The Champ (1931)

 King Vidor's "The Champ"

In 1931, King Vidor took screenwriter Frances Marion's script that she had written exclusively with Wallace Beery in mind and turned it into a critically acclaimed film. This film, title 'The Champ' would go on to be nominated for 4 Oscars, winning 2 (for Wallace Beery as a Lead Actor and Frances Marion for Original Screenplay). The critical success for the film is not unwarranted. The film is known for being an emotional piece; contemplating the nature of children living in poverty. This was a very hot subject at the time, especially since America was right in the middle of the Great Depression. Even if Wallace Beery's character, Champ, is the titular lead of the film, it is child actor Jackie Cooper's timeless portrayal of Champ's 8 year old son, Dink, that is the centerpiece. 

The Champ is a film that focuses on the relationship between father and son. The father, through his active poverty, continues to provide inadequate living situations for Dink - his alcoholism and gambling addiction certainly not helping. Dink is aware of his father's inadequacies and becomes upset when he shows up drunk to meet boxing promoters to arrange a fight for him. Despite being continuously let down by his father, the love he has for him never diminishes. He continues to call his father "Champ" - both a reference to his father's previous achievements in the boxing ring as well as an adequate representation of the pedestal Dink puts upon him.

If Dink is considered the centerpiece of the film, it can certainly be said that the film best represents the ideas present in the common 'coming-of-age' drama. The key tenant to a 'coming-of-age' drama is the disillusionment of life when the protagonist child becomes aware of the hard natures of reality he must face - which directly conflict with his original idealist child-like perspective in the beginning. Dink continues to face let-down after let-down throughout the film. We begin the film with Dink's disappointment over his father's drinking and gambling habits. However, even through all his faults, the viewer (like Dink) does not become antagonistic towards Champ over his deficiencies in providing for his son. Vidor's direction makes it obvious that Champ loves and cares deeply for his son. He even goes so far to buy him a racing pony when he wins big on a gambling streak. 

The deeper issue at the heart of these setbacks is actually just the standard of living they experience. That being said, Champ certainly doesn't help with his addictions. You can pretty much leave it up to the viewer to decide on this 'chicken or the egg' situation - does Champ drink and gamble because of the harsh living conditions - or are the harsh living conditions because of Champ's gambling and drinking? Either point can be argued but the affect this has on Dink cannot be. 

Things start to shift with the addition of Dink's racehorse. Not only does this new enterprise distract Dink from the conditions he finds him and Champ in, but they also run into Dink's long lost mother, Linda, at the racetrack. We are told she left Champ to move up the economic ladder, something Champ could not provide to her. In return, Champ has been telling Dink that his mother past away after he was born. Now that she has met and seen her son again, she begins to implore Champ to allow her visitation with her son, and eventually custody. She tells him that she and her husband can provide Dink with schooling, something he's lacked. He will also be in a more financially stable environment. Champ cannot bear to let go of his son. This comes to a breaking point after he gambles away Dink's horse, gambles away the money Linda lent him to get back the horse, and ends up in jail. While in jail, Champ reconciles with his own inadequacies. This allows him to make the choice to choose his son's well-being over choosing the connective bond they have in making him stay with him. He tells his son that he must go back and live with his mother, even telling him that he doesn't want him around any more as a way to get him to leave. After eventually smacking him in the face, Dink leaves for good. 

After experiencing a mundane existence with his well-to-do mother, Dink runs away and goes back to Champ - who now seems to have gotten his act together. Champ is sober, not gambling anymore, and training for a championship fight. Things seem to be looking up - Champ could get his son back and even provide a better standard of living by winning $20,000 in the upcoming title match. However, it becomes apparent that Champ will not win, as Dink catches the opponent training. Dink believes that his father will lose, as the opposing boxer looks way to skilled to best. In the middle of the fight, this becomes even more apparent as Champ is getting pummeled handedly. Dink tries to throw Champ's towel in the ring to get his father out of the fight. It is in this moment that Dink is choosing the connection to this father over economic security, an inverse of the decision his father made on his behalf earlier. However, his father goes against this - and chooses the economic security for Dink once again. His father goes into the ring and wins the match, as well as the $20,000 to boot. 

The glorious moment of victory is ripped away when Champ collapses and dies from his injuries. He has secured financial stability for his son - and sacrificed himself to do so. This is the last blow to Dink that completely secures the 'coming-of-age' disillusionment narrative. Throughout the film, Dink's father would not stop drinking and gambling, his horse loses his race, he finds out that his mother is not dead, he loses his horse because of his father's gambling, watches his father go to jail, gets forced to live with his estranged mother, and now finally has to watch his champion father die. The last thing his father tells him before his death was to "keep his chin up." This last piece of advice enables Dink's reconciliation of the difficult navigation of the world. The 'growing up' Dink must learn in this story is to deal with life's difficulties. This narrative understanding can be directly correlated to the oppressively difficult landscape  America was facing in 1931. Americans at the time were facing hardship after hardship and learning to deal with growing up and getting use to continued let-downs. 

"The Champ" as Dink lovingly called his father, was the idealized version of his father that he saw and hoped his father could be. Dink loved him through all his inadequacies, and calling him "Champ" was the child-like hope that called for his dad to the best he could be. In the end, his father did the best and won his title, providing his son with a future. However, the economic and society rut they were facing made it all the more difficult to do this. It becomes apparent when watching that parents should not have to choose between the two options - save the relationship or save the child. However, the extreme conditions the characters find themselves in creates this inopportunity. Dink, now very much apart of this world, has realized this for himself at the end of the film. In the final moments, Dink is crying out for his dead father, saying, "I want the Champ!" This plea connotes the wanting of an idealized world, a world as you would like it to be, a father that will take care of you. However, Dink must 'come-of-age' and realize that there is no longer any 'champ' for him. He has come to realize throughout the story that life will continue to let you down. Now crying out for the idealized life and for his dead father, his mother comes into frame, picks him up and carries him off. Dink crying in his mother's arms as she carries him away offers him a return to the allegorical womb. His dark realization of the defeats and troubles of life forces him back into a state of psychological regression, holding on to his innocence - and holding on the idea of 'the champ.'