Ali (2001)

All the incredible acting was undone by sloppy-to-non-existent editing. I had to open the Wikipedia entry on Muhammad Ali to figure out who was who, where they were, and why people were saying what they were saying.Will Smith's and John Voight's excellent performances were wasted. The movie would have been greatly aided by displaying the names of towns and characters. It seemed like every time a new character was shown on screen, they were never introduced by exposition.The movie jumped around locations a lot, and the dialogue was confusing at times, unless you already knew the life story of Ali.Michael Mann can do better, but he seemed more interested in crafting the individual scenes instead of focusing on a coherent narrative. Thus, the movie was long, boring, and confusing.It was heartbreaking, I wanted to like this movie, but the editing ruined it.

"Ali" is more than just a boxing movie about perhaps the greatest heavyweight champ to have ever lived, it's also a personal historic drama about the man's life of struggle to find who he was in and outside of the ring. Actor Will Smith is true to form in his performance as Ali and Jon Voight is memorable as sports broadcasting announcer Howard Cosell, as their screen chemistry is in fine form and plus the boxing action shown seemed real and action packed.The film follows over a ten year period with Muhammad Ali winning the title at a young age upsetting Sonny Liston, and then his first love is played just fine by Will Smith's real life wife Jada Pinkett Smith, as their would be many loves and ladies in Ali's life. Then the film is a showcase about Ali's struggles to accept and reveal his real religion that being Islam. And this even causes him to stand up and speak out against the war and say no to a draft. And to complicate matters it's a legal conviction and a fist from Joe Frazier that sends Ali spinning for awhile. Yet thru faith and work all turns around for Ali.Then it's on to "The Rumble in the Jungle" against the now champ young and big powerful George Foreman in "Zaire" which as all knows turns out to be the defining moment for Ali's life in and out of the boxing ring. Overall well done film that's long with facts and drama it shows that a legend of sports can be historic for the way he fought in and out of the ring as Ali was a fighter on all matters of belief and life.

It's a biopic of the great boxer Muhammad Ali (Will Smith). It starts in 1964 when still as Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship. Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) befriends the young fighter. He is outspoken, converts to Islam joining the Nation of Islam, and becomes the world wide icon. Jon Voight makes a nice turn as Howard Cosell.Muhammad Ali is such a big personality. Possibly nobody could ever do him justice. Certainly nobody could ever live up to the legend. Will Smith is probably the only one who could make the attempt. The fact that he didn't embarrass himself is a big win. It is a surprise that director Michael Mann made this movie. It doesn't have the kinetic energy of his other movies. It's such a dour performance. Will is playing it with simmering anger every second of the movie. He's great with Ali's voice, but it doesn't have any joy in it. Will is good hitting that same note over and over again. I just wish he hit other notes in his performance. 'When We Were Kings' is a superior movie for comparison. This is a good biopic not not much more.

In the USA, Mohammed Ali is still a divisive figure, even to people who probably not even alive when his boxing career was in its decline.To others outside the USA he is universally acknowledged as a hero, someone who transcended his sport to become a universally popular hero.Michael Mann takes up the challenge to try to tweak out the various facets of Ali and show someone who is not an easy subject to capture but his boxing of course makes the narrative easier.The film ends with the Rumble in the Jungle when he beat Foreman, we go through the period when he could not box because of his stance against Vietnam and of course his earlier rise to become champion of world heavyweight boxing and his alliance with the Nation of Islam.Mann as expected does not go through the straight biopic, he elicits from Will Smith a great performance which was Oscar nominated, Jamie Foxx as Bundini Brown should had also got recognition and Jon Voight under heavy make up is unrecognisable and got a best supporting Oscar nod.Mann took an auteur's approach to his subject, its narrative style was not too popular at the time of its release, mainly because everyone have their own ideas as to how the film of the man should be like. Yet Mann provides enough flourish to let has have enough of a flourish of this legendary boxer.