Other Titles • Resurrecting the Champ (2007) • Resurrecting the Champ f6a (2007)
Synopses for Resurrecting the Champ (2007)
1.
In RESURRECTING THE CHAMP, Samuel L. Jackson sheds the cooler-than-thou persona he’s perfected in films such as PULP FICTION. But even previous turns as the downtrodden characters in CHANGING LANES and BLACK SNAKE MOAN are nothing compared to the role of Champ in this film from director Rod Lurie (THE LAST CASTLE). Jackson transforms into a homeless man, completely changing his voice and carriage to reflect someone who has lived on the street for years. When the audience first meets Champ, he is being attacked by a group of 20-something men. A sports journalist named Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett, THE BLACK DAHLIA) happens upon the scene and rescues Champ from a brutal beating. But it’s Erik who needs rescuing as well: his job at the Denver Times is in jeopardy as a result of his pedestrian prose, and his marriage to a fellow journalist (Kathryn Morris, COLD CASE) is on equally shaky ground. In finding Champ, he’s found his story. Champ isn’t an average man living on the street. Instead, he boasts of being famed boxer Battling Bob Satterfield, and he hands Erik a Pulitzer-worthy story of a life gone wrong.
Based on a true story, RESURRECTING THE CHAMP is less a typical sports movie than it is an engaging drama. There’s enough boxing history and action to satisfy sports fans: Satterfield is said to have battled big names such as Jake La Motta of RAGING BULL fame, and bouts are fought and won throughout the film. But it’s Erik’s internal conflict that makes this an interesting film. He is a man forever caught in the shadow of his father, a famed sports broadcaster he never really knew, as he tries to raise his own son.
2.
Struggling sports reporter Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett) encounters a homeless man who calls himself “Champ” (Samuel L. Jackson) only to determine that he is the one-time boxing champion Battling Bob Satterfield. What begins as a story about resurrecting a once-great man becomes Erik’s title shot. In his journey to uncover the truth, Erik has to reexamine his own life and his relationship with his young son.
For all his ambition, Erik (Josh Hartnett) is a Denver sports reporter fast on his way to being yesterday's news. His writing lacks personality, and his editor, Metz (Alan Alda), is unwilling to pull him off the boxing beat. To make matters worse, his personal life is down for the count. Recently separated from his wife, Erik tries to maintain his good standing with their young son. When he rescues a homeless man, "the champ" (Samuel L. Jackson), from some local hoods, he learns that the destitute man is actually a former boxing champion thought to be long dead, and it appears that Erik has stumbled onto a knockout story.
Rod Lurie proves that he is an intricate storyteller here, discovering in the material a range of complex emotions and poignancy. Bolstered by subtle performances from Hartnett and Jackson, the film asks what it means to be a man, not a champ. It grapples with relationships between fathers and sons and taps into a core component of masculine self-deception--an urge to misrepresent. Hamstrung by his own sense of failure, Erik tries so hard to appear special in his son's eyes that he lies about being friends with star athletes. But in befriending the champ, who has his own burdens, Erik takes steps to come to terms with his family, the ghost of his father, and his own capacity for forgiveness.— Sundance Film Festival
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