Unless Crowe gets a helluva tan he won't be playing Jack Johnson. Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion. Was not popular with the white population for two reasons, he beat up all the white boxers and had an affinity for white women.
Oh yes, thanks 65grad for jogging my memory. I did see a portion of this a few weeks ago. That's definitely not the guy that Crow is playing in this movie. Plus Jack Johnson was way before the 30's. Although the movie that Crowe is in looks to be a good one.
always made me mad when I first heard about Jack Johnson (the musician)...I would Google him and 1/2 the responses were for the boxer Jack Johnson. Finally one day I read about the boxer...good story if you don't know who he is. Now - if you haven't heard of Jack Johnson the musician - well you need to. Nothing like being on the beach or sitting around drinking while listening to Jack.
Bigbully, I agree, his music is a nice listen. He easily replaces Jimmy Buffet as the best beach listening musician. I personlly hate Margaritaville, but Jack Johnson is great. My bro is a Marine and he is stationed in Hawaii when he is not in Iraq, and Jack Johnson is from there I think. But JJ is HUGE in Hawaii. Also, his lyrics are great too, on top of him being a very very talented guitar player.
Monday night was part 1, tonight is part 2. If you get the LPB HD channel (http://www.lpb.org/whatson/dtv/), parts 1 and 2 will replay on Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at Noon. http://www.pbs.org/previews/unforgivable_blackness_jackjohnson/ has a pretty good write-up about the documentary. The Great White Hope from 1970 staring James Earl Jones is a pretty good movie based on Jack Johnson, but I don’t think the history of actual events is accurate. Anyway it’s worth watching if you get a chance…
He did appear to have a heck of a physique. Seemed like a heck of a fun guy, too, giving impromptu performances in nightclubs, hanging with prostitiutes, and traveling the world. I could'nt get over the white champ who rathered retire than fight him - and still had the nerve to call Johnson "yellow". Some NAACP-type folks should watch it - to illustrate to them how foolish some of their arguments today are.
I'm not quite sure I understand your logic here? Btw, I'm a LONGTIME reader of this forum, yet never felt the need to respond to anything, but I'm not sure if you're trying to be racist here, or what. I'm not accusing you of anything, yet I'm not sure I understand why some of the NAACP's arguments are "foolish." As a white member of the NAACP, I would like some more information regarding this. Also, I think it is an UTTER shame that I've never heard of this guy before the documentary. It seems to be something that should have been taught in school. I hope I just read your post wrong.
QUOTE "I'm not sure I understand why some of the NAACP's arguments are "foolish." As a white member of the NAACP, I would like some more information regarding this. " OK ; The best way to give you more information is to give an example. Recently, here in New Orleans, there was an incident where an african-american guy died while being held down by some white bouncers at a bar on Bourbon St. Two days later, some Clergy and someone from the NAACP had a "Press Conference" outside the bar. They called the death "a modern day lynching", throwing out racism as the reason for the death. Now, i'm not here to defend the bouncers or the bar - and it may well turn out that the bouncers get convicted of manslaughter(which I think they should).....BUT... to call this a racist lynching is an insult to every african-american who really was murdered in the civil rights era and beyond ! Those bouncers on Bourbon St are equal oppurtunity bullies. Does this make sense ? To sum it up, I think that frequently, the NAACP tries too hard to keep the aura of racism in the public eye - even if the facts don't support their accusations, and in my opinion, that is foolish. BTW, because of your response, I felt compelled to respond and explain, but i'm not going to get drug into a message-board debate about this subject. Have a nice day.