Ali

Ali

Scott Manning
August 18, 2002 | Comments (8)

Director: Michael Mann
Release Date: December 25th, 2001
Rating: R (for some language and brief violence)
See it on Amazon

I'm not sure if I have enough time to say everything bad that needs to be said about this movie. One would think that a movie called 'Ali' would have been about Ali. At least that's what my naivety led me to believe.

The movie Ali is not about the life of Muhammad Ali the famous boxer; its three hours full of slow motion boxing matches, extremely long, pointless R&B songs, and random events streaming across a poorly defined timeline. The movie could have been about thirty minutes shorter if the pointless songs were cut out.

The movie starts out with Ali (then Cassius Clay) winning his first world championship boxing match. From there we see one quick scene of him as a child on a bus realizing that there is a lot of hate in the world. The rest of the movie is the next fifteen years of Ali's career up until he beats George Forman in Africa to regain his world title.

Dates and changes in time are never clearly defined. The viewer left guessing how much older Ali is every time a scene changes. Understanding the dates of key events in the man's life are impossible from this movie.

We never learn what Ali was like before he was champion, what life was like as a kid or anything of value that is key to shaping a person. We do learn that Ali had three different wives, countless mistresses, wouldn't go to war, and wasn't racist. We also learn that the Nation of Islam is a corrupt organization that killed Malcolm X.

If the viewer knew nothing of Muhammad Ali before seeing this movie, then this movie would be extremely confusing.

The only redeeming qualities
The only aspects of this movie that are worth mentioning are the performances by Will Smith and Jamie Fox. Smith, doing the best he could with a poorly written script, could not have played a better Ali. And Fox, who is mostly known for his goofy, comedy routines, played Drew "Bundini" Brown flawlessly. Both Smith and Fox became their parts.

Other than that, Ali's trash-talking is very entertaining, but that is not reason enough to sit through three hours of nonsense. If you want some trash-talking, watch an episode of WWE wrestling and you'll get the same effect.

Best Picture? What?
In the end, this movie did not explain Ali's life. The title of the film should have been Random Exerts from Fifteen Years of Ali's Life. I'm still trying to figure out how the NAACP gave this movie Best Picture at their Image Awards. If anything, the movie should have been stripped of the award and labeled the disgrace that it is. But I guess that's why I'm not in the NAACP.

Related Links:
Official site

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Comments (8):

1) Posted by: JJ
August 19, 2002 11:54 AM

I thought it was interesting to see how much influence Ali has had on wrestlers of today. Ali was an amazing trash-talker. In fact, The Rock has stolen a lot of lines. I enjoyed the movie soley for the trash-talking.

2) Posted by: Dave
August 25, 2002 3:27 AM

I think you also have to respect that you are never going to show a person's whole life in a 2 or 3 hour movie. Choosing a specific 15 years of Ali's life is a choice that has been made in countless other movies, so to me is a moot point. In fact, most movies that try to show too much defeat their main purpose - to be entertainment.

3) Posted by: creedance
August 25, 2002 9:57 AM

first i understand that the movie wasnt what we all where waiting for,but its not that bad for the reason of dis 15 years of ali's life,some movies dis. one day of avrage mans life.
but its not very good thou

4) Posted by: Jen
March 19, 2003 6:16 AM

I am doing an essay on autobiographies and "Ali" is one of the topics I am talking about. I noticed that the movie missed large chunks of information which would have been imperative in shaping Ali's life and atittudes. For example, I didn't even know he had 3 mistresses because I only saw him sleeping with 2, and there wasn't any sign of marriage. The story line just wasn't clearly outlined

5) Posted by: shane moore
June 14, 2004 6:27 PM

where can i find the real footage of ali telling don king to never talk to dunndee the way he did during the foreman vs ali press converance.dunndee ask king what did ali's friend say when he lent over to speak to ali.king told dunndee that he wasnt speaking to him.and ali put him in his place.where can i find that footage

6) Posted by: ahart
January 20, 2005 10:00 AM

Ali was and still one of the greatest people who had so much influnce on so many people , the movie was ok but sure did,nt tell all of Ali,s wonderful thing,s he had done in 1972 i was 12 yrs old and was lucky enough to see him in Cleveland Oh at the Cleve arena it was a benfit ( the show for people who care,s ) i still have the program from the show and it means more to me than my paid off house ,,i hope one day to meet to greatest of all

7) Posted by: kiera
June 9, 2006 10:40 AM

i love you Will!!!

8) Posted by: Muhammad Ali
June 22, 2006 7:37 AM

Excuse me this is ali now speaking . I belive u are a coward to speak about that movie like that ..it is good, I know it is not the real me of course it is will smith but at least ur honest. But what can i say it showed basically alot of my life in a few hours. thnx Muhammad.