The Hauser Report – Big George Foreman: The Movie

There are very few boxing personalities who turn heads when they walk down the street or stop a room when they enter. I can think of three, each one a time traveler from the past – Don King, Mike Tyson, and George Foreman. On April 28, “Big George Foreman” – a feature film chronicling Foreman’s life – will be released in theaters throughout the United States.

The broadbrush outline of Foreman’s journey is well known. He grew up poor in Houston, where he contributed to the crime rate in the city’s notorious Fifth Ward. After joining the Job Corps, he learned to box, won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, pulverized Joe Frazier to claim the heavyweight championship of the world, and lost the title to Muhammad Ali. He had a surly glowering public persona. Then, after losing to Jimmy Young, George had a religious awakening, became a born-again Christian, retired from boxing, established a ministry, and ballooned in weight to over 300 pounds. In need of funds to support his family and ministry, he returned to the ring, was an object of ridicule, carved out a lucrative persona as pitchman for George Foreman’s Lean Mean Grilling Machine, and shocked the world when, at age 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer to reclaim the heavyweight throne.

The movie is faith-based and runs slightly more than two hours, moving smoothly in some places and dragging in others. The early portions focus on Foreman’s hard-scrabble origins through the 1968 Olympics and are well told. I found myself thinking, “This film is really good.” But as the story evolves, it loses steam.

Forest Whitaker is superb as Doc Broadus (Foreman’s trainer and mentor). Kei is outstanding as the young George Foreman. And Sonja Sohn deserves praise for her portrayal of George’s mother. But there’s a hurdle that any biopic about a well-known contemporary public figure has to surmount. It’s hard to credibly cast the lead.

It’s one thing to cast Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich. Before that film was made, virtually no one knew who Brockovich was and fewer people knew or cared what she looked like. But Foreman is a familiar figure. And Muhammad Ali (who played a pivotal role is George’s life) remains one of the most recognizable people on the planet.

Khris Davis is adequate in the role of the adult George Foreman. Sullivan Jones falls short of the mark in portraying Ali, mimicking Muhammad in an unconvincing manner, impersonating rather than acting. Some of the other characters (most notably, Howard Cosell) come across as caricatures. On the few occasions when actual fight footage rather a staged recreation is interspersed with the narrative (for example, snippets from the real Holyfield-Foreman battle), the gap between illusion and reality is underscored.

Now we come to the heart of the film – its faith-based underpinning.

I admire George Foreman for what he accomplished as a fighter and for the person he has become. I didn’t know him in his first public incarnation. We met in November 1988 when George was in the second year of his comeback. His conquest of Michael Moorer was seventeen fights and six years in the future. We talked for several hours that day and I was impressed by how thoughtful and what a nice man George was. We’ve talked many times since then. At one point, I wrote a series of articles that focused on George’s views on values-oriented issues like family, marriage, and religion.

George being “born again” is at the core of Big George Foreman. But after one embraces Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior, there are more choices to be made. Even if one accepts the Bible as the word of God, questions remain as to how the Bible should be interpreted. For example, the Bible was cited for centuries as a justification for slavery (Chapter 25, Verse 44, Leviticus: “Both thy bondsmen and thy bondsmaids which thou shalt have shall be of the heathen that are about you. Of them shall ye buy bondsmen and bondsmaids”).

Big George Foreman shows George finding his faith. But beyond his embrace of Jesus, viewers aren’t told what his faith is. That’s a significant omission.

We live in an age in which adherents of different religions often assert that their way is the only road to heaven.

In one of our conversations, George told me, “Good is good, whether or not one believes in Jesus. To be good is to be saved. If I treat everybody nice, that’s religion.”

Last month, George reaffirmed that sentiment, saying, “a good man is on his way to heaven.”

I wish the movie had done more to portray George’s embrace of that view.

Foreman is now 74 years old. He continues to do good work through his ministry and community programs. Ideally, Big George Foreman won’t be an end destination for him. Rather, it will be a platform for George to stand on and continue to preach his message of tolerance and love for all people.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – In the Inner Sanctum: Behind the Scenes at Big Fights – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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