Jim Brown: All-American-DVD-26359201820

From All Movie Guide Spike Lees 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 NFLs 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 Browns children from his first marriage; and Rockhead Johnson. a former Los Angeles gang leader and officer of Browns Amer-I-Can organization. Lee does address Browns 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 Lees film He Got Game. This film. co-produced by HBOs sports division. was released theatrically for a limited run; a version running 114 minutes premiered on HBO several months later. Tom Wiener