A Major Disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (19 November 2002)

To give credit where credit is due I want to start off with mentioning the fine performances in this movie. Will Smith was quite convincing as Muhammad Ali. It must be difficult and somewhat intimidating to play a legend who is still alive, but he managed to get both the look and the voice down quite well. Stealing the show, however (and in a relatively limited role) was Jon Voight as Howard Cosell. Voight really WAS Cosell in this movie. Everything about him screamed Cosell. It was almost scary, in fact - a Cosell resurrection. (Which, come to think of it wouldn't be a bad thing. I really miss Howard.) Anyway, I've only seen bits and pieces of "Monday Night Mayhem" and I'm not sure who played Cosell there, but Voight beat him mercilessly in the part, whoever he was. Watch "Ali" just for Jon Voight!
Unfortunately, I thought the story itself was weak and badly organized. There was no flow to it; no continuity. It was like a series of vignettes of Ali's life (Ali fights Liston; Ali converts to Islam; Ali refuses induction; and so on and so forth) but without any strong sense of connection between them. And I guess the second problem is that it wasn't about Ali's life. The movie starts with Ali winning the title against Sonny Liston in 1964 and ends with him winning the title back against George Foreman in 1974. So it's 10 years of Ali's life, and this lack of historical context bothered me a bit. What were his younger years like? The plot outline here at IMBD says "A biography of sports legend, Muhammad Ali, from his early days to his days in the ring." Huh? What early days? It starts with his title fight against Liston! You wouldn't have a clue from watching this movie, for example, that Cassius Clay was a gold medalist from the 1960 Rome Olympics. It was never mentioned. And what of his sadder later years? After winning the title back against Foreman he had a couple of good years and some good fights (notably the rematch with Joe Frazier) but it's not mentioned. And what an interesting study could have been done of a problem many athletes have giving up the limelight. I mean, from about 1976 on Ali was fading badly, won some questionable decisions based on his name rather than his performance in the ring, and fought a series of relative unknowns (anyone remember Alfredo Evangelista?) because he knew he couldn't beat the serious contenders (finally losing to Leon Spinks in 1978 - and yes winning the title back again in a rematch later that year.) Then, ill fated comeback attempts; the battle with Parkinson's. All left out, except for a brief note at the end of the movie that Ali lost and regained the title in 1978. I think a look at his earlier and especially his later years would have made this a far more compelling movie.
As it is if one word could sum up my thought about this it would be "disappointing."
3/10 (basically a credit to Smith and Voight. Without them it would have been lower.)