The boxing scenes are brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2002)

Watching `Ali' was certainly an educational experience. I came on the boxing scene just as Ali was making his comeback in the early 1970s, losing to Joe Frazier and then stunning champion George Foreman in Zaire.
Muhammad Ali had a charisma that was hard to understand  especially learning how militant he seemed to be, according to the film. In a rural, white, conservative military family, one would not think a loud-mouthed, draft-dodging black Muslim would be the household's favorite boxer. Yet Ali was. Ali remains my all-time favorite fighter. In fact, I largely lost interest in the sport after his retirement  along with the end of public television broadcasting matches.
Veteran writer/director Michael Mann puts together an interesting look at Ali, from just prior to his first heavyweight championship fight with Sonny Liston in 1964, to his stunning victory over Foreman in 1974. The highlights of the film are definitely the boxing sequences. Filming a fictitious boxing match is difficult enough; emulating an historic one is nearly impossible. Mann and star Will Smith and his opponents pull it off, though. Smith captures Ali's trademark dancing style (Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee) and makes each fight extremely believable. About the only thing missing from a fight scene was in the Joe Frazier fight. In one of his first fights back after his suspension, Ali faced the champion and suffered a broken jaw early in the fight. He managed to go the distance, in one of the most gutsy performances of recent decades, losing a decision to Frazier. The injury is never mentioned in the film.
I now understand how black audiences must have felt for generations, watching virtually all-white movies. Other than Howard Cosell (captured perfectly by Jon Voight), about the only white character is trainer Angelo Dundee, whose role is trivialized to virtually nothing. This is an interesting film with a unique perspective. Malcolm X, considered by a great many Americans of the past 2-3 generations to have been a dangerously bad egg, is portrayed in a rosy hew. Family man, loyal friend, concerned activist, misunderstood Islamic disciple, he seems about as dangerous or intimidating as Floyd the Barber. Somehow I think Malcolm got some major benefit of the doubt, here.
It is also a bit disconcerting that by glorifying Malcolm, the film likewise belittles Dr. Martin Luther King and the rest of the peaceful Civil Rights movement. This, we seem to be told, is for little old ladies and Uncle Toms. I wonder if Ali really felt this way in real life.
Smith's conversion from Cassius Clay to Ali, though, is most interesting and is something I had never really read much about. I always had the idea that the `conscientious objector' defense was what he had used from the beginning of the draft issue and that he had been sincere in not wanting to fight because of his spiritual beliefs. According to Mann's Ali, the draft is just another form of racism and Ali is simply not going along with it.
Ali himself gets fairly even treatment. Seen as a sensitive man who cares about his people and who feels loyalty to his friends, he nevertheless proves to have weaknesses as a husband. I suppose feminists would have protested had this aspect of his personality been glossed over.
While Smith doesn't look much like Ali  with an occasional exception from time to tome, others are frighteningly realistic. Mario Van Peebles is a dead ringer for Malcolm X. Voight is a perfect Cosell  obnoxious on the air & a loyal and caring friend off. James Toney bears a resemblance to Joe Frazier, while Michael Bentt, Charles Shufford and Vincent Cook look just like Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Jerry Quarry respectively.
Overall, this is a good film. White, middle class America and black Christian America may squirm a bit, in between fight sequences. I suppose that was one intention. The boxing scenes make this one that everyone can enjoy at least part of. Overall, this film goes the distance.