Ali (2002, DVD)

What were your expectations?

The key to the movie Ali is what you knew, or what you thought you knew going in. Another key is what you thought of Ali. Growing up Muhammad Ali was one of my heroes. He was brash, he was invincible, he did not conform, and he refused to fight in that horrible, godless, corporate driven war, he didn t believe in a northern European-blue eyed-blond haired Jesus.

What could be more delightful to the child of hippies and minstrels?

The thing that surprised me about the film was that it didn t have all that much new information than what might have been previously available over the years, but the film work was fabulous.

Something of an archivist

As a kid, I was a collector still am now. I was fascinated with Ali from earliest childhood, as he was somewhat revered in my household. Having purchased and read an early biography, only added fuel to my fire filling in the blanks of his career, giving a lot of inside dope (or as much as a biographer was allowed then). So I started collecting old issues of Sports Illustrated if they had Ali on the cover or any information recounting one of his fights or some tales of his legend. I had probably twenty issues at a point, recounting the three Frazier fights, the Duane Bobek fight, the Norton fights, the Quarry fights, the Foreman fight and on and on.

Truthfully, I had been watching the actual fights themselves since I was about eight years old. The first one I remember was Ali-Frazier 1 from Madison Square Garden. We were at our beach house in Ventura and dad took us to a movie theater that was doing the Satellite uplink. It was an extremely unique thing for us in 1971 to sit and watch a live fight in a theater. These days you take Pay-Per-View so much for granted, there is no fight that a person cannot get to see if they only throw down their $50 and invite friends over for popcorn and some nice beer, but then there was only reading about it later, and living in Los Angeles we were near where such innovations were more common.

The relentless study of Ali s life led me to a lot of reading, interviews, newspaper articles, movies and watching films of the old fights. So there was a lot of interesting controversy that I was interested in watching in this film. How would they do it?

Playin The Race Card

I have read a number of reviews of this film, and have seen comments on Eeps, as well as a number of other sites talking about the theater experience, the intensity of it. And there were similarities in my own experience. Ali was and is a great hero, a living treasure to the black community, in America and around the world. So, it was no surprise to me that there were a lot of black people at this film, the vast majority in the audience. This has been something I have read in any number of reviews.
If being with a lot of black people makes you uncomfortable for some bizarre reason, then you may want to wait and get this on PPV or rent it, or move to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. There are going to be black people at the theater, they are going to revere Ali, they may shout and cheer, they may respond to the screen . that is how I am at movies, I laugh, I cry, I say things back in a loud voice I am your worst nightmare at a movie, but somehow the ubiquitous Joydrop managed not to run away screaming last night while I did all of those things. It was quite pleasant for me to be in a theater where my yelling and volume were not at issue.

Also, for those of you who needed this warning, you may want to watch yourself at rap concerts, be careful to avoid the premier of any new Martin Lawrence films, and don t go lookin to eat some BBQ at Albert G s in North Tulsa. These are all places where you may not enjoy the music, the volume or the crowd dynamic.

The Timeline

This film covered Ali s life from the first Liston fight in Miami (1964) to the re-capture of the title from Foreman in (1974). This time line encompassed some of the more radical times of revolution that this nation has ever faced, cultural, social and economical. The Vietnam War transformed this country causing a terrible drain on our economy, and on our boys. The myth of war making American s rich is just that, and should be roundly debunked. The only people making money during wartime are defense contractors, which means a very small segment of the country earns money that comes from our tax dollar, so rather than generating income afresh, a certain amount of money and bodies are recycled.

The sixties were also the time of racial-revolutionaries like Martin King, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, John Kennedy, Eldridge Cleaver, Lyndon Johnson, Huey Newton, Elijah Mohammad and of course Ali, and a thousand, thousand other freedom fighters were laying down their lives and helping grow the tree of liberty with their blood. It is interesting to me that hate groups and mean-spirited state militia have the audacity to call themselves patriots when their accomplishments are held up to the likes of these men.

The Cast

Will Smith (Men In Black, Six Degrees of Separation) plays Ali, and does his finest job of acting up until now. He has been strong in other roles, but this is his Truman Show, his Philadelphia. I don t agree that he showed the kind of power and depth that should garner an Academy nomination, however. It just was not there from my perspective.

Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday, Booty Call) Foxx was hilarious as Bundini Brown, and is making his strives into more and more serious roles. So far though, he is not straying far from the knitting. In Any Given Sunday, he was a cocky, arrogant quarterback, and with Bundini he was a brash and loud trainer. The role of jokester and clown is staying with him, and he keeps doing roles he learned at the feet of Damon and Jim.

Ron Silver (Silkwood, Time Cop) did an amazing job as Angelo Dundee. Here is a role that he was born to play. While maintaining his integrity in Ali s rainbow coalition, he manages to keep his eyes sharp, and to always look out for the champ. Angelo could not have been better represented.

Mario Van Peebles (New Jack City, Heartbreak Ridge, Judgment Day) didn t do a bad job as Malcolm X, though not as believable as Denzel. The role was larger than life itself, dominating the first third of the film, and yet, he didn t play at it like the king that he could have. There is never a moment in my mind that Malcolm faced the void with anything less than a smile and a wink, Mario could have been so much larger.

Jon Voigt (Heat, Varsity Blues, Deliverance) as Howard Cosell is where I think the Oscar nomination should truly fall. I could not see that it was Voigt for the first half of the movie; it was almost distracting trying to figure out who the actor was. He did an Award winning job with this role, and should not be forgotten.

Also guest appearances (or co-stars as the case may be) by Jada Pinkett, who played Ali s wife Sonji- she was hot, she was funny, she was not about to change her ways for the Muslims. LaVar Burton played Dr. King he had brief a brief role, and it was hard to recognize him with out his Star Trek mask. Mykelti Williamson played Don King, and I kept waiting to hear him say either the phrase negrotiation, or Shrimp Salad Sandwich. Alas, neither dream was realized, but he did manage to look and act like King, the antithesis of the films other King. Jeffrey Wright played Ali s friend and photojournalist Howard Bingham, and provided one of the movies streams more on those in a moment.

A Film of Streaming thoughts


The Photographer
There were a number of themes and images that were just delightful. Throughout the film, Howard Bingham took pictures of the champ. Through his early years, he was snapping away catching the young Ali in some grainy black and white. During the hard, anti-Vietnam years, he was always there a true friend, never abandoning Ali. Then during the comeback and the championship years, he was always there he documented Ali s life, he grew a beard, and he raised the stakes of independence in his personal life. He somehow managed to remain independent of being added to payroll, he stayed neutral.

Howard s facial hair, his afro, his myriad moments with his camera were an information stream, a common bond in the film, they showed the growth. Another sweet image that was carried along consistently was flowers.

Flowers
Rose s were everywhere in the film. They were on tables in vases at the Honorable Elijah Mohammad s hacienda. They were handed to the champ; women near Ali carried them around all the time. They were in motel rooms, and living quarters. The only place I didn t see roses in the whole film were in the training gyms. Ali surrounded himself with flowers all the time, or those around him did. The flowers were expensive during the fat times, they were inexpensive during the lean times, and during the late sixties when Muhammad was fighting just to keep beans on the table, there were only the flowers of those who loved him and stayed near during the hard times.

Women
I need those gimme, gimme lots of pretty women, yeah, yeah, who can live without them .skin on skin, let the love begin . Lep

Muhammad was a bit of a womanizer, quite a bit and the wives either lived with it, or left as was the case. There were relationships all throughout the film, some open, some secret, some affairs, some not but it was another stream in the film, Ali s women. At a point when he was walking and talking with Michael Michelle (Benton s current love interest) and he admitted that he was the best and worst husband in the world all at the same time, he just couldn t stop it. It also presented a strong dilemma for him in his faith, as it has for so very many of us boys and girls here on planet earth. This was really not a new or shocking revelation in this film, it has been pretty well documented but the filmmakers did an interesting job with his dilemma as a man of God, vs. a cock-master.

Black and White
The race issue was a huge and central theme in the film, and it was drawn, quartered, ground and served with grits.

During the early days of his career, he was a real problem for the sports world, constantly being compared to Joe Louis, who Ali made it clear that he would not emulate. He was a champion who was all about Black Pride. He hung with Malcolm X, and he deeply troubled the U.S. government. At the beginning of the film, all of the reporters were white, funny fedoras, and a wisecrackin attitude. They thought he was brash.

The race issues that Malcolm came to grips with were another example of the string of the theme. Malcolm was a martyr for race, ultimately. He began to present an open heart to the world, still strong, resilient, and unwavering in his belief that people should protect themselves, but after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he let go of his hatred. This was pretty much unacceptable to the management team at Elijah-Muslim, Inc. They cut him off, and quite possibly had a hand in having him killed. The movie made it look like a team up job between some of Elijah Mohammad s people and the CIA. There were both black and white hands brandishing the guns that brought down this man of God.

Ali turned his back on Malcolm at a point, criticizing him for quarreling with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Just a short while later, Ali was cut off the exact same way the Malcolm was. It looked quite financially motivated in the film. As soon as Ali complained to the media that he had been mistreated financially (ahem, he was being ill-managed by Herbert Muhammad son of the Honorable). This of course leads me to ask the magical question in my mind, that if there are some funny or humorous Muslims from that group do they ever wear the little bow ties that are attached to a motor and spin around in circles? The image that I had in my mind was all these intensely serious brothers standing guard over the prophet with their arms folded and their scowls and suddenly their white and red colored bow ties just all start spinning in unison.

While this kind of chorus of spiritually daffy delights would probably not play real big at the Second City play house, that shyte would be quite funny at my house.

Cosell, however was Ali s friend, his antagonist, and his bridge-way into the hearts and minds of white America. Cosell cut up and picked on Muhammad all the way throughout the film, and in their lives. They helped market each other Ali realizing that Cosell was a man who, like himself, was considered brash, mouthy, and deeply opinionated but he was a college trained, lily-white man. Cosell was WAY WAY white. And Ali used this to generate even more ticket sales than ever. If there was an angle, Ali took it he was a marketing genius.

Knowing that Cosell was despised as much by middle-class white America, he used that to set them onto his side. If you can hate Cosell, then when it comes to choosing sides, you will choose Ali. This logic is certainly one of the things that led me into Ali s corner as a younger man. I loathed Cosell (who was another marketing genius), and found myself arguing for Ali, against Cosell. If you had to choose one of these two blow-hards, which one was it gonna be? And so Ali was embraced by whitey.

The government pursued Ali into their white courts, with their white cops, their white judges and their white lawyers. He was even invited to step forward into the military by a white master sergeant. The system was definitely trying to keep a brother down. Ali fought them, argued with them, stood up for what he believed in a time when many men would not. He stood up and said that the Viet Cong were not his enemy, and guess what he was representing the most common view point of America at the same time. None of us hated those people, and the entire world embraced him to their hearts.

Finally, he continuously fought the racial stereotypes of the uncle-tom-boxing-champ. He accused both Frazier and Foreman of selling out, of not being the black leader that he was. Certainly, neither man was political, but it was just another way for Ali to get himself in a position of advantage. He played the race card with his black opponents. You may look black, but I am black.

The Fights

Here is the part where I was disappointed that there weren t more shown. They showed the first two Liston fights. And honestly, there was not a lot of fighting up until then that would have been worth showing for dramatic purpose.

Ali Liston 1

The great championship, they said that Liston s hands were as big as ham hocks, and he was a brutal boxer. Clay was just to fast when they fought. This was filmed remarkably, every step carefully choreographed, every facial twitch right off tape. Liston was a mob-controlled fighter and this fight was probably supposed to be fixed, but neither man would give an inch. Ali was just too well trained in his Aerobics. He ran miles and miles a day through the woods.

Ali Liston 2

The mystery punch fight, I was intensely curious to see how they filmed this. It took place in Maine, and both Ali and Liston were afraid for their lives. The fight was just a short while after Malcolm X was murdered, and Ali received a number of death threats. Sonny had his own agenda with his mob friends. There was a great deal of fear, and Sonny fell in the first round. The pictures I ve seen in the magazines and the films of the fight make it look like Ali never laid a glove on him. The film showed it to be a crushing punch to the jaw; Ali has always maintained that he hit Liston. I think the film aggrandized a perverse moment in Ali s career, I think he was angry, furious at Liston for taking a dive, but he would never admit it . even today.

Ali Patterson

This was an early fight after Ali has changed his name. Patterson was famous for his quote his mamma called him Clay, I m gonna call him Clay. In spite of your warmest memories, it wasn t Arsenio in the barber chair. This enraged Ali, who strung the fight out and punished Patterson. He beat him relentlessly, trying to inflict as much pain and damage as he could and asking him again and again what s my name? What s my name? He hurt him bad, and did it in the name of his pride.

Ali Quarry 1

Here was a great white hope, that wasn t so very great. He was the Irish fighter YAY! But he just wasn t all that great, but he had heart. He was Ali s first come back fight, in Atlanta, and Ali was an underdog, as Quarry was a high-ranking heavy weight contender. Ali beat Quarry up big time, bloodying him, but Quarry stayed in there, fought hard, never relented, kept on coming and taking it and punching back. Ali won it, and was satisfied both that Quarry gave him a shot, and that he fought in a truly manly fashion, they hugged long after the fight, and Ali whispered strong things to Quarry.

The scenes from the end of this war made me cry in the theater.

Ali Frazier 1

The Fight, in Madison Square Garden, the one we saw on an extremely early example of closed circuit, pay-per-view. It was a fifteen round war, and Ali didn t get the decision a truly powerful event. I love the story that James Taylor tells about losing the date at the Garden, as he had originally had it booked, he got bumped, but it was okay. He and his guys got some tickets, so all was well in the end.

This is one of the greatest boxing matches of all time, filmed beautifully, perfectly. I would have liked to have seen their other two wars; the three Ali-Frazier fights may be the greatest boxing matches of all time.

Ali Foreman

The conclusion of the film, and the growth of Ali, he went to Africa as a man of volume, and left it as a champion, and a man of no small destiny. He found life in Africa, the cradle of all life, and he found what it was to be beloved. After having been summarily rejected, humiliated and attacked in America again and again when he went to Kinshasa and heard the tumultuous cries of Ali BOOMAYE!, he learned of adoration, of fighting for a people and for pride. He knew love then, and he fought for it.

Salif Keita provided the soundtrack s most powerful moment with his song Tomorrow. This is an artist of Royal African lineage, who has been in the music industry since the sixties, and has done a long string of albums. This song is haunting, eerie and powerful it takes you through the jungle, through the streets and the loneliness of the countryside that Ali trained in, and yet surrounded by a giant crowd. This song was the theme of his becoming, the theme of his growth it was the key to the whole film.

They also played this glorious and heartbreaking song during the closing credits. The song made me cry twice during the movie, and will do so for you as well, let it penetrate your soul, feel the flow of the film, and know the light that Ali saw as he ran there, as he found himself in an ancient place. Keita knows the heartbeat of his land, and sang of it cried out for you to hear the very heart of it.

Whew, finally the end if it all .

You have to be a sports fan to really get deeply in touch with this movie. There were a couple of times I thought for sure Eye of the Tiger was going to come on. Don t leave home if you don t enjoy boxing, soul music (the sound track was amazing and deeply timely) and a lot of passionate race tensions.

It was a wonderful film. I did get worn out with the long stretch of his life that they covered while they were fighting for his freedom to box again, and the anger that I felt all my life for the closed minded, oppressors who fed the fuel of the Viet Nam war, and held men like Ali down was rekindled. But there is nothing for it. He arose to his great championship form. I would have liked to have seen twice as much boxing as they had, but the drama was all in good non-fun. Fly to the theater to see this movie, it is a masterpiece in many respects, and you need to listen to Keita s lament before you die, or you will have lived a certain amount of your life in vain.