"The American Experience" The Fight (2004)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Barak Goodman

Writers:

Barak Goodman (writer)
David Margolick (book)

TV Series:

"The American Experience" (1988)

Original Air Date:

January 2004 (Season 17, Episode 2)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Crime | History | War

Plot:

Documentary on the boxing match between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling, which captured the world's attention on June 22, 1938. |

Plot Keywords:

Boxing | Boxer | Race Relations | Archive Footage | Baseball Stadium

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Courtney B. Vance	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Acunto	...	Himself - Boxing Trainer
Gus Adams	...	Himself - Louis' Friend
Muhammad Ali	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alverta Barksdale	...	Herself - Dancer
David Bathrick	...	Himself - Professor of German Studies, Cornell University
Richard Ben Cramer	...	Additional voice (voice)
Jimmy Braddock	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jim Clark	...	Himself - Boxing fan
Jack Dempsey	...	Himself (archive footage)
Marlene Dietrich	...	Herself (archive footage)
Ralph Edwards	...	Himself (archive footage)
Truman Gibson	...	Himself - Joe Louis' Attorney
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (archive footage)
Herb Goldman	...	Himself - Boxing Historian
Jay Gregory	...	Additional voice (voice)
W.C. Heinz	...	Himself - Sportswriter
Peter Hermann	...	Additional voice (voice)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Herbert Hoffman	...	Himself - Former German Soldier
Vernon Jarrett	...	Himself - Writer
Hank Kaplan	...	Himself - Boxing Historian
Volker Kluge	...	Himself - Sports Journalist
Martin Krause	...	Himself - Journalist
Fritz Lang	...	Himself (archive footage)
Henri Lewin	...	Himself - Jewish Refugee
Leon Litwack	...	Himself - Historian, University of California
Joe Louis	...	Himself - Louis' Son (archive footage)
Don Majeski	...	Himself - Boxing promotor
David Margolick	...	Himself - Writer
Jefferson Mays	...	Additional voice (voice)
Clem McCarthy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Fred Morton	...	Himself - Jewish Refugee
Jack Newfield	...	Himself - Writer
Gerd Otto	...	Himself - Boxing Fan
Jesse Owens	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ferdie Pacheco	...	Himself - Fight Doctor
Quill Pettaway	...	Himself - Louis' friend
Franz Rams	...	Himself - Former German soldier
Gerhard Reimann	...	Himself - Sportswriter
Lester Rodney	...	Himself - Sportswriter
John Roxborough	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jeffrey T. Sammons	...	Himself - Historian (as Jeffrey Sammons)
Max Schmeling	...	Himself (archive footage)
Budd Schulberg	...	Himself - Writer
Mike Silver	...	Himself - Boxing Historian
Walter Smith	...	Himself - Louis' Friend
Walter Stubbs	...	Himself - Louis' Friend
Ed Sullivan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hans-Joachim Teichler	...	Himself - Historian
George von der Lippe	...	Himself - Professor of German Studies, St. Anselm College

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color

Company:

Arte

Fight of the Century

The fights between boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmelling in the 1930s were strangely emblematic. In some ways, each man embodied a certain idealisation of his own country (democratic America and Nazi Germany); on the other, Loius himself was a victim of America's own racial divide. Barak Goodman's documentary is slightly over-reverential, at times conferring on Louis (the man) the full weight of what he happened to signify to black America (when one might suggest he was simply a man who could box; whose cultural impact on his country was almost a chance consequence of his awesome sporting prowess). But it's still a fascinating story, and there are also strange parallels between the careers of the two men (New York City didn't want black fighters, but (to some extent) it didn't want European ones either). Schmelling, who still lives but who does not take part in this film, is a more ambiguous figure, a man who compromised with Nazism; but 'The Fight' never reduces him to the level of comic book villain, and as a boxer, he did have one great victory before finally falling to his brilliant foe. The fact that the fights themselves were filmed, and can thus be re-broadcast here, adds more to this gripping documentary.