Ali

Day 222 - 8/10/09 - Movie #218

BEFORE: Will Smith is my link back to boxing films - it's been 3 weeks since I watched "Raging Bull", now I've got a chance to follow up - so let's kick off "Boxing Week".

THE PLOT: A biography of sports legend, Muhammad Ali, from his early days through his days in the ring.

AFTER: I went into this not knowing too much about Ali's history, his friendship with Malcolm X, his conversion to Islam, or how many times he fought Sonny Liston, for example - so I learned a lot. The boxing footage here is both brutal and beautiful, and it touches on some of the things that "Raging Bull" neglected - the logistics of arranging a title bout, the relationship between a fighter and his cornermen, etc. Will Smith "pulled a De Niro" by gaining weight (and muscle) to play Ali, but unfortunately by duplicating his speech patterns and poetry, he's sort of presenting a caricature of the man. There's great supporting work, though, from Jamie Foxx, Ron Silver, Giancarlo Esposito, Mario Van Peebles (as Malcolm X), Mykelti Williamson (as Don King!) and of course Jon Voight as Howard Cosell. According to this film, Cosell seemed to have a unique friendship with Ali, which could seem antagonistic to outside viewers at times (as many friendships do).

The movie runs a little long (2 hrs. 35 min), but there's plenty of drama to fill the time between boxing scenes. I like a movie where "Down goes Frazier!" (one of my favorite sports quotes) is actually a plot point, and the film culminates with the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight between Ali and George Foreman (yes, the guy who invented our Lean, Mean, Grilling Machine!)

EDIT: I re-watched the first 10-15 minutes of this film to check something - the montage of Ali's early years is very haphazard, with some odd choices of what's included and what's left out from his childhood and young adulthood. Is this because the memory of a boxer isn't so good? We see Ali (Cassius Clay) jogging, and a graphic informs us that the year is 1964 - but then we start jumping around in time, and we see him as a young boy, what year is THAT? Look, either provide dates for all of the scenes, or none of them - but don't give us just one! Then the footage of Ali training is intercut with a Sam Cooke concert - why? What's the connection to Sam Cooke? Whose bio-pic is this, anyway? For a while I thought I was watching Jamie Foxx in "The Sam Cooke Story"... very confusing!

RATING: 7 out of 10 rounds