X
- 1970
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 43 m
- 1970
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 43 m
Summary A black champion boxer and his white female companion struggle to survive while the white boxing establishment looks for ways to knock him down.
Directed By: Martin Ritt
Written By: Howard Sackler
- 1970
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 43 m
- 1970
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 43 m
The Great White Hope
53
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary A black champion boxer and his white female companion struggle to survive while the white boxing establishment looks for ways to knock him down.
Directed By: Martin Ritt
Written By: Howard Sackler
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
53
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
53
43% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Great White Hope persuasively recreates the climate of the time and generally avoids the preachiness for which director Ritt is sometimes known. The love story between Alexander and Jones is touchingly portrayed.
A superior cast, headed by James Earl Jones encoring in his stage role, a colorful and earthy script, plus outstanding production, render film quite palatable.
Director Martin Ritt (Hud) keeps the movie powerful and tense until the ending, which is crudely manipulative. [22 Aug 1998, p.11]
This big-scale work, directed by Martin Ritt, is of solid craftsmanship but little style. James Earl Jones' Johnson is, however, intensely vital and larger-than-life. [10 Dec 1989, p.2]
Martin Ritt's big, noisy production clunks along like a disjointed play; it defeats Jones, and along the way it also inadvertently exposes the clobber-them-with-guilt tactics of the dramatist, Howard Sackler.
The Great White Hope is one of those liberal, well-meaning, fervently uncontroversial works that pretend to tackle contemporary problems by finding analogies at a safe remove in history.
Provocative but never challenging.
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Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Image Awards (NAACP)
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
