The Great White Hype (1996)

Directed by

Reginald Hudlin

Genre

comedy film, boxing film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

R

Rating

5.2 of 10 from 106 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A boxing promoter stages a fight between a black champion and a white challenger to cash in on racial hype. The movie makes fun of how race and money play into the sport.

satiricalfast-pacedcomediccolorfulsharptongue-in-cheekbrash

What happens

The Great White Hype is a 1996 American sports comedy film directed by Reginald Hudlin. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Berg, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davies, Salli Richardson and Jamie Foxx. The film satirizes racial preferences in boxing, and was inspired by Larry Holmes's 1982 fight with Gerry Cooney (who was known as "The Great White Hope") and Mike Tyson's 1995 return fight vs. Peter McNeeley. Entertainment Weekly called Rev. Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson) a "Don King-clone." The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox and was released on May 3, 1996. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad (1947)
• Battling Butler (1926)
• Joe Palooka in the Knockout (1947)
• On Your Toes (1927)
• The Winning Wallop (1926)
• Gentleman Joe Palooka (1946)
• Mr. Hex (1946)
• Shootfighter 2 (1996)