Ali

Ali (2001)

Runtime: 157 minutes

Directed by: Michael Mann

Starring: Will Smith, Jon Voight, Ron Silver, Jamie Foxx, Mario Van Peebles

From: Warner Bros.

This was a first time watch for me... and I saw it in a theatre. I was the only one in the auditorium but it wasn't a private screen; that's just how it happened. Maybe it's the climate of Orlando right now... anyway, my Letterboxd review is below: 

Would you believe that I saw this movie on the big screen last night? 'Tis true. I don't even fault them for doing this but like when Prince passed away, some theatre chains were all too happy to show something related to a hugely popular figure so they could try to make a buck. While I had never seen this movie in particular, I have watched a few of Michael Mann's motion pictures... I just haven't reviewed them all here as of yet. I've always known that this in particular has received somewhat of a frosty reception ever since it came out, people saying it wasn't as great as it could have been. And I agree.

I know that some wish this would have covered more of Ali's life instead of 1964 to 1974. I understand what the story was, which was covering the rise, fall and redemption of Ali as he won the World Title, lost it due to not wanting to be enlisted in the Army for the Vietnam War, then regained the belt from George Foreman. I also get covering the time period and showing what it was like, as it definitely had an impact on Muhammad's life and he had an impact on American life through his defiant and bold attitude. However, it felt like you needed to know Ali's life pretty well beforehand to understand everything. I knew about trainer Angelo Dundee, for example, but they did not say a lot about the characters played by Jamie Foxx or Jeffrey Wright (Drew Bundini Brown and Howard Bingham, respectively); I guess you were just supposed to know all about them beforehand. There are other examples but that is the one which comes to mind first.

Also, for a movie over 2 and a half hours, some large gaps of time were skipped; for example, from the first Frazier fight all the way to the Rumble in the Jungle finale flew by, and that was a 3 year time period. The second Frazier fight was barely mentioned, and all three times those two fought was a gigantic deal. As others have noted, it would have been preferable to learn more about Ali the man and why this legendary figure was the way he was. We see it on the surface but learning more would have been nice, seeing how and why he ticked. At least the movie seemed fair; we see that he was married a few times and wasn't always faithful to the wife he had at the time.

At least it was filmed well (especially with the boxing scenes), the period detail was great, the music choices were pretty good throughout, and I enjoyed the performances from the talented cast as a whole. Make no mistake, though, a big reason why I even rate this as 3 stars is the job that Will Smith does in the title role. I usually pay no attention to him or his movies, but he was tremendous here, perfectly capturing the look and feel of a larger than life person, an unenviable task if there ever was one. I was the only person at the screening yet I was still glad I saw it on the big screen... even if it's a movie I probably don't need to see ever again.