Drama

The Great White Hope

Lawrence Turman Productions

20th Century Fox

United States of America

English

James Earl Jones

Jane Alexander

Lou Gilbert

Joel Fluellen

Chester Morris

Robert Webber

Marlene Warfield

Hal Holbrook

Beah Richards

Moses Gunn

Larry Pennell

Marcel Dalio

Manuel Padilla Jr.

Scatman Crothers

R.G. Armstrong

Rodolfo Acosta

Ernest Anderson

Martin Ritt

John DeCuir

Walter M. Scott

Paul Stanhope Jr.

Pat Abbott

Lawrence Turman

Raphael Bretton

Burnett Guffey

Irene Sharaff

Jerry Ziesmer

Howard Sackler

Edwin Butterworth

Jack Martin Smith

Marvin Weldon

William Reynolds

Donald McKayle

Tim Zinnemann

Lionel Newman

CinemaSerf

Well you can’t fault James Earl Jones for tackling just about every issue on the books in this drama about a heavyweight boxer. “Jefferson” is the champion of the world and is making short shrift of his opponents. Needless to say, this is narking many of his (mainly white) brethren so when he and his fiancée “Eleanor” (Jane Alexander) fall foul of rules banning mixed couples from inter-state travel they capitalise on this and have him arrested. Thanks to an outrageously pink shirt and a bit of legerdemain, he manages to escape to Europe where he finds things only marginally better. That’s not so much because of his colour, although that is a factor, it’s more because those vested interests in the UK and France don’t want to see their own champions pummelled into the canvas. Finally, a bit like the real Jack Johnson, he ends up in Cuba with a fight that could change everything, but by this point he and his gal are on different paths and even some amongst his own community are turning against him. JEJ is on lively and entertaining form throughout this critique on bigotry and boxing and his performance is well complemented by an Alexander whose characterisation of a woman increasingly struggling with his excesses is quite potent and plausibly delivered. The boxing action is not nearly so convincing, though. The use of long-shot photography shows up some of the basic editing and there isn’t really that much actual action throughout this drama which can leave it perilously close to soap at times. Still, it’s another film that illustrates just how hard people were prepared to work to escape an economic grind that offered working African American men very little by way of opportunity.

Great White Hope, The 1970)trailer

Best Movies

The Great White Hope

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

James Earl Jones

Jane Alexander

Lou Gilbert

Joel Fluellen

Chester Morris

Robert Webber

Marlene Warfield

Hal Holbrook

Beah Richards

Moses Gunn

Box office

More Like This

Closer

Days of Thunder

Running in the Rain

The Changeling

Lucky You

West Side Story

Over the Top

Rent