Alan Jackson Video:

		List Price: $24.99		Label: PBS Paramount Salesrank: 40719 Released: January 11, 2005
		Our Price: $13.32
		Used Price: $23.00
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2005

Description of Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson:
Ken Burns's documentary style is so unencumbered; the subject matter is effortlessly presented. His regular mix of photos, subtle sound effects, excellent musical score, and actor readings of historical text hasn't changed since his breakthrough of The Civil War. And it doesn't need to. Even though this 220-minute production is a biography--on heavyweight champion Jack Johnson--the film resonates about the how race was dealt with in the early part of the 20th century. Four decades after the Emancipation, the American black was still struggling to find elementary terms of equality. Along came a strong and headstrong man who took on sport decades before Jackie Robinson and became the key figure in heavyweight fighting, a champion against the longest odds.

Samuel L. Jackson voices Johnson's words with great verve and helps create an absorbing picture of Johnson along with various historians and boxing experts laying down the tale of the tape. Here's a man so smart and patient in the ring who took great liberties in his day-to-day life, unafraid to showcase his success, and ruffle the morals of the time (including, most scandalously, marrying a white woman). Viewing film of his prizefights, the amateur eye can understand Johnson's style and bravura. Burns's certainly takes his time and, as usual, has a vast awry of facts of how the world reacted to news of Johnson's success and the conspiracy which led to his downfall. The highlight, natch, are two of Johnson's epic fights near the end of his reign as champ (and the search for a "Great White Hope"). The appearance of James Earl Jones (who won a Tony for his portrayal of Johnson in 1959) and Wynton Marsalis's musical score are grand touches. --Doug Thomas

Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Reviews:
unforgettable and smooth
2009-05-05 - The video describes jack johnson from his days of poverty to his rise to fame. It also looks at the prejudice that roared back in the 1900's. This is a great story not only about jack johnson life but also about the american living and influences in those segregated times.

Just A Few Points
2009-02-23 - This is a remarkable documentary and I'm grateful to Burns for introducing a new generation to the astounding Jack Johnson. It's an amazing American story, reminding us of how virulent, overt, and institutionalized racism was during this era (most of the film focuses on the peak years of Johnson's career, around 1910-1911). The footage is fascinating.

The other reviews have said it well. Here are just a few comments:

1) Many voice-overs seem to be Johnson's own words. If so, Johnson was not only a brillant pugilist, but a wonderful, eloquent philosopher as well. Late in the film Burns mentions Johnson's autobiography rather ironically, characterizing it as a poor-seller in which Johnson seeks to show himself in an unrealistically positive light. So I do wonder where the voice-over verbiage comes from. The autobiography? Was it ghost-written or Johnson's own hand?

2)As you watch the film, you can't help but feel that Johnson is a great man. As a matter of fact, several commentators talk about Johnson as being the epitome of 'a man': he's the whole man, the paragon of manliness, defines masculinity, etc.' They do not stint in their admiration, and given the context of the film it's hard not to agree with them.....EXCEPT for one big issue.

Johnson beat his wife.

One wife (and he had several wives, and concurrent girlfriends) was beaten so badly she was put in the hospital for a week. This is the wife who is socially isolated and sequestered (confined to rooms above Johnson's club), because she was "unstable." In fact, she eventually killed herself. Burns talks about her loneliness. He says her life cannot have been easy. But every mention about her situation seems to follow soon with words about her poor mental state.

Seems kind of like a "chicken or egg" scenario: maybe she was unstable because of the abuse.

After the severe beating that put his wife in the hospital, we hear about Johnson's pain and repressed anguish. After his wife kills herself, we hear about how Johnson cries.

It's so easy to want to make excuses for Johnson who is fabulous in many ways. But I was really put off by how the context and sequencing of the film totally soft-pedals Johnson's abuse of his wife.

You should still see this film - it makes Don King and crew seem tame. But shame on Burns for his relativism. As punishment, he should have to make a documentary on women's emancipation.

A PBS documentary
2009-01-21 - I found this to be a very powerful true story.
I was familiar with the movie "The Great White Hope."
The movie was based on Jack Johnson, a colorful figure
in his time. If you like to watch documentaries, that
are well crafted, I would recommend this one.

An American Idol, Jack didn't Fall he only Rose
2008-07-17 - This needs to be a thousand stars!
Jack Johnson was an individual and a true American hero. He didn't care what whites or blacks thought about what he should do. James Earl Jones said it best, "he was a person that was self defined. He didn't let no one define him." Therefore he was a man and that's all everyone desires anyway. MLK later said in his dream speech "that he wanted blacks to be defined by the content of their character." But there are lessons to be learned. He didn't let not one tell him what he could or couldn't do. Most people back then would say" okay I am black therefore I will never have a shot at the title. But Jack followed Tommy Burns all around the world for a chance at his dream and he conquered it! He did the immposible the unthinkable.

First of all I am shocked that he didn't get killed by a white person. Boxing was more important than baseball back then. It was so important that when he beat (Jefferies former champ who Johnson could have beaten a decade ago) riots broke out over the country. Today in classroom history books you will hear about race riots breaking out because of the death of MLK. But you will never hear about the race riots because Johnson(black) beat Jefferies (white). Then on top of that being the True American he was, allowed him to think for himself to marry white women. Unheard of, this boldness in the face of KKK, and Jim Crow.

The film by Burns is great and accurate more accruate than "The Great White Hope" (Which is a great film as well). But it puts everything in the proper context. It shows how racist America was and still is on this subject. White America still has a problem with Miscegenation. It's sad how the first movie that appeared in the white house was the "birth of a nation" which was blatant racism that everyone in Washington thought was so great. What a racist upper society! I thought it was interesting Landis, the guys responsible for not permitting blacks to play MLB was on the scene during Johnson's trial. The person responsible for the fight in Reno Nevada, helped Johnson in jail to have all kinds of freedom (funny). Also how President Wilson lied when he said he would help blacks and enforeced jim crow. How the WWI didn't allow Johnson to fight and make money in Europe which was true.

Burns did a great job. I love how he uses the contextual words at that time to create the chapters. Love the old boxing video and photo footage. Funny how they cut off that heavyweight championship fight in the 14th round in Australia for the world to see history. Love the white people telling the truth in this film.

The Mann Act, its' funny they are doing the same thing to Barry Bonds. They are trying to get him after the fact when everyone else does it. The situations has it's simularities.



Awesome treatment of a very difficult subject.
2008-05-07 - I found Ken Burns treatment of the Jack Johnson story to be highly entertaining as well as informative. Other than having seen "The Great White Hope" years and years ago, I had very little information on this man. This progam details not only Jack's life but also the terrible portion of American history that I would categorize as "growing pains" (which we seem to still be having). I learned quite a bit not only about boxing, but about the history of laws that were used to control African-Americans. It looks like quite a few were actually written because of people's distaste for Jack Johnson. As for Jack Johnson himself, I noticed that some people here are saying that he was hated because his personality was strong he "had a bad attitude." Isn't that the new way of saying he was "uppity"? This man was just being a man and enjoying the lifestyle that being a wealthy sports celebrity afforded him. If this were a white man with the exact same "attitude" and lust for life and women, would his "attitude" even be in question? I highly recommend this program for anybody interested in American history, race relations or boxing!