Details, details, details

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2002)

They get the details right.
When Will Smith/Muhammad Ali is knocked down at the end of the first Frazier fight, Smith has the details down almost exactly. The way he slowly gets up and then puts his right hand on the ropes is exactly they way it happened in real life. This movie gets the details right.
So what is wrong?
They say the mood in Ali's locker room before the Foreman fight was one of deadly gloom. Not even Ali's corner men really thought he could beat George Foreman. Not only was he facing the end of his career, but Ali's men were extremely worried that Foreman might seriously hurt their man. It was Ali himself, the one man in that locker room who really thought he could win, that lifted the mood. "Are we gonna dance?" He kept shouting to Bundini Brown. Soon Brown was answering: "All night long!"
This scene never makes it into the movie "Ali." And that is precisely the problem. While director Michael Mann was so intent on getting the details right, he forgot about the mood. The overwhelming odds that Ali faced, not only in the Foreman fight but in the first Liston fight, the fight with the Supreme Court and in so many other instances in his life, are glossed over. Instead, we are only given the facts.
Wham. He beats Quarry. Wham. He wins in the Supreme Court. Wham. He faces Frazier. All the scenes are presented, but we never feel their impact. Ali in the course of this movie goes from the most hated man in sports to the most loved. But we never feel the change. Again, we are only given the details.
See this movie if you want to see a great performance by Will Smith. Heck, you'll even forgive Smith for "The Wild, Wild West" based on his marvelous performance here.
But if you really want to learn about Muhammad Ali and what made him one of the most incredible figures of the 20th Century, you are better off looking elsewhere. In fact, the documentary "When We Were Kings" is a far better place to start.