30 Second Bottom Line: More than a biopic of Muhammad Ali, this film captures the mood of the country in the 10-year period of 1964-1974.
Story Line: Cassius Clay was a young boxer who, after winning the Heavyweight Championship in boxing in 1964, created controversy, which continues to this day, when he publicly announced to the world he was a Black Muslim and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Later he refused to be drafted into the US Military during the Vietnam War Era.
The film opens with a montage of cuts with interplay between the young boy Cassius riding on buses with segregated seating and Clay as he trains for a match as a professional boxer. We see the contender Cassius Clay (Will Smith) in two major fights with the `Bear,' Sonny Liston (Michael Bentt). When Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali (Will Smith) and announced his relationship with the Black Muslims (a group who at the time proclaimed the white man as the devil in their newspaper, Muhammad Speaks) he was instantly notthe peoples' champ along the lines of a Joe Louis. Keep in mind that as Cassius Clay, he was the recent winner of a gold medal in the Olympics, which also had him set in the public's mind as someone who could be embraced like Jesse Owens.
Controversial is a subtle way to describe Ali's life during this time of his affiliation with the Black Muslims. Malcolm X's suspension from the group drove a deep wedge between Ali and Malcolm. Ali's arrest and conviction for not accepting his draft into military service left him as a man who was desperate to box, not able to financially provide for his family, and who was facing a long prison term during the prime of his boxing skills.
After being vindicated by the US Supreme Court, with a unanimous decision overturning his conviction for being a draft dodger, Ali was once again able to return to the ring. He came back to face a "Smokin" Joe Frazier only to lose the fight. Ali gave an impressive performance, but it was Joe who put his opponent on the canvas with a solid punch. I don't know if this was Ali's first time being knocked down, but for sure, this is the one that is remembered.
Ali was surrounded by a number of people, who all professed to care for him, though only a few were really always in his corner through the good and bad times. Ali saw himself go through three marriages, and lots of one night stands, enroute to his most famous fight, the rope a dope "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman (Charles Shufford).
For boxing fans and all avid movie fans, this is a must see film. In many ways, Ali's story shows what America is all about and how such a diversity of people, in so many ways, makes America the unique and special place it is. It's resistant to change, but somehow it adapts when it needs to for the better, more often than not.
Tell Me More About It: This movie has so many awesome moments that I almost felt manipulated by the director Michael Mann, to say it's a masterpiece as soon as the closing credits began to roll. Other films that left me feeling this way were Lone Star, Shall We Dance and Secrets and Lies and after the passage of time, those films are still on my all time list of the best movies I've ever seen. The emotional impact is still very strong.
The attention to detail is astoundingly on the mark. Some of my favorites are the wink the woman carrying the ring card gives Ali in the fight in Zaire and how Foreman was dressed during the press conference (right from the documentary When We Were Kings) and the power of Foreman punching a heavy bag. The symbolism of "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" drawings on the homes in Africa and the assassinations of MLK JR and Malcolm X in the U S is powerful. The impression of newspaper accounts of the killing of Emmitt Till on a young Cassius is vivid to any of us who shared that experience of brutality in American history. The passions of the man and the era are captured here in Ali's professional struggle and his romantic relationships. The music is right in step and the nightclub scenes of Sam Cooke singing interspersed with a woman doing a rendition of For Your Precious Love rivals the man himself, Jerry Butler.
The acting in Ali is superb across the board. Will Smith nails the personality, swagger and ring skills of Ali. Truth be told, if Denzel Washington had his Oscar for Best Actor, I would put Will on the short list. That said, as much as I am impressed by Will Smith I'm even more impressed by the consistently high quality of work that Denzel has done over the years. His portrayals in films such as Malcolm X and Hurricance (both performances of the once in a lifetime category) and this year in Training Day are outstanding. There's not a person I've spoken with who is not impressed with his performance in TD and he is the leading contender to get my vote for Best Actor this year. To Will, my message is simple, "Do it to me one more time." For Denzel, the TD in Training Day should mean touchdown for his best acting Oscar.
Jon Voight is so outstanding that as I started to write this sentence, my first inclination was to call him Howard Cosell¾he's that good. Take Voight's performance here and look at what he did in Pearl Harbor as President Roosevelt and you have the best supporting actor for the year. But as I say that, I have to give Jamie Foxx his due in Ali. As Drew `Bundini' Brown his performance is also exceptional. I might even feel better about the performances of Mario Van Peebles and Mykelti Williamson as Malcolm X and Don King respectively were it not for recent memorable performances of those men by Denzel Washington and Ving Rhames.
You can look down the list of actors and give an enthusiastic YES! as you see the names of the people they portrayed: Michael Bentt as Sonny Liston; Jada Pinkett Smith as Ali's first wife Sonji Roi; James Toney as Joe Frasier; Nona M Gaye as Belinda (his second wife) and Michael Michele as Veronica Porsche (his third wife). I particularly liked Nona M. Gaye's questioning of Ali's affair with Porsche, when she asked him, "Do you love her?", to which Ali replied, "I don't know."
Michael Mann, a white director, made a film exploring a black perspective and does not miss a beat. This harkens back to when Spike Lee said only a black man could properly film Malcolm X. This film is as black as it needs to be yet it is done in such a way that it will have universal appeal. When Ali said, "Ain't no Vietnamese ever called me a nigger," he was speaking for black folks. In reality, the word "nigger" could have been replaced with any other racial or ethnic slur.
I recall that in 1996 when I went to Africa for the first time, it felt strange being on a jumbo jet that had a 100% black crew. Everything was perfect, including the work in the cockpit to the quality of the food and the cabin service. Having flown over a million miles, it's rare to see a black pilot here in the U S and mind boggling to see an all black crew. Ali felt the same way when he visited the cockpit and it took this movie to show the world what black people can and have been doing for a long time. As a general rule, "accomplished" black men are depicted in the mass media as either entertainers, including sports figures, or criminals.
What Black Enterprise magazine does for blacks in business, Reel Movie Critic wants to do for ethnic groups in film. That is, spread the word of noteworthy accomplishments. We help to do this by having a section on the web site that relates to ethnics in film by ethnic group and country of origin. In addition, we summarize films with ethnics in both starring and supporting roles. When Joe Morton plays a key role in Bounce, with stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, the studio rightly will hi-light those marquee stars in their promotional efforts. By encouraging more people to see ethnic actors in strong supporting roles we believe this will help those actors move to starring roles. Moviegoers will be more receptive to ethnics in universal roles because they will be less prone to focus on the race or ethnicity of the person than on the story being told.
The film The Visit, with Hill Harper, was one of the best films of the year, which the studio system deemed to be "for blacks only." If you doubt that, consider the low marketing budget it received and, at least in Chicago, it only played in theaters in areas with a predominately black population. Often it's said that for "small" serious films to play to the mass market, it needs name stars. The Visit had the names (e.g., Billy Dee Williams, Marla Gibbs, Phylicia Rashad, Jascha Washington and Rae Dawn Chong). These names are as well known as the actors in Kingdom Come and The Brothers.The difference is that The Visit is a drama with universal appeal and the other films are comedies. Comedies do have more crossover appeal than dramas generally and I agree that the studios must always do things with an eye on the bottom line, I feel there was something more afoot here. If The Visit
had received moderate advertising support and a staggered release, as many art house films with major names do, it would have made a respectable rather than dismal showing at the box office. Outstanding films like this need to be seen. The studio executives have a responsibility to their shareholders to deliver films that the mass market wants but they also have a duty to film goers to give them the quality product that they need and will appreciate when they see it.
Dann Gire, a respected fellow critic asked me if I thought Ali was sincere in his conscientious objection status to the Vietnam War. My first reaction was to defensively say yes without thinking. After reflecting a few moments, I said, "Yes," when you consider these facts. I gave a lot of thought to Ali's position because I was drafted during the Vietnam Era and felt the same way about the war as Ali professed. I was concerned about losing my life for a cause I did not support. Many of those who went to Canada or said their "consciences" objected to the war were afraid like I was. Ali would have been in Special Services, like Elvis Presley, and his chances of carrying a rifle as an infantryman were less than zero and he would have been out in 24 months. By refusing to serve, Ali faced a certain five years in jail if he did not win his lawsuit and during the three years before his unanimous victory by the Supreme Court, he was not able to fight and was stripped of his championship belt. If anything, I admired the position Ali took by saying what so many people felt, but either did not say or act upon because they felt powerless.
One of the reasons this film is so beautiful is because it's political without pulling punches or preaching to us. Ali is shown as the best and worst husband. He disrespected Malcolm X, only to learn later than he was being used by the Nation of Islam. Joe Frazier is given respect and Mobutu is shown as a black African leader more concerned about lining his pockets with gold, which makes him no better, possibly worse, than the European colonizers. The alleged conspiracy between the FBI and the Black Muslims to kill Malcolm X was there for all to see, but not dwelled upon.
Since the film is rated R for strong language and some violence, my initial reaction was that I would like to have seen stronger sex scenes. Black men tend to be sterile in most films. Even in the recent Shaft, a film about a man who, when not being a super cop, was bedding more women than you could count, the portrayal of the title character was sexless. In the blaxploitation film of the original Shaft, he got plenty of ladies but in the cross over version those scenes were left on the floor of the editing room. A recent notable exception was Ving Rhames in Baby Boy, which was directed by John Singleton.
In particular, the early love scene with Jada Pinkett Smith (Will's real life wife), could have been the love scene of the year, and it may be. A little more bare skin would have worked as they made love to without doubt, one of the greatest R&B tunes of all time, For Your Precious Love. But the other side of that argument is that no part of the movie went over the top and it was that aspect of wanting a little more while knowing that you already have enough, might be why the film is so wonderfully done. So I'll contradict myself and say that the love scenes were perfectly shot. They delivered the passion without turning the actors into strippers. It also means that my 13-year-old grandson and maybe even the 9 year old can see the movie even though it's rated R, their parents can take them. The language is nothing that you don't hear at school and the violence is on par with what you see in most PG-13 films aimed at teenage boys. The sex is the touchiest thing (or not) but what you see in this film is less than what one sees on HBO. So on my rating scale I `d say this is a "soft R."
Often critics will talk about a film that was great right up until it fell apart at the end. Seldom is there a great opening sequence to a film as most events are simply to set up the conflict in the story so there can, hopefully, be a spiffy ending to resolve it. In Ali the story begins strong with the first heartbeat and grows in intensity right up until the closing credits.
Looking at this film made me feel good and I believe it will do the same for you. This is a film that makes you want more, while at the same time leaves you feeling that the story ends when it should. It's a departure from some very good movies, which you have to see at least twice (Memento and Mulholland Drive) to understand what you saw. With Ali, you'll enjoy it and get it the first time¾and when you see it the second time, it will be because like a great glass of wine, once is not enough.
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