The Champ (1979 film)
| The Champ | |
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Theatrical release poster by Richard Amsel
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| Directed by | Franco Zeffirelli |
| Produced by | Dyson Lovell |
| Written by |
Frances Marion Walter Newman |
| Starring |
Jon Voight Faye Dunaway Ricky Schroder |
| Music by | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography | Fred J. Koenekamp |
| Edited by | Michael J. Sheridan |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $30,441,738 |
The Champ is a 1979 American drama sports film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and a remake of the 1931 Academy Award-winning film of the same name which was directed by King Vidor. It stars Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Ricky Schroder. It is also the final film for actress Joan Blondell to be released during her lifetime. Blondell, who died from leukemia on Christmas Day eight months later, also starred in two other films that were released after her death.
Billy Flynn, an ex-boxing champion, is now a horse trainer in Hialeah, Florida. He makes just enough money to raise his little son T.J., of whom Flynn has full custody since his wife Annie left him, seven years before the events of the film. T.J. worships "The Champ," who has gambling debts and begins working on a comeback to give his boy a better future. Suddenly Annie shows up again and wants to become a part of T.J.'s life.
The film had received a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.Time Out London called it
Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby intensely panned the movie, stating
Schroder won the Golden Globe Award for "Best New Male Star of the Year in a Motion Picture" at age nine for his performance as T.J. Flynn. Voight was a nominee for Best Actor but lost out to Dustin Hoffman for his role in Kramer vs. Kramer.
The Champ has also been called "the saddest movie in the world", and the final scene has been used in numerous psychology experiments to elicit a strong emotional response. According to Smithsonian magazine two psychologists, Robert Levenson and James Gross, conducted a study of more than 250 movie clips, and subjected them to 500 subjects in 1988, and concluded the last three minutes of the movie, where "T.J." sees his father win in his comeback fight only to witness his death in the dressing room afterwards, elicited the saddest response from a majority of the subjects. In the scene the grief-stricken "T.J." is inconsolable tugging his father's body while crying out "Champ, wake up. Please wake up, Champ."
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Wikipedia