are in the boxing ring, where no amount of punishment can stop him.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly fascinating
Review: Kirk Douglas plays an emotionally bankrupt man driven by poverty and anger to become a champion prizefighter. His energy and confidence attract love and loyalty from people who contribute to his success but become hurt and disillusioned by his ingratitude and betrayal. The plot is fairly simple, but the film holds interest through its portrayal of a man devoid of self-understanding, whose ambition can never truly be satisfied despite his apparent success. The most intense scenes are in the boxing ring, where no amount of punishment can stop him.

Rating:
Summary: DOUGLAS BEST MOVIE
Review: THE FIGHT SCEANS ARE GREAT FOR 1949 MOVIE THE MAKEUP ON KIRK IN LAST FIGHT ARE FANTASTIC.

Rating:
Summary: DOUGLAS BEST MOVIE
Review: This is the movie that made a star of Kirk Douglas and it is easy to see why. Up to that point, although cast in memorable films such as "Out of the Past" and "A Letter to Three Wives," among others, he played second banana and minor roles that really didn't give the audience a hint as to his raw, seething talent. In "Champion" Douglas' abilities are displayed full throttle in the start of what would be a string of excellent performances of flawed yet all-too-human characters in his searing portrayal of Midge Kelly, a desperately driven and ruthless young man who is willing to do anything and step on anyone to get on top. Douglas captures to perfection Midge's permanent disillusionment, anger and bitterness springing from wretched childhood poverty and miserable circumstances and just a general feeling of being cheated by life; this all results in him becoming an amoral, unscrupulous individual out to pursue success and wealth at any cost. Yet Douglas' performance (as well as all the other scoundrels he played in many fine films) never comes across as repulsive--quite the contrary, we pity Midge, perhaps even like and admire him a little. Rest of the cast is superb--Arthur Kennedy as Midge's devoted and long-suffering brother; darkly attractive Ruth Roman as Midge's coolly alluring, conflicted wife; blonde sexpot Marilyn Maxwell as a mercenary, cunning hustler as well as Midge's mistress; Paul Stewart as the principled coach in the corrupt world of boxing who helps Midge only to get shafted; and Lola Albright is poignant as a young introspective and serious married woman who gets betrayed by Midge when he throws her over for money. Douglas in his star turn is sure to keep you riveted in a must-see performance. Complimenting the mood of the film is the wonderfully gritty, almost claustrophobic B&W photography and the ironic parallel evident in Midge's profession as a boxer since he both literally and figuratively knocks around all those in life around him.

Rating:
Summary: Douglas slugs his way to upward mobility
Review: This is the movie that made a star of Kirk Douglas and it is easy to see why. Up to that point, although cast in memorable films such as "Out of the Past" and "A Letter to Three Wives," among others, he played second banana and minor roles that really didn't give the audience a hint as to his raw, seething talent. In "Champion" Douglas' abilities are displayed full throttle in the start of what would be a string of excellent performances of flawed yet all-too-human characters in his searing portrayal of Midge Kelly, a desperately driven and ruthless young man who is willing to do anything and step on anyone to get on top. Douglas captures to perfection Midge's permanent disillusionment, anger and bitterness springing from wretched childhood poverty and miserable circumstances and just a general feeling of being cheated by life; this all results in him becoming an amoral, unscrupulous individual out to pursue success and wealth at any cost. Yet Douglas' performance (as well as all the other scoundrels he played in many fine films) never comes across as repulsive--quite the contrary, we pity Midge, perhaps even like and admire him a little. Rest of the cast is superb--Arthur Kennedy as Midge's devoted and long-suffering brother; darkly attractive Ruth Roman as Midge's coolly alluring, conflicted wife; blonde sexpot Marilyn Maxwell as a mercenary, cunning hustler as well as Midge's mistress; Paul Stewart as the principled coach in the corrupt world of boxing who helps Midge only to get shafted; and Lola Albright is poignant as a young introspective and serious married woman who gets betrayed by Midge when he throws her over for money. Douglas in his star turn is sure to keep you riveted in a must-see performance. Complimenting the mood of the film is the wonderfully gritty, almost claustrophobic B&W photography and the ironic parallel evident in Midge's profession as a boxer since he both literally and figuratively knocks around all those in life around him.

Rating:
Summary: Douglas slugs his way to upward mobility
Review: This is the movie that made a star of Kirk Douglas and it is easy to see why. Up to that point, although cast in memorable films such as "Out of the Past" and "A Letter to Three Wives," among others, he played second banana and minor roles that really didn't give the audience a hint as to his raw, seething talent. In "Champion" Douglas' abilities are displayed full throttle in the start of what would be a string of excellent performances of flawed yet all-too-human characters in his searing portrayal of Midge Kelly, a desperately driven and ruthless young man who is willing to do anything and step on anyone to get on top. Douglas captures to perfection Midge's permanent disillusionment, anger and bitterness springing from wretched childhood poverty and miserable circumstances and just a general feeling of being cheated by life; this all results in him becoming an amoral, unscrupulous individual out to pursue success and wealth at any cost. Yet Douglas' performance (as well as all the other scoundrels he played in many fine films) never comes across as repulsive--quite the contrary, we pity Midge, perhaps even like and admire him a little. Rest of the cast is superb--Arthur Kennedy as Midge's devoted and long-suffering brother; darkly attractive Ruth Roman as Midge's coolly alluring, conflicted wife; blonde sexpot Marilyn Maxwell as a mercenary, cunning hustler as well as Midge's mistress; Paul Stewart as the principled coach in the corrupt world of boxing who helps Midge only to get shafted; and Lola Albright is poignant as a young introspective and serious married woman who gets betrayed by Midge when he throws her over for money. Douglas in his star turn is sure to keep you riveted in a must-see performance. Complimenting the mood of the film is the wonderfully gritty, almost claustrophobic B&W photography and the ironic parallel evident in Midge's profession as a boxer since he both literally and figuratively knocks around all those in life around him.

Rating:
Summary: The "Champion" of all boxing films!
Review: Yes, even a diehard John Garfield fan like me must admit that 1949's "Champion" is even better than "Body and Soul", & is indeed, the greatest boxing film ever made. It's definitely a prelude to Scorsese's "Raging Bull", which I also love, but it's also a role for Kirk Douglas that's similar to his character in "The Bad & the Beautiful", where he steps on & over his closest friends while on the ladder to succcess. This was definitely Douglas' star-making role, yet he plays a totally unlikable cad. Honestly, I wanted to punch him myself half-way through the movie! The movie starts out with Douglas, "the champion", about to start his final boxing match with his toughest opponent. Then, as is so typical with 40's film noirs, there's a flashback, to the days when Douglas & his crippled brother are two broke bums looking for a job. Douglas is tough but doesn't want to fight others for a living. They finally get a job in a small cafe owned by an old man...who happens to have a hot daughter! She soon becomes conquest #1(out of 3 total) for the self-confident Douglas, & when her father finds them together he forces them to marry. Douglas marries her, reluctantly (that's true love for ya!), but then leaves town not with her, but with his brother(She re-enters the plot later in the film). Finding no regular jobs, Douglas becomes a professional fighter...& the rest is movie history. Although considered by many as simply a boxing film, this is really film noir, and as dark as they come! Oddly enough, in the late 40's there were 3 different film noirs with a boxing plot: "Body & Soul"(1947), "Champion"(1949), & "The Set-Up"(1949). All three of these are undeniable masterpieces that are often overshadowed by modern movies like "Raging Bull" & the "Rocky" series. But trust me, the boxing classics of the 40's remain unbeatable!