Archive for March 15th, 2021

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 349

Monday, March 15th, 2021

Military History Monday!

I have a long one today, but let’s start off with something that’s a little shorter.

We’re pretty much right in the middle of the anniversary of the Battle of Khe Sanh, so please to enjoy this Marine Corps documentary (“in color!”). I’m not totally happy with the quality of this, but I feel like it is appropriate to post something in remembrance of the battle.

Long bonus, so you’re only getting two today: I’ve got to save something for next week. “The Foreign Legion : Men Without a Past”, about the current (as of 2005 or thereabouts) French Foreign Legion.

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Obit watch: March 15, 2021.

Monday, March 15th, 2021

Marvin Hagler, middleweight champion.

Hagler made 12 successful title defenses in the 1980s, 11 by knockouts along with a unanimous decision in 1983 over Roberto Duran when the middleweight division featured a host of outstanding fighters. Fighting from an unorthodox left-handed stance, his head shaved, he was perpetually bearing in on his foes.

…

After a knockout of John Mugabi in 1986, Hagler lost his championship in Las Vegas in April 1987 on a controversial split decision that went to Sugar Ray Leonard, who was making a comeback after almost three years away from the ring.

Leon Gast, director of “When We Were Kings”, which I have heard is a swell documentary. (Amazon affiliate link: I actually did not know there was a Criterion edition of this.)

This is another one of those cases where the story behind the documentary is almost as interesting (if not more) than the documentary itself, but I will leave that for the obit. One tidbit:

At one point the Hells Angels hired him to make a film that would counter their reputation as violent criminals — though they undercut their own case when several of them beat up Mr. Gast (without seriously injuring him) for refusing to give them editorial control. (The film, “Hells Angels Forever,” was widely panned.)

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