Tagline: She gave the boxing world the one-two punch they never saw coming.
The true story of the first female boxing manager Jackie Kallen, who guided the careers of several major careers, including four world champions, like middleweight champ James Toney, as well as Bronco McKart and Thomas Hearns.
Jackie Kallen defied the odds when she stormed into the male-dominated world of boxing and became the most successful female manager in the history of the sport. Now, three-time Golden Globe nominee Meg Ryan brings Kallen to life in “Against the Ropes,” a fictionalized drama inspired by this gutsy woman who dared to play the fight game and win.
The daughter of a trainer, Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) grew up skipping rope in a downtown Detroit gym alongside her uncle, a fighter himself. She watched in wonder as young men struggled to become champions, and hoped that one day she would be involved in the sport that was in her blood. Now, at 36, Jackie’s ready to carry on the family tradition. She’s tired of playing executive secretary to Irving Abel (Joe Cortese), director of the Cleveland Coliseum, when both of them know she’s the one really running the place. Trying to make her mark in the boxing world, Jackie spends a lot of her free time working the room at D’Agostino’s, a pugs and thugs hangout known for its stiff drinks and bloody steaks.
After drinks with Cleveland’s local hotshot TV sportscaster, Gavin Reese (Tim Daly), Jackie ends up in a verbal sparring match with the Midwest’s boxing kingpin, Sam LaRocca (Tony Shalhoub). Just to belittle her, he sells her the contract of one of his fighters for a dollar’and that’s just about what Devon Greene (Tory Kittles) is worth. It turns out Devon’s more interested in smoking crack than boxing.
But Jackie’s dollar ends up being well spent anyway. When she goes to Devon’s apartment to introduce herself as his new manager, she arrives just as his drug dealer’s enforcer, Luther Shaw (Omar Epps), is beating him up. Instantly, she recognizes that it is Luther, not Devon, who has the potential to be her champion. Bailing Luther out of jail, Jackie convinces him to pursue boxing and to let her be his manager. Then, with the help of Felix Reynolds (Charles S. Dutton), a veteran trainer whom she coaxes out of retirement, Jackie turns Luther from a jail-bound punk into a streamlined prizefighter’and at the same time, turns herself into one of the most successful female managers in boxing history.
Three-time Golden Globe nominee Meg Ryan, who stars as the sassy, brassy Jackie Kallen, feels there is an intangible connection between Luther and Jackie that is difficult to describe. “They just connect’their souls connect’in a way that is kind of magical,” says Ryan, “and that connection is the recognition that they are both fighting the good fight.”
Omar Epps, who portrays boxer “Lethal” Luther Shaw, has a different take on the relationship. “They’re like two old dogs that won’t back down from each other in a scrap,” says Epps. “Then, ten minutes later, you’ll see them snuggling up together with the same ragged blanket. Their story is absolutely wonderful.”
For director Charles S. Dutton and producer Robert W. Cort, the heart and soul of “Against the Ropes” is this unusual and unique relationship between Jackie and Luther, brought to life by screenwriter Cheryl Edwards.
“The beauty of the relationship between Jackie and Luther is in their conflict,” says Dutton, “and the beauty of their conflict is that they are both right when it comes to what they want for themselves and, ultimately, for each other. In fact, they both become intoxicated with the idea of fame and fortune, yet their fears, frailties and flaws put their victory ‘ in and out of the ring ‘ in jeopardy. Actually, the two of them together can be funny, strange, violent and heart-wrenching,” adds Dutton. “In the end, though, I think they redeem one another and have changed each other for the better.”
The multifaceted relationship between Jackie Kallen and Luther Shaw is what attracted Cort to the project. He believes their relationship is like no other depicted in American film. “She’s the heart and he’s the soul of ‘Against the Ropes,’ and they come from two very different worlds,” says the producer.
“Jackie is a beautiful, thirty-something Jewish woman from the suburbs; Luther is a handsome, twenty-something black man from the streets. She becomes his mentor; he becomes her protégé. And through it all, they share one of the deepest connections I’ve ever seen between two characters whose backgrounds couldn’t be more different and whose lives couldn’t be more disparate. Yet they come together and form an intense emotional bond, which makes for terrific drama.”
“I am really proud of the way the relationship between Jackie and Luther plays on the screen,” says Ryan. “It’s platonic, but definitely loving.” Epps agrees, adding that “even when they don’t see eye to eye, and end up estranged for a while, they eventually do come back together. They’re both real scrappers and they need one another.”
Cort and his producing partner David Madden set out to look at the question of race in America because they felt it is the least considered issue in American film today. “Of course, there are movies made about the African-American experience,” says Cort, “but there aren’t many movies that really take a look at both the clash and the cooperation of characters from different races.”
Cort and Madden’s first exploration into interracial relations was the blockbuster hit “Save the Last Dance.” Although “Against the Ropes” is not a romance, Cort points out that it does explore the interracial concept in that Kallen is a white woman managing a black man in a white man’s world.
“Clearly, on the surface, there are racial aspects to the relationship,” observes Cort. “But it’s what’s underneath the surface that’s more interesting. Ultimately, it becomes a story about how far people are willing go to achieve the attention, fame and glory they crave, regardless of their skin color, sex or station in life.”
To director Dutton, “Against the Ropes” is one of the freshest stories about boxing in decades for one simple reason: the intrusion of a woman in an absolutely male-dominated sport.
“Jackie Kallen was not a breath of fresh air when she blew into the fight game; she was a hurricane,” says Dutton. “She accomplished what ninety percent of men in the game spend their entire lifetimes trying to do — she found a fighter and took him all the way to a championship. Because it was her first time out of the blocks, she was resented for it, and she still is in some boxing circles today. But to me, and I think to anyone who sees this film, her success is a testament to guts, courage, chutzpah, persistence and genius.”
Against the Ropes (2004)
Directed by: Charles S. Dutton
Starring: Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, Tony Shalhoub, Tim Daly, Kerry Washington, Charles S. Dutton, Joseph Cortese, Dean McDermott, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Holt McCallany
Screenplay by: Cheryl Edwards
Production Design by: Sandra Kybartas
Cinematography by: Jack N. Green
Film Editing by: Eric L. Beason
Costume Design by: Ruth E. Carter
Set Decoration by: Steven Essam
Art Direction by: Armando Sgrignuoli
Music by: Michael Kamen
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude language, violence, brief sensuality, drug material.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: February 20, 2004
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