[GIF] Gene Tunney lands a counter combo on Jack Dempsey (Color)

I was reviewing Jack Dempsey footage colorized by the Smithsonian earlier today, and one clip in particular caught my eye.

It's a wide angle clip of Tunney countering Dempsey with a four punch combo.

I found this clip particularly interesting because of how realistic the colorization looks due to the nature of the shot. It's damp enough where the colorization doesn't seem cartoony, and it looks as though it could be a 1970's fight filmed with a shoddy hand held recorder.

And the reason why that is interesting, is because it reveals to me, personally, how 'modern' the action look for these brief seconds. You can sense the Tunneys rhythm and pace, you can sense Dempseys explosiveness and hand speed, you can sense his reflexes when he counters off the weave, you can sense the smoothness of Tunneys combo, you can sense the weight of his body when he side steps away.

It doesn't have the jitter and depth effects that plague almost all the footage of the time period. It's a rare instance of a shot that holds up somewhat contemporarily. Reflexes and distance control here seem relatable. And the result is a much more accurate view into their abilities as fighters.

https://streamable.com/uin12

Edit- Updated version:
https://streamable.com/49zn7

 

That looks great. Do you have a link to where you found that?

 

The footage comes originally from Smithsonians "America in Color (The 1920s)

I made a compilation of all the Dempsey clips here:

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Beautiful. What was the song to used?

 

The song is from the original Apple Watch reveal video.

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Clever. I love finding good songs for HL videos. They pop up in the strangest places sometimes.

 

Tunney looks good firing off that combo

 

Great clip! Thanks for sharing!

 

I would agree with your view on this.Thanks very much for posting this R!

 

So, what's the next video you're working on?

 

This is really cool man, thank you

 

Just a comment. I don't think this film is being run at the proper speed. Note how fast the referee moves around.

Because of the limitations of the filming equipment back then, speed especially can be off and so is very hard to judge accurately.

I have seen different versions of the Louis-Baer fight in one of which they look considerably faster than in the other.

Thanks for posting this film.

 

Great stuff. Good job.

 

Just another aside. As an old f-rt who grew up when most movies and all of TV were black and white, I never think of black and white as being somehow unrealistic. That seems to be a hangup of the younger generations. The camera catches reality either way for me.

But I do enjoy seeing these clips in color and am happy they are doing it.

 

Love that video, and used it recently as a reference for a little project of mine. You do good work.