Champs

A boxing documentary created for the Starz cable channel, Bert Marcus's Champs is a bracing, streetwise, and angry film celebrating great pugilists. The message: boxing is not a rich man's pastime but a brutal, gladiator-like way up the ladder for society's downtrodden, who tended to be Irish-Americans in bygone days, and African-Americans in today's era of massive wealth inequality and entrenched poverty. Among the three champs showcased here, Mike Tyson is no stranger to documentary cameras (he and his wife are producers on this film). Tyson went from being a bullied, miserable, undersized youth to a feral, fearsome World Heavyweight Champion who very nearly totally self-destructed. Boxer Bernard Hopkins learned boxing in prison, reinventing himself as a disciplined athlete. Hopkins, who amazingly won the Middleweight title at the age of 48, has never forgotten his origins. Evander Holyfield, who came from poverty and adhered to Christian piety and ethics, became a Heavyweight champion with Ali-like stats. Yet he still went bankrupt, an outcome tied to the exploitative nature of big-money sports. Guest interviewees include Mary J. Blige, Ron Howard, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Mark Wahlberg, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Highly recommended. (C. Cassady)