So often thought of primarily as the big lug who was so dramatically dispatched by Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire in 1974, George Foreman is the main event in Big George Foreman. While there is plenty of boxing here to satisfy sports fans, the film is mild-mannered and genial to a fault as it charts the life of a dirt-poor Texas kid with a devastating punch whose public image transformed over the years from hulking bogeyman to that of a good-natured businessman and man of God.
Ali was such a commanding, entertaining and (mostly) adored worldwide figure, from his emergence as the self-anointed “greatest” to his ultimate status as one of the most beloved and admired men on the planet, that it isn’t easy to watch him take a back seat here to a younger but less charismatic figure onscreen. Eventually, if you like boxing and are willing to accept this as a sanitized and truncated version of the full story, it’s not hard to sit back and enjoy the eventful aspects of the big man’s life and his engaging personality, even if the film is inescapably a mere gloss on the full story. As there’s much to Foreman’s life that there isn’t room for here, it’s plausible to think that a miniseries might have more comfortably told the tale in a fuller, more multifaceted way.
Written by Frank Baldwin (Cold Pursuit) and George Tillman Jr (Soul Food), who also directs, the film suggests at the outset that the teenage George might very likely have come to no good as small-time criminal had his potential as a boxer not been noticed by a perceptive scout and trainer, Doc Broadus (Forest Whitaker), who gets him off the streets and into the gym. “You’ve got a punch like I’ve never seen,” the old pro confides, and he soon has the kid working out and getting used to the ring.
Prior to Foreman’s arrival on the scene, the heavyweight division had been dominated by Ali until his title was yanked in June 1967 for refusing induction into the military, as well as being sentenced to five years in federal prison. He managed to maneuver out of that, but he was nonetheless barred from boxing for nearly four of his prime years, during which time Ernie Terrell, Joe Frazier and, finally, Foreman stood atop the heavyweight division.
Physically, Frazier was incredibly intimidating and, at least for a while, not well liked by fans who were biding their time until the return of Ali, who flummoxed Foreman in that long-awaited 1974 title fight. Boxing fans will certainly enjoy the ring action on display, though there isn’t much of it, and interested parties will have to go home and consult the record books to trace the overlapping careers these three great fighters as well as others.
You’ll also have to check your sources to glean details about these guys’ private lives. For a film about Foreman, in particular, it would seem like the writers couldn’t cope the challenge of integrating the man’s 12 children, in addition to his four wives and who knows how many other women, into the narrative. On the few occasions that you do see his family, it’s almost like a joke, as they all just sit there doing nothing in particular as the big man genially presides. Any attempt to dramatically tackle the Foreman family’s real modus vivendi would be greatly challenging but no doubt intriguing to imagine or explore.
The big personalities and unusual lifestyles on display in the film are enough to hold one’s interest, but you can only imagine that, with such famous figures and offspring involved, a deeper exploration of what all these lives are like — and how the participants lead their lives — would be fascinating, if not the sort of drama that commercial family entertainment would brave or even want. What’s left is a reasonably engaging “inspired by real events” melodrama featuring a fair amount of boxing action and working-class families suddenly surrounded by fame and, at least some of the time, big money. It’s a classically American rags-to-riches story that, while passably engaging as it is, could have been much deeper and more revealing about achieving your dreams young and how you deal with it.
Firmly on the plus side are the numerous depictions of ring action, which are realistic and, in this instance, notably accurate in depicting real and often well-remembered bouts that some fans still re-watch at home.
Title: Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Release date: April 28, 2023
Director: George Tillman Jr
Screenwriters: Frank Baldwin, George Tillman Jr
Cast: Khris Davis, Jasmine Mathews, Sullivan Jones, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., John Magaro, Sonja Sohn, Forest Whitaker
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hr 9 min
