Monday, January 17, 2005
Ken Burns on Jack Johnson
Eric McErlain rounds up the reviews of Ken Burns' documentary on Jack Johnson, the heavyweight boxing champion of the early 20th century. Johnson's victory in the 1910 title fight spawned race riots from coast to coast. Writing in the New York Times, Ned Martel puts the film, and Johnson, in context:
The film suffers only in comparison with many other treatments of the tragic failings of the famous. As in the retellings of the private lives of other icons, there are tumultuous domestic disputes, infidelities and scandals. Johnson's eagerness to enjoy his victory to the fullest at times feels a little too similar to those other tales of celebrity misbehavior that were to follow in the 20th century.TV worth watching, indeed, tonight at 9pm.
But among his firsts, Johnson was a pioneer in focusing the mass media's attention on "the Negro" - as he was called - as an individual. Not that this was always flattering. The ugliest parts of the four hours are the dehumanizing portraits and bigoted screeds that ran in newspapers of that era, this one included.
Johnson's living-well-as-revenge style may now seem commonplace, but it was then startling, even threatening. Not only was his athletic achievement upsetting to whites, but his consorting with white women earned him further enmity, even within his own race.
