Jim Brown: All-American

Spike Lee's HBO-aired biographical documentary profile of sports legend, actor, and activist Jim Brown works best as a history of Brown's formative years, his dominance of professional football in the 1960s, his subsequent acting career (The Dirty Dozen), and his work as a leader in the African American community. Less solid and persuasive is Lee's handling of Brown's alleged history of personal problems with women--especially accusations of abuse--and neglect of his children. Building on interviews with old coaches, teammates, Hollywood observers and costars (including Oliver Stone and Raquel Welch), and Brown himself, Lee shows us the great running back's early life in Georgia, his conquest of multiple sports at a Long Island high school, his resistance to racism at Syracuse University, his legendary work ethic for the Cleveland Browns, his founding of various social programs to help advance African Americans, and his career in movies, but fails to adequately address the darker side of Brown's personality. Recommended, overall. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Spike Lee. Bottom line: a small extras package for a flawed but interesting biographical profile.] (T. Keogh)