No biopic can possibly do him justice

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2002)

Muhammad Ali was so much bigger than life that any biopic is likely to have come up short. But to those of us who grew up watching Ali in his prime, this film is a real disappointment.
Director Michael Mann is a highly talented director with films like `Heat', `The Insider' and `Last of the Mohicans' to his credit. Yet, in this film he takes the wrong tack and clutters it with boring details and excessive focus on racial issues that were ancillary to the life of a very exciting boxer and a dynamic showman.
To do justice to Ali's entire life, you would have to make three films. One for the boxing, one to look behind the scenes of a complicated man, and one to chronicle his interaction with the Nation of Islam and the civil rights implications of his refusal to be inducted into the army. The most interesting of the three are the first two. Yet, Mann decides to give us the first and third elements with the greatest emphasis on the civil rights angle, which is clearly the least interesting aspect of Ali despite the controversy. It seems that Mann is on a crusade to impress us with what a central figure Ali was in the civil rights movement and that his boxing was secondary to that role. Mann wants us to believe that Ali was a civil rights leader who just happened to be a boxer, when in reality he was first and foremost an outstanding boxer with a flamboyant and arrogant attitude and a rapier wit.
Mann completely neglects the element that he presents so superbly in `The Insider', the character development of the main character. In `The Insider', Mann drills deep into Wigand's (Russell Crowe) psyche and turns Bergman (Al Pacino) inside out. In `Ali', Mann glosses over Ali's motivations and concentrates more on Ali as part of a larger mosaic rather than the fascinating character he really was. He only gives a hint of the close relationship between Ali and Cosell, which could have been a film by itself.
The boxing scenes were well choreographed, but overly long with too much emphasis on too few fights. Ali was one of the most active heavyweight champion ever, sometimes fighting four or five times per year, but from this film it seems like he had only four fights in his career. We didn't need to see 15 minutes of George Foreman pounding Ali against the ropes to get the idea.
Will Smith does an excellent job of portraying Ali. Though he sometimes misses on Ali's rapid fire poetic cadence, he hits the mark a high percentage of the time and delivers a very realistic portrayal. In the ring, he does a passable job of imitating some of Ali's more notable moves like the `Ali Shuffle' and his penchant for dodging punches with his hands dangling by his side. But no one can come close to imitating that lightning jab.
As much acclaim as Smith got for this role, John Voight steals the show as Howard Cosell. Though the physical resemblance is not that great, Voight's command of Howard's movements and speech patterns is nothing short of phenomenal.
One thing that is very disappointing is that the DVD has absolutely no bonus material. This is a topic that could have provided hours of background material and original footage and there wasn't even a featurette.
Overall, this film is entertaining for those who never saw Ali fight, or bad mouth an opponent in a new conference. But for those of us who were lucky enough to see this brilliant athlete and flamboyant personality in his prime, this film never leaves the ground. I rated it a 6/10. For anyone interested in the real Muhammad Ali, see `Muhammad Ali  the Whole Story', a six hour documentary that will show you why no biopic can ever do him justice.