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By Thomas Gerbasi - Boxing documentaries usually end up in two camps: good or bad. There is no middle ground, and for every Unforgivable Blackness, The Fight of Their Lives or Assault in the Ring, there are countless others that leave you wanting to get back the two hours you just spent watching what could be easily described as drivel.
And I’ll be honest. Filmmaker Bert Marcus had the odds against him when creating the recently released Champs. Sure, he had Mike Tyson as a star and producer, and the former heavyweight champion brought in Evander Holyfield, as well as plenty of cameo-making stars such as Mark Walhberg, 50 Cent, Spike Lee and Mary J. Blige, but everyone has heard the Tyson and Holyfield stories. Even bringing in Bernard Hopkins as the third featured boxer in the film didn’t seem like it would save what appeared at first to be a vanity project.
But upon watching the film it was clear that Marcus (who wrote and directed) wasn’t going for the quick, generic hit. He was going to tell a story through Tyson, Holyfield and Hopkins that didn’t just recap their lives and careers, but brought light to the other side of the sport, one too many shy away from.
“The human story aspect is what captured me the most,” Marcus said. “I think that’s what makes, not just the sport, but these individuals, so relatable. You’re talking about guys who have hit the highest of highs and the lowest of lows – not just professionally, but personally. And I think that’s why anybody, whether you’re a sports fan and boxing fan or not, can hopefully take something away from these guys and relate it to their own lives. I think it was important to capture the reality of it and not just the glory that they were able to capture, but the struggle that they had afterwards in trying to find their identity and purpose in life.” [Click Here To Read More]
And I’ll be honest. Filmmaker Bert Marcus had the odds against him when creating the recently released Champs. Sure, he had Mike Tyson as a star and producer, and the former heavyweight champion brought in Evander Holyfield, as well as plenty of cameo-making stars such as Mark Walhberg, 50 Cent, Spike Lee and Mary J. Blige, but everyone has heard the Tyson and Holyfield stories. Even bringing in Bernard Hopkins as the third featured boxer in the film didn’t seem like it would save what appeared at first to be a vanity project.
But upon watching the film it was clear that Marcus (who wrote and directed) wasn’t going for the quick, generic hit. He was going to tell a story through Tyson, Holyfield and Hopkins that didn’t just recap their lives and careers, but brought light to the other side of the sport, one too many shy away from.
“The human story aspect is what captured me the most,” Marcus said. “I think that’s what makes, not just the sport, but these individuals, so relatable. You’re talking about guys who have hit the highest of highs and the lowest of lows – not just professionally, but personally. And I think that’s why anybody, whether you’re a sports fan and boxing fan or not, can hopefully take something away from these guys and relate it to their own lives. I think it was important to capture the reality of it and not just the glory that they were able to capture, but the struggle that they had afterwards in trying to find their identity and purpose in life.” [Click Here To Read More]