Resurrecting Interest in the Past

Resurrecting Interest in the Past
10/21/08
Resurrecting The Champ stirs and results in research and interest


This past weekend, one of my goals was to clean my desk off in our home office. I didn’t get too far (due to many factors) when I came across a bunch of papers clipped together.
I looked down at it, read for about five minutes and then started jotting notes on sticky tabs.
The pack of papers was RESURRECTING THE CHAMP: The original Times story – May 4, 1997.
We enjoy movies of all sorts, but really enjoy movies that cause you to put aside other things to take the time to dig and research and read more about the true stories or the facts that led to the cinematic presentation. Even if the movie is fiction, chances are, if it is good, there are some interested items that inspired it. A few months ago we watched one of those movies on DVD. In a future blog, I will list and talk about some of these flicks.
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP.
The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett (who is steadily becoming one of my favorite actors). Basically it is about and up-and-coming sports reporter (played by Hartnett) who be-friends a homeless man (Jackson). He soon finds out that this man is a boxing legend who many believed to be dead. In IMDB.com’s plot synopsis it says “What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ’s story and escape the shadow of his father’s success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family.”
This movie was wonderful from the start. I liked it a lot, but it is what this movie caused inside of me that made it one of my favorites. It caused me to dig and take interest in the True Story. It almost forced me to dig deep into it. Like many Hollywood movies, RESURRECTING THE CHAMP, in my opinion, was loosely based on the truth. I learned the differences (which I have no problem with in this case) through the research.
The “real life” event was experienced by Los Angeles based-reporter J.R. Moehringer who published an article that “retraced” the life of heavyweight boxer Bob Satterfield. I won’t talk about it and ruin any of it.
Really, you need to watch the movie and then read the 1997 original story. To read RESURRECTING THE CHAMP: The original Times story – May 4, 1997, go to http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-champ,1,754330.story?coll=la-news-columns Whether you are a boxing fan or not, you will be pleased with this movie and the true story behind it.
For J.R. Moehringer's Memoirs go to http://www.tenderbar.com/