Samuel L. Jackson, one of the leading actors in Time to Kill, stars in Resurrecting the Champ, opening in theaters nation-wide this week. The film tells the story of a down-and-out ex-boxer, now a homeless man roaming the streets of downtown Denver, Colorado.
Boasting of his past feats as a boxer, Jackson’s character, known in the film as The Champ, is beat to a pulp by a bunch of street thuds. A journalist (played by Josh Harnett), also down on his luck, covets a front-page story, and befriends The Champ, taking him to a match. The Champ gives the journalist, Erik, an insider’s run-down on the match, leading to the front-page story that jumpstarts his career.
Erik soon discovers that The Champ is a once-famous boxer, believed to be long deceased.
In resurrecting The Champ, Erik also aims to resurrect his own life of a broken marriage (his wife, played by Kathryn Morris, of Cold Case fame) 
Boasting of his past feats as a boxer, Jackson’s character, known in the film as The Champ, is beat to a pulp by a bunch of street thuds. A journalist (played by Josh Harnett), also down on his luck, covets a front-page story, and befriends The Champ, taking him to a match. The Champ gives the journalist, Erik, an insider’s run-down on the match, leading to the front-page story that jumpstarts his career.
Erik soon discovers that The Champ is a once-famous boxer, believed to be long deceased.
In resurrecting The Champ, Erik also aims to resurrect his own life of a broken marriage (his wife, played by Kathryn Morris, of Cold Case fame) 
and a difficult relationship with his young son (played by Dakota Goya). Erik is further spurred on by competition from a newsroom reporter (played by Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewife).
Directed by Rod Lurie, who hails from Greenwich, Connecticut, the film continues to move his career beyond television as the director of the series Commander in Chief and Line of Fire. He directed the 2000 film The Contender, starring Gary Oldman (of Harry Potter fame), Joan Allan, Jeff Bridges and Christian Slater.
Directed by Rod Lurie, who hails from Greenwich, Connecticut, the film continues to move his career beyond television as the director of the series Commander in Chief and Line of Fire. He directed the 2000 film The Contender, starring Gary Oldman (of Harry Potter fame), Joan Allan, Jeff Bridges and Christian Slater.
With an all-star cast, including Academy Award winner Samuel L. Jackson, who won the award for his role in Pulp Fiction, Lurie’s newest release Resurrecting the Champ is worth a trip to the local theater to check out the acting and the plot of this contemporary morality tale.
If you see the film, or want to comment on any of the actors, please post a comment.
2 comments:
I haven't seen the film yet, but after reading the blog would be very interested in seeing whether the character played by Teri Hatcher is truly nemesis, or indeed friend to J. Harnet's character. I ask this because immersed in feminist theory (Seyla Benhabib, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler) I find myself thinking that the "practical-moral imperative" of any utopia should be inclusive of feminist concerns, rather than what our current ideologies of future utopias are now--Europocentric ideologies deeply rooted in patriarchal societies that purport class, race, sex and gender distinctions. What am I trying to say? Does this movie prescribe to typical homosocial constructs in which women are often times presented as the all-evil "Other," or could it be that Hollywood has finally added a surprising "twist" to this type of three pt plot?
Emma Makinen
Emma, once you see the movie, let us know how you view the filmmaker's approach to depicting women and where you see this film fitting in with other kinds of male-bonding films. Judy
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