Jon Voight is the titular character in Franco Zeffirelli’s remake of the 1931 Academy Award winning film The Champ. Voight is Billy Flynn, a retired former championship boxer who now toils and lives at a racetrack with his 7 year old son, T.J. (Ricky Schroder). Coming back into their lives and throwing a wrench into the proceedings is Faye Dunaway, the boy’s mother and Champ’s ex-wife. She wants to regain custody of their child, which complicates things and forces Champ to take a comeback fight to try to make enough money to support his kid on his own. All of this is thoughtfully filmed by Zeffirelli and much emotion is wrung from the viewer’s heart by the cast’s formidable performances. The standout, though, is Schroder, here making his film debut. He was Golden Globe nominated for his performance and would go on to much bigger fame 3 years later as one of the stars of the hit sitcom Silver Spoons.
“A three-alarm, three-hanky movie of the highest order, perfect for your kids who don’t get to see many truly sad films.” – Michael Booth, Denver Post
