American Experience
(1988– )
Documentary on the boxing match between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling, which captured the world's attention on June 22, 1938.
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Title: The Fight (24 Jan 2005)
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Cast
| Episode credited cast: | |||
| Courtney B. Vance | ... | Narrator | |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Steve Acunto | ... | Himself - Boxing Trainer |
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Gus Adams | ... | Himself - Louis' Friend |
| Muhammad Ali | ... | Himself (archive footage) | |
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Alverta Barksdale | ... | Herself - Dancer |
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David Bathrick | ... | Himself - Professor of German Studies, Cornell University |
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Jimmy Braddock | ... | Himself (archive footage) |
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Jim Clark | ... | Himself - Boxing Fan |
| Richard Ben Cramer | ... | Additional voice (voice) | |
| Jack Dempsey | ... | Himself (archive footage) | |
| Marlene Dietrich | ... | Herself (archive footage) | |
| Ralph Edwards | ... | Himself (archive footage) | |
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Truman Gibson | ... | Himself - Joe Louis' Attorney |
| Joseph Goebbels | ... | Himself (archive footage) (as Josef Goebbels) | |
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Herb Goldman | ... | Himself - Boxing Historian |
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Documentary on the boxing match between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling, which captured the world's attention on June 22, 1938.
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Release Date:
24 January 2005 (USA) See more »Company Credits
Production Co:
ARTE, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) See more »
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The fights between boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmelling in the 1930s were strangely emblematic. In some ways, each man embodied a certain idealisation of his own country (democratic America and Nazi Germany); on the other, Loius himself was a victim of America's own racial divide. Barak Goodman's documentary is slightly over-reverential, at times conferring on Louis (the man) the full weight of what he happened to signify to black America (when one might suggest he was simply a man who could box; whose cultural impact on his country was almost a chance consequence of his awesome sporting prowess). But it's still a fascinating story, and there are also strange parallels between the careers of the two men (New York City didn't want black fighters, but (to some extent) it didn't want European ones either). Schmelling, who still lives but who does not take part in this film, is a more ambiguous figure, a man who compromised with Nazism; but 'The Fight' never reduces him to the level of comic book villain, and as a boxer, he did have one great victory before finally falling to his brilliant foe. The fact that the fights themselves were filmed, and can thus be re-broadcast here, adds more to this gripping documentary.