Proudly takes its place in whatever Hall of Fame there might be for boxing films, as Mann studiously pays tribute to the life and times of "The Greatest".

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2010)

One of the more famous, more accomplished, more recognisable names and faces in the history of any sport is the subject of Michael Mann's 2001 film entitled Ali. Muhammad Ali was a champion, for that there can be little debate; often when he steps out into the ring whenever it is he does in the film, we do not debate as to whether he might win his fight or not, rather, Mann is more interested in getting to the bottom of a famous man with some often radical views on the world around him: the drama is outside of the ring, not inside. Where the film is a deceptive formulaic piece building and building to a final showdown with which it climaxes, it resembles more-so a humanistic and humbling dramatisation of Ali's often rocky relationships over the years with family members; particular women; business cohorts and the American government. Mann doesn't sugar-coat his depiction of the man; at times in the film, Ali will come across as arrogant; aggressive and rather unkind whereas at others he is victimised by those only seemingly more powerful than he is, but never for once do we doubt the character's ability and head-strong confidence that he has in himself. By the time the famous Zaire based Rumble in the Jungle fight has arrived and Ali is there doing his thing with both his mouth and his fists, we've long since jumped on board and are with him every step of the way.
Will Smith does the job of incarnating Muhammad Ali, and does the job stupendously. The film will begin with the man jogging in a drab, cold and rather metallic locale early on in the day. His running activity is inter-cut with a singer on a stage, somebody whipping the crowd into a frenzy and quite clearly being 'at one' with both their surroundings and what they're doing for a living. As the opening progresses, all the activity becomes inter-cut with one of Ali's knockout blows and a similar sense of the boxing ring being Ali's stage upon which he does the equivalent of the singer in relation to the crowd and the 'at oneness' with everything is effectively established. The inaudible hush of a crowd greets us prior to his first fight, some thumping electronic music without lyrics overlying for Ali and his opponent's entrances to the ring. The audience get what they came for; we, as purveyors of a piece of cinema, witness a bringing to life of one of Ali's fights and what it may have been like prior from the perspective of the man himself. All of it carries a feel of cinema, a cinematic charge; where the patrons and lines up in their seats ready for the next slice of spectacle that is Ali's next fight, we are primed and ready for Mann's detailed and involving exploration.
Where Ali is a champion fighter and we already know comes the finer details some audience members may not already be informed of: namely, his fights outside of the ring. Mann appears to be aware of Ali as a name even to those uninformed to boxing; laying on fight after fight establishing how superior Ali was to everybody else in his sport would have been futile: the greatest battles Ali had in his life were with family members and those running the nation in which he lived. What he was seemingly fighting for was identity, not the chunks of money that come with boxing matches; what it was he was precisely fighting against appears in the guise of racism, not another faceless boxer in the other corner. The film knows this is more interesting, Mann knows this is more interesting; an eventual fight with Sonny Lister far shorter following the plunging of us into the world of a boxer and what it must feel like before every match you're preparing to go out and partake in.
The film's tone is cold; calculated and quite colourless, even distant. We do not necessarily feel alienated from Ali as much as he himself felt alienated from most of those whom he dealt with. His converting to Islam is much to his father's, who's a Christian preacher, dismay; his resisting of the draft to Vietnam for The War on behalf of the U.S. Government leads to widespread annoyances and frustrations on their behalf and his disconnected feel toward the rest of society as fellow African-Americans figures in social and political upheaval are assassinated resonate painfully. A revealing scene later on sees his attitudes and outspoken nature eventually coming to disrupt and, we feel, alienate him from his boxing promoter Don King (Williamson), who was in full flow during a press conference. We felt he was good friends with King, the rapport they shared was amusing and the bouncing off of one another which they appeared to be able to manage was evidently there; the 'turning' on King, indeed everybody in the room bar Angelo (Silver) his faithful trainer, is telling and quite chilling in a way that arrives out of the blue.
Was there something about the cameras that wound Ali up? Was it the bustle of the sheer amounts of people at the weigh-ins which set him off? One scene sees him share the front of an automobile with the very man he'll come to fight in a hugely publicised fight; their exchange is anonymous and much calmer, even measured. They speak to one another as two men away from everyone and everything else in what is a direct exchange involving Ali that goes against the majority of what we're provided, but remains equally fascinating despite this sense of polar-opposition within the premise of the situation. Smith is supported by a wonderful performance by Jon Voight, playing true to life sportscast journalist Howard Cosell in what is one of those rare post-Mission: Impossible Jon Voight films that are worth sitting through, as Michael Mann produces another addition to his impressive repertoire.