Perhaps the best compliment I can give Bert Marcus' Champs (2014) is that, in its best moments, it's as dramatic, heartbreaking, and magnetic as the sport it examines. Running at a brisk 90 minutes, this documentary chronicles the rise, fall, and resurrection of three living legends: Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, and Bernard Hopkins. All three were born within four years of each other, have competed in more than 50 professional fights apiece with multiple championship wins, and have experienced no shortage of rags and riches during their turbulent lives. Each was a product of a broken home or broken environment...and for some in those situations, competitive sports are one of their only options. All three men were willing to share their personal stories during Champs, which also examines the industry's nasty habit of spitting out athletes who have decades left to live after hanging up the gloves.

As the oldest of the three featured boxers, Evander Holyfield comes across as the most mature...and even though he's had the least amount of fights, his four-decade career includes wins over Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, George Foreman, and Mitt Romney. The youngest of nine children, Holyfield speaks about his illiterate parents, life in the ghetto, being coached as a teen, valuable advice from his mother after early losses, 1984 Olympic memories (which include young Tyson and a controversial DQ loss to New Zealand's Kevin Barry), his hard-fought WBA Cruiserweight title match against Dwight Muhammad Qawi, beating James "Buster" Douglas, living in Tyson's shadow, swindling managers and financial irresponsibility, handling disappointment, recent charity work with Yank Barry, and much more.

Childlike and charismatic, Mike Tyson is obviously the most well-known of these three participants, both for his meteoric rise to stardom in the 1980s and his meteoric downfall soon after. Tyson talks freely about his troubled past: criminal parents, physical abuse at home and school, his absentee father, poverty, and falling in with thieves. Bad behavior led to time served at New York's Tryon State School for Boys; he was eventually given much-needed emotional support and training by counselor Bobby Stewart and Cus D'Amato, who both recognized his massive talent and fierceness in the ring. Tyson also speaks about his first amateur loss to Henry Tillman, his title win against Trevor Berbick, "Buster" Douglas' massive upset in 1990, self-destruction and his 1991 rape conviction, losing to Holyfield (including "The Bite Fight"), his final match vs. Kevin McBride, bankruptcy and drug addiction, marriage and family life, and more. Like Holyfield, however, Tyson seems to be in a much better place these days and, though still haunted by his darkest years in and out of the ring, he's still involved in the sport that made him a cultural icon.

Of all three main participants, Bernard Hopkins feels like the odd man out. Maybe it's because he's the only one who's still actively boxing (having competed as recently as November 2014), or because he has no fight history with the other two...but his story is no less interesting. Raised with 7 siblings, Hopkins had two parents at home but his father was routinely absent and struggled with addiction. Determined to be "the baddest guy he could be", young Hopkins blew off school, got into street fighting, and faced an 18-year prison sentence by the age of 17, losing a brother to violence the same year. Boxing tournaments in prison quickly made him something of a celebrity and, after early parole for good behavior, his professional career led to a championship run that included 20 title defenses, as well as his recent partnership with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions. Though he's almost entirely absent Champs' second half, Hopkins' disciplined presence is felt greatly when he's given the chance to speak.

Not surprisingly, the candid comments, abridged life stories, and vintage clips of Holyfield, Tyson, and Hopkins carry most of the film's dramatic weight with energy to spare. Other featured participants include Hopkins' trainer Naazim Richardson, Tyson's biographer Larry "Ratso" Sloman, professors John Pfaff and Dalton Conley, promoter Lou Dibella, sportscaster Al Bernstein, sports columnist and author George Willis, Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Francisco Aguilar, writer David J. Leonard, retired boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, and more. A few celebrities show up to the party as well, including Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson; Mary J. Blige, Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, and Ron Howard; like some of the other "outsiders", they typically provide broader observations about the sport (rather than specific comments about the participants) and only occupy a small portion of the film's running time.

For the most part, these first-hand confessionals and outside observations gel nicely during Champs' 90-minute lifespan. There are a few detours along the way, including a call to action against broken prison systems, boxing's lack of federal regulation and livable minimum salary, and the absence of financial and emotional support provided to boxers "lucky" enough to make it big. Luckily, these rallying cries flow along with the film's organic, focused narratives and almost fit in perfectly with its overall message, which reminds us that boxing's urgent and competitive nature is what gives it such a lasting appeal to fans, promoters, and the athletes that we can't help but be drawn towards. Anchor Bay presents Champs on DVD only, which serves up a nice A/V presentation but absolutely no extras.

Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Champs looks good on DVD for the most part. Recent interviews are clean with good image detail and lit well with no flagrant errors. Occasional reenactment clips from Holyfield, Tyson, and Hopkins' formative years also look terrific, shot with a warm and stylized appearance that stands out nicely against everything else. The main problem I had with some of the visuals, however, is entirely due to the source material: fight clips, vintage televised segments, home movie footage, and other such relics---almost all of which were originally shot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio---have been cropped to fill the widescreen frame, and this only amplifies their flaws. I have no idea why most modern documentaries are so dead-set on maintaining a widescreen aspect ratio at any cost, but this is one case where it works against the film's effectiveness: this footage feels cramped, loaded with artifacts and noise, and all the other usual problems associated with videotaped sources of varying quality. But it's really not the DVD's error, so you can take that slightly docked video rating with a grain of salt.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack fares slightly better, since native flaws present in some of the footage aren't nearly as problematic as cropped visuals. The newer interviews are very clean and well-recorded, music cues and other atmospheric touches occasionally drift into the rear channels, and portions of the stock footage, raw video, and televised fight clips sound about as good as their source material will allow. No drop-outs, sync issues, or other such defects were detected along the way, and optional English subtitles have been included during the film.

Whether you're a seasoned boxing fan or new to the sport, Bert Marcus' Champs paints a vivid picture that summarizes the lives of three living legends with no shortage of style, drama, and conviction. It also offers a number of outside perspectives from celebrity fans to first-hand witnesses and other insiders, whose collective observations and calls to action gel nicely with the film's organic narrative. At a brisk 90 minutes, Champs is over quickly but will likely stick with first-time viewers long after the credits roll. There's a decent amount of replay value here...but Anchor Bay's DVD could have offered more support to the main feature, as it includes a solid A/V presentation but absolutely no bonus features. Still, the film's obvious strengths make this a documentary worth tracking down: some may be happy enough with a rental or streaming option, but there's enough here to consider Champs a keeper. Recommended.