The Boxing Film
A Cultural and Transmedia History
Published on 16. October 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-9788-0135-6 (ISBN)
Description
As one of popular culture's most popular arenas, sports are often the subject of cinematic storytelling. But boxing films are special. There are more movies about boxing, by a healthy margin, than any other sport, and boxing accompanied and aided the medium's late nineteenth-century emergence as a popular mass entertainment. Many of cinema's most celebrated directors-from Oscar Micheaux to Martin Scorsese-made boxing films. And while the production of other types of sports movies generally corresponds with the current popularity of their subject, boxing films continue to be made regularly even after the sport has wilted from its once-prominent position in the sports hierarchy of the United States. From Edison's Leonard-Cushing Fight to The Joe Louis Story, Rocky, and beyond, this book explores why boxing has so consistently fascinated cinema and popular media culture by tracing how boxing movies inform the sport's meanings and uses from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
Reviews / Votes
"While focusing on African American representation and racial conflict, Travis Vogan offers a fluent and engaging survey of boxing's transmedia history." - Leger Grindon, author of Knockout: the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021"- Book Authority
"I have a soft spot for boxing movies. They are about the triumph of humanity and the specificity of training. This is another book that takes on an entire genre and breaks it down from memorable hits to forgotten titles." - No Film School
"I have a soft spot for boxing movies. They are about the triumph of humanity and the specificity of training. This is another book that takes on an entire genre and breaks it down from memorable hits to forgotten titles." - No Film School
"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021"- Book Authority
"While focusing on African American representation and racial conflict, Travis Vogan offers a fluent and engaging survey of boxing's transmedia history." - Leger Grindon, author of Knockout: the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Brunswick NJ
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
7 b-w images
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
295 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9788-0135-6 (9781978801356)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
TRAVIS VOGAN is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of American Studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. His most recent book is ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television.
Content
Introduction: The Boxing Film Over Time and Across Media
1. The Boxing Film through the Golden Age of Sports Media
2. St. Joe Louis, Surrounded by Films
3. TV Fighting and Fighting TV in the 1950s
4. Muhammad Ali, The Super Fight, and Closed-Circuit Exhibition
5. The 1970s, Rocky, and the Shadow of Ali
6. HBO Sports: Docu-Branding Boxing
7. Protecting Boxing with the Boxing Film
Conclusion: Handling the Rules
Acknowledgements
Index
1. The Boxing Film through the Golden Age of Sports Media
2. St. Joe Louis, Surrounded by Films
3. TV Fighting and Fighting TV in the 1950s
4. Muhammad Ali, The Super Fight, and Closed-Circuit Exhibition
5. The 1970s, Rocky, and the Shadow of Ali
6. HBO Sports: Docu-Branding Boxing
7. Protecting Boxing with the Boxing Film
Conclusion: Handling the Rules
Acknowledgements
Index