I missed out on the preview a week and a half ago, so it's good to read Bob Herbert's profile of Emile Griffith:
An extraordinary new documentary, "Ring of Fire," by the filmmaker Dan Klores and his co-director Ron Berger, tells the story of Emile Griffith and this fight that has never stopped haunting him. The film makes it clear that you can't explore that tragic fight and its aftermath without talking about Mr. Griffith's feelings about his own sexuality, which is the other torment he's had to haul around all these years.
One of the things I thought after watching the film was how far we haven't come in 43 years.
The fight on March 24, 1962, was the third between Griffith and Paret. They had split the first two bouts. Over that period Paret had repeatedly taunted Griffith, who had been a hat designer in the Manhattan garment district and was known to frequent gay clubs. At weigh-ins Paret would mock Griffith, and he called him a "maricón," a Spanish word guaranteed to infuriate.
It still infuriates. At lunch, Mr. Griffith's smile faded as he recalled the taunts he took from Paret. "I got tired," he said, "of people calling me faggot."
He said again, as he has many times, that he was sorry Paret had died. But he added: "He called me a name. ... So I did what I had to do." >>>
Posted by ronn at April 15, 2005 03:12 PM