Ali: Movie & DVD Review (2001)

(Originally published 2001)

Michael Mann's "Ali" opens in 1964 with a terrific blast of showmanship, one that fuses the political unrest of black Americans and the celebration of black culture to the man who would come to be revered by many as a major catalyst for social awareness and change: Muhammad Ali.

The film, which Mann co-wrote with Stephen Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson and Eric Roth, begins with a rush as Sam Cooke (David Elliott) belts out a searing string of ballads at a Harlem nightclub.

As the legendary soul singer brings the crowd to its feet, Mann layers Cooke's vocals over a montage of Ali's life, starting with his back-of-the-bus childhood as Cassius Clay--his name before he converted to Islam--and ending the sequence with his title match against Sonny Liston (Michael Bentt).

In a movie filled with memorable moments, Mann's recreation of the Clay-Liston bout is superb, a beautifully conceived, blow-by-blow account that puts audiences squarely in the ring as Clay (Will Smith) scores a major upset by winning the match--and thus changing his life forever.

The two-and-a-half hours that follow aren’t as light on their feet, but the film never drags. As Mann condenses the next 10 years of Ali’s life, he lingers on its major turning points--Ali’s sometimes rewarding, sometimes turbulent relationship with Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) and the Nation of Islam, his struggle to come to terms with how his fame affected those close to him, and his near imprisonment for refusing to be drafted by the U.S. Army, which resulted in the loss of his heavyweight title and sent him into a period of introspection and seclusion.

Culminating in 1974 with the infamous “Rumble in the Jungle,” at which Ali forged a spectacular comeback in his fight against George Foreman, the film builds to a stirring conclusion in Zaire, but in spite of what its television and print ads claim (“Forget what you think you know”), it ultimately offers nothing new about the man.

The film is only ever an entertaining overview, effectively capturing Ali’s divisiveness and the mood of the country during the war years, but since it barely touches on Ali’s less crowd-pleasing qualities, such as his adulterous affairs, it can’t be considered a complete portrait of what were arguably the most defining years of his adult life.

With pitch-perfect supporting performances from Jada Pinkett Smith as Ali’s first wife, Sonji; Ron Silver as his longtime trainer, Angelo Dundee; and Jamie Foxx as Bundini Brown; “Ali” may not be the greatest film about Ali (that belongs to Leon Gast’s 1996 documentary, “When We Were Kings”), but it is engrossing and it does feature two performances not to be missed--John Voight’s Howard Cosell and Will Smith’s Ali, each of whom are outstanding in a movie that delivers a rousing--if superficial--knockout.

Grade: B+