Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1971)
Great White Hope - Review by DANNA MILLS The Great White Hope, -.urrently showing at the Nebraska theater, is definitely i movie to see. I promise that rou will not be bored. Scripted by Howard Sackler, who also wrote the mccessful Broadway version, :he film is based on the life of rack Johnson (Jack Jefferson n the picture), the first black leavyweight champion of the world. If we look for a reason for the tremendous interest in in boxing in this country, I think wc can easily agree with Eldridge Cleaver that "the boxing ring is the ultimate focus of masculinity in America, the two-fisted testing ground of manhood, and the heavyweight championship, as a symbol, is the real Mr. America." That a black man should in 1910, when the white man reigi.t 1 supreme, have the effri-n'.ry to claim that title by luring a white man in the ring was a serious shock to America's self-image. That he would additionally, claim the right to love the woman of his choice, a white woman, unleashed a fury of self-rightous retaliation in white America. They needed a white hope, someone to reclaim the white race. And the concept of a "white hope" is their concept, not Cleaver's. It was rampart in the journalism of the time, just as it was during the current heavyweight bout, and even the Ali-Patterson fight. Cleaver, in discussing the Ali-Patterson fight observes, "both black and white America, looking on, were sucked into the vortex of the Candidates plan appearance NU's three student candidates for City Council will appear with other city election candidates Monday night in a program sponsored by the League of Women Voters, said Mrs. Thomas Coleman, moderator. The program, to be televised on channel 9, will begin at 8 p.m. at the Lincoln Center Building. Each City Council, Airport Authority and School Board candidate has been invited, she said. Each candidate including students, John Breslow, William Bennett and William Hermes, will give a three-minute talk before the meeting is opened for questions. Union offers booths to ASUN candidates Booths in the Nebraska Union are now available for candidates running for the ASUN elections, according to Electoral Commissioner Dave Bingham. Top priorities for the booths will go to independent executive candidates and organized parties. Bingham said if the need arises, tables will be set up for individual senatorial candidates. Use of the booths will follow Nebraska Union rules. Bingham said if problems come up, the Electoral Commission reserves the right to alter these rules in order to be fair to all concerned. PAGE 8 event, feeling somehow a profound relationship to what was being enacted in that ring. They knew that a triumph and a defeat were taking place, transcending the fortunes of the two men squaring off in the ring to test their strength." Jefferson, unlike the white contenders, did not consider himself a "black hope." As he says, "Man, ah ain't fighting for no race, ain't redeeming no body! My momma tole me Mr. Lincoln done that- ain't that why you shot him?" Yet in spite of his protests the issue was racial and the play is about the white effort to put him in his place, and the struggle of Jefferson to retain his honor, his self-respect and his autonomy. You cannot fault the acting. James Earl Jones as Jefferson has the kind of physical and emotional responsiveness and control that excites the I ri - r in i B Nebraska Bookstore's Annual Spring Free For All Over 40,000 Books- All Subjects Ml You Encyclopedias (First Reasonable Bid Buys!) Specially Priced Wearing Apparel And Much More V Come In --- And Save! At Your 12&R focus of masculinity spectator, that draws him in and lets him share the inner life of the character. Jane Alexander as Elhe, Jack's woman, reveals skillfully the complete essence of what it is like to be the victim, to maintain the impossible position against impossible odds. . . But we cannot overlook tne See business recruiter today and tommorrow, 9-5 Business College. Consider VISTA. vm rn mnU n difference in the economy of poor Americans, in the quality of their ives. Can (Physically) Carry Out For $1 Discounts Up To 90 8000 Hardbacks all subjects 19&Up 1000's Of Childrens Selections! Several Sets Of 4 f Hi rrxct Hal HolbrOOk ICal Ul iiiv is magnificient as Cameron, the suave, polite, cool, efficient, gentlemanly, bigoted Chicago district attorney. Beah Richards, as Jefferson s mother, lets us share her anguish with uncomfortable poignancy. See this film. It won't leave you unmoved. You CAN help shape BUSINESS MAJORr MBA? ZJ3 fun imn or - r the future of your country. f j THE DAILY NEBRASKAN MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1971