"What's my name?" (Ali (DVD))

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	Ali (DVD)
Date:	17/03/09 (264 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well directed, expensive

Disadvantages: When We Were Kings, Ali documentaries do it better for real

"Ali" is a 2001 biopic directed by Michael Mann and starring Will Smith as the legendary heavyweight champion. The film begins in 1964 with Ali's upset of the apparently unstoppable Sonny Liston and takes us through to 1974 and Ali's fight against the equally daunting George Foreman in Zaire. Along the way the film explores Ali's first marriage, his conversion to the Nation of Islam, friendship with Malcom X, ban from boxing for refusing to serve in Vietnam and - of course - his great rivalry with Joe Frazier.

One of the problems with making an Ali biopic is that Ali's life was more outlandish and incredible than any film script. In a sense the subject is too big for a film and so inevitably this feels like a diluted and condensed history of the man. I remember reading an article once about how Ali took a crazy bus trip across America in the sixties to dog Sonny Liston in a still segregated United States. You could make an entire film about that one episode let alone try and cram ten years of Ali's life into two and a half hours! The other problem is that most of us are reasonably familiar with the story and life of Ali. I have countless Ali documentaries and biographies, many of his fights on tape and DVD, plus of course the Oscar winning film "When We Were Kings" and although Ali is an expensive and well made film there were times when I felt the whole thing bordered on the pointless. When Will Smith runs out Ali's lines and poems I could actually beat him to the punchlines and part of you wonders why you are watching Will Smith and Charles Shufford pretending to be Ali and Foreman when you can slip a boxing DVD or When We Were Kings in and watch the real thing as it actually happened.

As you would expect from a Michael Mann film, Ali looks great. It opens with a flashy nightclub montage and has a nice period detail. It has a good cast and the boxing scenes are shot with style and verve. Everything is in place for a great film but, surprisingly, given its subject, Ali is also slightly dull at times. Smith does a good Ali impersonation and gives an excellent performance as an actor but I can't say I ever really believed he was Muhammad Ali. He looks a bit like him - with his ears pinned back - but isn't as pretty as the real Ali was and is a bit lumbering in the boxing sequences. The real Ali in his prime was a graceful 210 pound man who could throw punches faster than most middleweights. You can't really replicate that convincingly for dramatic purposes.

The film does quite a good job in exploring the relationship between Ali and Malcom X and Ali's manager Herbert Muhammad takes a few deserved brickbats in the film. Mario Van Peebles is ok but has a thankless task as Malcom X. If you catch an old clip of Malcom X being interviewed you find yourself becoming slightly entranced by the quiet force of his personality and it's very difficult for any actor to get close to this. Malcom's move away from the Nation and his previous beliefs and Ali's shunning of him (which he later deeply regretted) in accordance with his loyalty to the creepy Elijah Muhammad is all done with much care but if you want to learn more about this period you'd be better off reading David Remnick's book "King of the World".

Jon Voight is very good as infamous boxing commentator Howard Cosell although his make-up is a tad cartoonish. Cosell, who is dismissed as a windy know-nothing in most boxing books or articles I've read, gets off fairly lightly here. His toupee is the butt of Ali's jokes but his sense of injustice at Ali's ban from boxing, which was apparently real, is the side of Cosell that comes out most in the film. The most incredible thing about Ali was that he didn't fight during his athletic peak because of the ban. He cemented his legacy in his thirties after years out of the ring. I liked the fact that the film stressed this and showed Ali during this wilderness period - struggling to make ends meet, touring colleges to speak, vainly trying to arrange fights out of the jurisdiction of the US authorities. The sense of frustration - for Ali truly loved boxing and the spotlight - is well conveyed.

Jamie Foxx I have to say is excellent as Drew "Bundini" Brown, Ali's famous entourage cheerleader and friend. Ali's entourage were sort of like his children at times and Bundini's flawed but colourful character and mutual love for Ali comes through. Jada Pinkett Smith is also well cast as Sonji Roi, Ali's free spirited first wife, a woman with little tolerance for religious rules imposed on her by men. Ron Silver though is terribly underused as Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee. Dundee was a unique character and great trainer, a white Italian-American who survived the Nation of Islam influence and retained a warm and enduring bond with Ali. Dundee comes off in the film as casual hired help rather than Ali's lifelong friend and trainer.

Mykelti Williamson also pops up as Don King but it's hard to play Don King because the real life Don King always looks as if he's a fictional character played by an accomplished comedy actor!

James Toney, a real life boxer and former world champion, is actually pretty good as Joe Frazier. Ali and Frazier were friends for a time before their relationship soured but the film does remind you that Frazier helped Ali during his ban and offered financial assistance. Toney's crouching left-hooking style is a reasonable facsimile of Frazier in the boxing sequences. The use of real life boxers is a help in the film.

When the film moves to Zaire for Ali's fight with Foreman it does become fairly redundant thanks to the incredible 1997 documentary "When We Were Kings". Any attempt to dramatize the "Rumble in the Jungle" is now almost pointless despite the lush visuals, flashy direction and careful attempt to recreate this epic event. Dramatic licence is also taken with Ali, behind wife Belinda's back, mooching about with Veronica Porsche (Michael Michele) in Zaire and pretending she was his wife (which she later became). This incident actually happened in 1975 when he fought Frazier for a third time in Manila but was for some reason shoehorned into the Zaire section here.

I think those who are unfamilar with portions of the Ali story might find the film more interesting than boxing fans who have read or watched most of this elsewhere. If you like Will Smith you'll enjoy his performance. Although I never really believed he was Ali in the ring, the actor is amusing and captures Ali's stream of consciousness anger very well leaving courtrooms and protesting against his treatment. I'm sort of glad Hollywood gave the Ali story a go with some real money and effort simply out of respect but the end result is oddly less satisfying than one decent Ali documentary.

Despite its flaws and attempt to take too much on, Ali is certainly a well directed and suitably expensive film and worth a viewing if you haven't seen it. For an overview of the man you'd be better off reading Thomas Hauser's biography or watching When We Were Kings but "Ali" is by no means a bad film if not a great one.

Summary: Doesn't quite go the distance