People are voting emotionally.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Some movies touch us in ways that are beyond description. The Champ is such a film. As far as a genre I guess its a sports movie. But really a story about life, human emotions and the bond between father and son. Billy Flynn (Jon Voight) is a former boxing champion who is down but no out. He now works as a horse walker/trainer. When this film was made, you didn't hear of many men being single fathers. Billy is just that. To his dismay he was divorced from his wife Annie (Faye Dunaway) after she left them to pursue a career. He told his son TJ (Ricky Schroder) that she had been killed in an accident and was a now a beautiful angel. Billy is a good man, but like many men he has his faults. He drinks and he gambles. But he is doing his best to raise TJ. One evening he has a $3400 lucky streak and buys TJ a horse, She's A Lady. Now 8 year old TJ owns a race horse. As he was preparing for the filly's first race, unknowingly TJ and Annie meet. She's a Lady is running well and battles for the lead only to fall down the stretch. Annie watches as TJ runs to aid his horse and discovers Billy is close behind. She then figures out TJ is her son Timmy. Annie confronts Billy after the race wanting to know more about her son. But Billy is still bitter and does not feel the need to grant this request. Life goes on with Billy's demons on his back. Old habits are hard to break, during an unlucky streak he loses all his money and owes $2000 more. He has 48 hours to pay or he loses TJs horse. Annie is now wealthy and bails Billy out. However instead of taking the money, the bookie decides he "likes the idea of being a horse owner." This infuriates Billy so much he commits an assault that lands him in the clink. In an intense jail scene, he tells TJ that he is "a pain in the butt, always nagging him, telling him not to drink and gamble." Billy wants TJ to live with Annie but he wants no part of it. Calling his dad a liar gets TJ slapped and sent on his way. But Billy has yet to tell him the real truth about his new friend. America has bestowed one great gift to the world, Hollywood. Many great films have been made. In my opinion The Champ is one of the best and deserves a MUCH higher IMDb rating than 6.3. If there has ever been a movie to deserve a perfect 10, this is it. Now that I have set the story up for you, take 2 hours of your life and watch. But let me caution everyone, unless you have a heart of stone, this film will not only pull your heart strings. It will tear them out. Young Ricky Schroder gives the performance of a lifetime and is backed up by the stellar work of Jon Voight and beautiful Faye Dunaway.Its a great at home date movie to watch with a new lady friend. So get a bucket of popcorn, a box of tissues and get ready for a film you will NEVER forget. This is a great story that leaves us sobbing at the end! A 100% definite 10/10!

The Champ (1979)** (out of 4)Remake of the 1931 film that got star Wallace Beery his Oscar. This time it's Jon Voight playing the washed up boxer taking care of his young son (Ricky Schroder) who decides to try and make a comeback so that he can do something good for the kid. Along the way he gets involved with his ex-wife (Faye Dunaway) who left him and the kid years earlier and he also can't escape his destructive nature. The original version of this story was quite good and of course it contained the now famous ending, which is pretty much kept here. Look, there's no question that the final five-minutes here are incredibly powerful but they still can't make up for the previous 116-minutes that are pretty manipulative and flat. There are all sorts of problems with THE CHAMP and while it's certainly not a bad movie it just doesn't have what it takes to overcome all the flaws. One major flaw is the screenplay. You can give the producers credit for not delivering a scene-for-scene remake but the new stuff they added simply doesn't work. This includes all the time spent with the horses as well as the relationship between Voight and Dunaway that constantly builds up. I really didn't care for their early conflicts and I certainly didn't care for the directions their relationship goes through towards the end. It's almost as if the filmmakers threw in a bit of KRAMER VS. KRAMER (which was released the same year) to try and sell a romance side. Another thing that doesn't work is some of the casting. Voight is one of my favorite actors and he delivers a good performance here but I think he was miscast. I think he's simply too smart and this comes across so the destructive nature of this character just doesn't suit him. I also thought Dunaway was good in her part but it probably should have gone to someone else. Schroder, on the other hand, clearly steals the film with his touching performance and he's certainly a knockout at the end. We get some terrific character actors in supporting roles including Jack Warden, Strother Martin, Arthur Hiller and Elisha Cook. Joan Blondell, in one of her final films, has a small part as well. Again, the ending is what this movie is known for and it's a great one. It's just too bad the rest of the film didn't live up to it and the countless manipulation scenes early on just don't work and they certainly miss the emotional connection that they try for.

Just watched this film again after many, many, years and it still packs an emotional wallop! Maybe more so, now that I am older and view it in a different light. I always felt that Rick Schroeder did a great job in this film however the true acting chops were offered by Jon Voight. What an incredibly believable job. Not for a second was I taken out of the film. The rest of the cast are a who's who of character actors that have appeared in many other films. I found this to be better than the original, especially with the two leads. I don't remember what the film was up against in regard to the academy Awards, however I am surprised that Jon and Rick were not nominated. If you have not seen this film, do yourself a favour and watch it. You will be entertained and, most likely, emotionally drained. But you are definitely in for a treat!

A young Rick Schroder makes his cute-as-all-get-out film debut in this 1979 tearjerker from director Franco Zeffirelli. Jon Voight plays Billy Flynn, a former champion boxer now given to drinking, gambling, and raising his son T.J. (Schroder, billed here as Ricky) as best he can. The ups and downs of the devoted codependent pair might be enough movie on their own, but soon enough Annie (Faye Dunaway) shows up and displays a strangely protective interest in T.J. Though the plot jumps around too much to quite hold together, The Champ is certainly affecting, and all three leads take the film so earnestly that somehow it works. Voight is believable both as a boxer and as a well-intentioned screwup of a dad, and Schroder is a fine young actor (and irresistibly adorable). Special DVD features include audio commentary from Jon Voight and Rick Schroder and the documentary Behind the Scenes with the Champ.