Customer Reviews

Kings of the Ring

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love KINGS OF THE RING. HBO always does a great job with boxing show and I like the Louis Gosset Jr. as the nararrator. It has a real in-depth history of the heavyweight division. From Jack Dempsey's brutal ko of Jess Willard, to Mike Tyson. It show training and fight clips, as well as clips from outside the ring. It also helps explain the signifcance of the Heavyweight title and what it meant to the world at each particualar time in history.

I regret buying this DVD. Actually, it wasn't what I was looking for. There was another documentary called KINGS OF THE RING which focused on the careers of Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. It was directed by Bud Greenspan, I saw it once or twice on SHOWTIME and thought it was excellent. The tribute to Joe Louis was particularly touching. What we have here is an HBO produced documentary with a similar name but with less class. Admittedly, some of the footage here is rare (the Schmeling-Baer fight, Carnera boxing a kangaroo), but it just feels like footage spliced together with bleh commentary. And poor Larry Holmes. You get to watch him get pummelled by a young Mike Tyson again. No mention of his 7 years as heavyweight champion of the world. ...

But save your [money] and wait for Showtime to air the Greenspan documentary.

while it's cool to hear Louis Gossett Jr The Academy Award winner given Commentary through out this Project doesn't cover the full bases of Boxing.you have to do more.still there are rare footage here&there good coverage throughout from different Era's&Weight Classes but still something is mising from this being complete.

What a disappointing 90 minutes this is! Brief highlights of two-dozen widely circulated fights are shuffled in with Lindbergh in Paris, babies crying in 'Nam, Malcolm X speechifying, dirigibles, Hitler, Mussolini, the '36 Olympics, FDR's voice over shots of waving grain, sheep walking along a dam, fans lining up for a fight, and just about any obscure 20th Century newsreel footage they could dredge up.

We see Rocky Marciano box Jerry Lewis while a laughing Dean Martin referees, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby waltz in the ring with former pugilists as balloon-chested Barbara Eden looks on, Fiorello LaGuardia babbles, Sgt. Joe Louis blows his lines for a WWII PSA, Ali sings in a Broadway show, Joe Frazier haha's over beating "God," Primo Carnera spars with a kangaroo, greasy Sonny Liston sweats, ancient Dempsey and Tunney pretend box for the camera, and so on. Feh.

Totally ridiculous. Throw in the towel on this one.

This is one of the rare sports documentaries that will appeal to more than just sports fans. I saw this documantary a few years ago and was "Blown away". I'm a boxing fan but if you like excellent documentaries this is for you.

The Kings of the Ring stands along side the other great sports documentarres such as "16 Days of Glory", "Hero" and "Gol" and if you see any of these films, you will never forget them.

"Kings of the ring" is a 1995 condensed history of boxing. It would be difficult to include all of boxing history in one DVD but I feel that mentioning John L Sullivan to Jack Johnson wouldn't take but a few minutes if not to show footage of Jack Johnson and explain why there was a search for a "Great White Hope" especially if one begins with Jack Dempsey vs Jess Willard. The film does address the "Long Count" and how boxing rules have changed. For a boxing enthusiast the film is not as fulfilling as others I have seen, but for a novice the film is fine. I do not believe that this film will create a plethora of new boxing fans but it is still entertaining and historically accurate. . _Craig Barr

I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE SAME DOCUMETARY I SAW ON SHOWTIME, BUT IT WAS NOT.....STILL A GOOD DOCUMENTARY!!!!!

I've seen Larry Holmes interviewed in the past and at first I thought he was just a man with a massive inferiority complex but now I understand his problem. When a film such as this (which gives a fairly detailed history of the heavyweight crown) completely and uterly ignores his domination of the division for a five to eight year span, I think his complex is justified. Max Baer and Primo Carnera get five times as much attention in this movie as does holmes.

I was also expecting some kind of explanation of when and how the multiple governing bodies took precedence in the awarding of the title. After all it's something that could be discussed in narration alone without additional footage. Instead... we magically skip from Ali, who apparently has one title, to the days of Tyson and multiple titles. This is an important omition.

I understand that there is not film coverage of the absolute beginning of the heavyweight crown but I also find fault with the omission of this info...