A new Jack Johnson film. Your ideas.

You could say a million and one things.

As a massive Langford fan I wonder how he would be portrayed. I think he'd only be in the film fleetingly, but I'd genuinely like to see Johnson duck him a little bit before making his break. I'd like one of those difficult introspective scenes where Johnson realises that Langford has almost become him, a new great black heavyweight, who is coming into his prime just as Johnson's fire start to go out. You'd need to be careful not to suggest that Johnson fled America just to avoid him, but I'd see Johnson depicted more as a dandy stalked by his demons in the second half of the film and I think that a scene with Sam should be the divider, though the trial could be the start of the dramatic "fall".

I'd tend to go with a collage in keeping with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the good/suggested bad times in Europe and the story pick up again with Johnson trying to squeeze his way back into America and the build up to the Willard fight. I'd end the film with a scene depicting Jack's one-man show and his attention to detail and dedication to it. That would be the very last scene for me.

So I guess my film would be dark. But it would be counter-balanced by Jack's preening, strutting perfectly confident presence in the run up and during his fight with Jeffries...who, for the purposes of the film, would probably have to be depicted as having ducked Johnson to a degree during his prime. I do think that's a defendable position, actually, even if it's not my own.

 

That would be good, but i'd like something gentler ealier - you could see Johnson's transition as a man in control to a man hunted in his pulling a gun on Langford.

They met in a newspaper office before this, did they not? You could have that scene in it, and have Langford make a subtly cutting remark before departing and then focus a prolonged still shot on Johnson as the truth of the matter sinks into him. Next, Johnson pulls a gun on Langford whilst drinking. Why is he carrying a gun? Why won't he meet Langford? Because the demons that have been harrying him for much of his life have caught up to him.

 

It would be impossible not to admire Johnson given what he did. I think you could show his darker side and expect the audience to like him. What he did was impossible. I think he's the baddest man in the history of boxing, just a bad mother****er. People love that, and that's how he should be depicted.

 

Dull. Of little interest, a fighting machine with little panache or vibrancy. An "ugly" fighter where Jack was a clever one, a coulourless man where Johnson was colourful. This is both close to the truth and in beautiful counter-point to the anti-hero that was Johnson.