Champs (2015)

Please don't spend money on this.

From my favorite movies..

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I've always been fascinated by the sport of boxing. My father was an enormous fan of the sport and introduced me to it, and even though I grew up in an era when the sport was practically non- existent, I remember as a young child being fascinated by the exploits of pugilists. I think it's because boxing is as much about the stories behind the fighters as it is the fights. "Champs" does a remarkable job of capturing that essence, telling the story of three boxers through the prism of their life experiences.The three fighters this documentary primarily focuses on are Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins. Director Bert Marcus is fantastic at telling each individual story within the context of the over-arching theme, which is that boxers primarily come from "broken" environments, rise to fame astronomically, and then usually flare out just as quickly. A version of that story happened to each of the three subjects...Tyson's troubles are well-known, Hopkins spent many years behind bars, and Holyfield was at one point nearly penniless. It is quite interesting to see how three individuals can take different routes to boxing stardom, yet all be pretty much motivated by the same themes: violence, money, and "getting out of the old neighborhood".Besides the stories of those three fighters, this film spends a good deal of time looking at the socio-economic aspects of boxing. Promoters and trainers are interviewed in order to get their opinion on where the sport was, where it is, and where it might be headed. Again, the common theme here is that "rich people don't box", but rather it is "tough/gangster kids" who are drawn to the sport for the cathartic release of energy and the sense of structure, family, and discipline it can provide.Perhaps the most moving parts of the documentary, however, come in seeing how these three fighters have gained wisdom over the years. Especially touching is the incredible transformation of Mike Tyson. As a young boxer, he was like a caged animal. When mentor Cus D'Amato died, the animal was let out of the rage and he became a street thug in rich man's clothing...terribly profane and hardly even able to utter a coherent thought. Nowadays, though, Tyson really seems to have taken control of his life. He can speak intelligibly, shows outright intelligence when it comes to matters of boxing, and is self-aware enough to have strong emotions about his past and his family. The transformation is truly staggering from where he was to where he is.So, if you are at all a fan of the "sweet science", you should give this one a watch. Or, even if you just like stories of loss, hope, and redemption. It truly will give you a lot to think about, and will more than likely stir some emotions along the way.

Champs is a wonderful documentary that any boxing fan should watch. It concentrates on the side of the sport that we don't get to see. It tells us the struggle and the reasons why boxers become boxers. The lives of the Holyfields, Tysons, and other sporting legends who found in boxing a door to a better life. And how from the top, they fell down, to find themselves again on the wrong side of life, with barely the means to survive. Boxing is dying little by little. It has lost his soul. Champs is probably the last great documentary we will get to see about boxers that became icons; boxers that paralyzed the world with their punches. A must see, if you care about the noble art.

I'm sorry to be cliché, but I just had to say it. This is an incredibly stunning film that captivated my attention from start to finish. I not only loved the primary stories that traced and captured the three main guys - Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins - but I also loved hearing from the other voices. From experts in the field to A list celebrities, I was completely in awe of seeing people that I wouldn't have expected to be in a documentary about boxing to have such meaningful places. I was lucky enough to attend a special screening with Evander Holyfield, but I am also going to see it again with a few friends this weekend. It was so much more than a movie about the fight game and I am still thinking about it today.

I had the pleasure of seeing CHAMPS at an advanced special screening followed by a Q+A with director Bert Marcus and Evander Holyfield. In so few words, the film was phenomenal. I know of Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, and knew very little about Bernard Hopkins, but after this film I was a truly passionate fan and admirer of all three men. The film brilliantly weaves stories of their uprbringings and career trajectories with meaningful and powerful socially conscious information. I was engaged for the full span of the film and left asking myself questions about various facets of our society and even of myself. This is a very special work that needs to be seen. The Q+A with the two men afterward was even more impressive. Evander's candid stories and point of view mixed with Bert Marcus' thorough explanations of why certain things were done and how they were accomplished were incredibly entertaining and powerful. I will definitely be telling people about this film.