Editd By The Tea Lady

Rating: 3/10 (25 September 2005)

Oliver Stone style documentary drama with good (earnest even) intentions but lacking the right touches to make this film really fly. The fight scenes are excellent documents of what happened in the ring; and, even though (or more probably because) they are safe and clean, they hold an emotional charge which makes them compelling to watch, especially the Rumble In The Jungle fight which climaxes the film. The music choices are excellent in capturing the essence of the period covered, the black soul, the political happenings, Ali's friendships, and underscoring the events on screen. The fight scenes and the music production are the best parts of an otherwise dull, confused, boring and weary film which brought this viewer no closer to an understanding of Ali. The editing for the TV version I watched must have been done by the tea lady because there were many confusions and oddities. Either that or the editor assumed the audience would already know so much about Ali's life and the political and cultural events of the time that it would be just too silly to give people basic information, such as Ali losing his come-back fight. There is much interesting material in Ali's life that would a great film - this is not that film.