A new Jack Johnson film. Your ideas.

Yep, I know that but it all comes down what you want the audience to feel about him. I'd like the audience to pity him in his youth, to feel with him on his way up, to be happy for him after he won the title, to dislike him during a large part of his reign, to be happy when he loses the title but to be sad for him in the aftermath and to pity him again toward the end.

When the movie is over I'd like the audience to not really know what to think about Johnson. They should not know if they should look up to him, to like him, to hate him, to pity him. But they should be fascinated by him.

 

Think you guys are being too hard on Burns with the "Paper Champion" tag.

He did face the best white fighters of his day. Sure he was not well thought of, until now, but Burns was a good champion.

I would not just slam duck him like that in the film. I dont want a Max Baer repeat in film.

 

If it was up to me i would start it with Johnson finding out his first wife had commited suicide and then through flashbacks Johnsons life until that point and then continue from there as his wife seemed to be an integral part of him.

Or start it at the court where Johnson is getting done for the Mann Act and then piece the story from there like as that Prostitute ex girlfreind comes into testify the film shows how they met

 

As much as i hate to think about it, the last scene of the movie seems pretty much etched in stone. After all the racist overtures in the film, he has a fight with a scumbag no hoper restaurant owner, speeds off in his car and hits the tree. Plenty of impact, and pretty much tailor made for a movie.

 

Old times ,I would have had Woody Strode as Jack ,and Clint Walker as Willard.I don't mind who stars in it now,as long as Mendoza does not write the screen play!

 

That would serve well as opening scene with the story subsequently being told in flashback. Something between Laurence of Arabia and Raging Bull.

It'd also serve well if the directorial style was quasi-detached and impartial, resultantly not passing judgement on Johnson or any of his persecutors. The ambiguity is an important factor here.

Just don't let Ron Howard direct it, for ****s sake.

Good thread btw.

 

I think a new film about Jack Johnson would be a great idea.

Personally, I would include some of his exploits while on the run from the racist authorities in the US. His brief stint as a matador and his vodka drinking contest (losing by TKO I believe) with Rasputin just prior to the outbreak of WW1 should get a run, imo.

 

Its long overdue.......... Hollywood needs to take action............... "The Great White Hope" with James E. Jones is okay at best......... It could've been better........

MR.BILL:hat

 

Would be interested in seeing a film about Etta Duryea.

 

so will it show him beating the hell out of women?

 

Yes, along with more recent footage of Ray Robinson punching his wife in the stomach while she was pregnant causing her to have 2 aborted pregnacies,and film of Diego Corrales koing his then pregnant wife.
Throw in Bobby Chacon knocking his wife about ,and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Johnson hit one wife ,no one has stated he beat the hell out of her ,or why he hit her, on the whole he appears to have been rather good to his wives ,and the women that drifted in and out of his life.Joe Louis knocked Lena Horne [,his then mistress ]down ,and choked her .No one suggested he beat the hell out of her though, but then he wasn't Jack Johnson.

If a new film of Johnson shows him beating the hell out of the racist arseholes he fought that would be enough for me.

 

My point is if your going to make a movie and your trying to say its a real bio, then it should include that kind of behavior....hell look at raging bull..didnt sugar coat anything in that one.

 

Sonny, you seem to forget that good ol'Jack Johnson, glorified by HBO in the most liberal way with plenty of political correctness aka liberal censorship thats how they want to shut everybody up that does not agree with them was a racist to the highest degree himself.

Now, I personally don't care if one fancies one or the other and the Supreme court agrees that being a racist is not illegal but put Johnson on a scale from saint to POS he will be a lot closer to POS that you want to believe. Fact.