Jim Brown: All-American (2002)
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57% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
89% of users liked it
(50 ratings)
Spike Lee's documentary on the football star, movie actor, and social activist is a no-frills examination of a man who has rarely been out of the public spotlight for over 45 years. Jim Brown talks about the various phases of his life, from his boyhood in the all-black community of St. Simons… More Spike Lee's documentary on the football star, movie actor, and social activist is a no-frills examination of a man who has rarely been out of the public spotlight for over 45 years. Jim Brown talks about the various phases of his life, from his boyhood in the all-black community of St. Simons Island, GA; to his adolescence on Long Island, where he became a multi-sport star athlete; to his college days at Syracuse University; to his nine-year career as the NFL's leading running back with the Cleveland Browns; to his days as an action star in Hollywood films; to his work with various social programs, many designed to help inner city youth. Among the many interview subjects are Art Modell, the onetime owner of the Browns; former Cleveland Brown teammates Dick Schafrath, John Wooten, Bobby Mitchell, Paul Warfield, and Walter Beach; filmmaking colleagues Fred Williamson and Bernie Casey (both football players turned actors), Raquel Welch, Oliver Stone, James Toback, Melvin Van Peebles, and Stella Stevens; Kim Brown and James Brown Jr., two of Brown's children from his first marriage; and Rockhead Johnson, a former Los Angeles gang leader and officer of Brown's Amer-I-Can organization. Lee does address Brown's ongoing legal problems over various assault charges, many of them involving women, and he tracks down a onetime Brown lover who in the mid-'60s wound up in the hospital after an incident at his Los Angeles home. Brown appeared in a supporting role in Lee's film He Got Game. This film, co-produced by HBO's sports division, was released theatrically for a limited run; a version running 114 minutes premiered on HBO several months later. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Directed By
- Spike Lee
- Genres
- Documentary, Drama, Sports & Fitness
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Mar 22, 2002 Wide
- On DVD
- Aug 10, 2004
Critic Reviews
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Gene Seymour, Newsday
Only an epic documentary could get it all down, and Spike Lee's Jim Brown: All American at long last gives its subject a movie worthy of his talents.
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Stephen Holden, New York Times
As the movie traces Mr. Brown's athletic exploits, it is impossible not to be awed by the power and grace of one of the greatest natural sportsmen of modern times.
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Megan Turner, New York Post
Overly long and worshipful bio-doc.
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Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Lee's achievement extends to his supple understanding of the role that Brown played in American culture as an athlete, a movie star, and an image of black indomitability.
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Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
Since Lee is a sentimentalist, the film is more worshipful than your random E! True Hollywood Story.
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Cast
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Jim Brown
as Himself
- Dr. Walter Beach
- Hank Aaron
- Bernie Casey
- Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.
- Joe Frazier
- Art Modell
- Bill Russell
- Stella Stevens
- Oliver Stone
- James Toback
- Melvin Van Peebles
- Raquel Welch
- Fred Williamson
- Karen Brown Ward
- Jim N. Brown Jr.
- Oren Lyons
- Ed Walsh
- Arias Dallas Brown
- Paul Warfield
- Allen Dawson
- Ed Corley
- Sam Oakley
