Has-Been's Comeback
(originally posted on IMDb 28 July 2018)

"The Champ" is the most disgraceful sort of manipulative melodrama. A pointless remake of a has-been 1931 film of the same name, this one pummels its audience--employing filmic techniques developed since the original--in its comeback to try to inflict even more tears than its saccharine predecessor.

The 1931 version is bad, but at least the camerawork allowed some distance for the actors to develop a decent father-son bond on screen before the hokey histrionics are punched up. Not so here--zoom-ins, especially on the kid and mother, and a greater emphasis on close-ups force the audience to see every tear in the characters' eyes and, the filmmakers' hope seems to be, likewise force the waterworks out of viewers, as well. To today's eyes, at least, even the look and any deterioration of the 1970s film stock has the appearance of being filmed through a teary lens. Moreover, there are a greater series of crying scenes in the remake before the finale compared to the original. Early talkies, such as the 1931 "The Champ," also didn't feature non-diegetic musical scores. This 1979 remake, however, adds one, which rarely allows a moment without informing us what we're supposed to feel. This manipulative music was nominated for an Oscar. It's bad enough that there was never anything intelligent or particularly interesting from Frances Marion's script, another inexplicable Oscar honoree, but the remake doesn't even allow for any genuine emotional involvement. Every time I felt the film's machinations working, it inevitably left me feeling betrayed and abandoned, like T.J. ultimately is at some point by both parents.

Padding is added to the narrative, compared to the original, to allow for the heightened sentimental shenanigans. The original also had an injury at the horse track that foreshadows the film's finale, but this one adds more clutter there. I don't get the Old Tom Parr reference, either. Given the ending, is that supposed to be ironic? There are also two swimming scenes with T.J. and another pointless scene where we watch the father watching children playing on a beach (c'mon, we already know he likes kids). With star Faye Dunaway in the role, the part of the mother is expanded, too. It's over an hour and a half before the Champ begins training for his comeback--a length longer than the entire 1931 film.

In the wake of "Rocky" (1976), the boxing scene in the 1979 "The Champ" is certainly better than that in the 1931 version, which might be the most laughably-pathetic boxing contest ever filmed, and there's a brief Rocky-esque training montage. Wallace Berry, another undeserving Oscar winner, was literally unfit for the role of a former heavyweight champion. At least, Jon Voight was in better physical shape, and he doesn't ludicrously lunge forward, throwing haymakers each round. Jack Warden, who played a similar role in the prior year's "Heaven Can Wait," another pointless sports-related remake, is brought in as the Champ's trainer, although he's introduced rather late in the feature--seemingly relying on his credibility from the prior film instead of developing his character here.

Part of the surge in boxing films piggybacking on the success of "Rocky," "The Champ" also seems to somewhat anticipate the anti-Feminist message of "Kramer vs. Kramer," released later in 1979, by focusing on a father-son relationship under threat from the re-emergence of the mother who abandoned them. Yet, it's shallow on both accounts, boxing and child custody. Emotional manipulation is the contest of concern here. Hopefully, you come out unscathed.