- Some people have personalities that are simply too large to be contained in a feature-length film, and Muhammad Ali was one of them. After all, he was a free-spirited, trash-talking Muslim convert who objected to the Vietnam War, married four times (at least), had nine children (at least), and won the heavyweight championship three times. Any attempt to cram all of those events into anything less than a 12-hour PBS miniseries was doomed to fail, so it is to the great credit of director Michael Mann that his film Ali is not a failure. Although one wonders what Ali's childhood was like, how he first became attracted to Islam, and what happened after he won his second world heavyweight title, the film sensibly restricts itself to the most prominent one-third of its subject's life.
- But before I give Michael Mann too much credit, I need to mention Will Smith's acting performance. I honestly cannot imagine another actor doing as wonderful a job as Smith in capturing the boxer's speech patterns, his wry sense of humor, his indomitable spirit, and even the way he moved while boxing. That last item is particularly important since Smith was paired with several professional fighters in the ring, and the punching was absolutely real. Like many people, I sometimes make the mistake of equating Will Smith with the "Fresh Prince" persona that I grew up with, but with successful projects as varied as this film, Enemy of the State, and the Men in Black series, the actor has undeniable talent, versatility, and magnetism that his early career only hinted at. Frankly, Ali could have been torpedoed by casting the wrong lead actor, but Smith delivers the goods.
- So, aside from the things that everybody already knows about the life of Muhammed Ali, what new lessons does Ali teach us? Happily, the film shows that the boxer found real friends in his trainer (Ron Silver), his ringman (Jamie Foxx), his future biographer (Jeffrey Wright), and even Howard Cosell (Jon Voight). One imagines that Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) would have been included on this list, too, if not for a rift that developed between the two over the Nation of Islam. Speaking of which, the Nation (represented by Albert Hall and Barry Shabaka Henley) is portrayed primarily as cashing in on Ali's popularity without giving much back in return. Although converting to Islam surely fits with Ali's rebellious nature, the film also makes it clear that religion drove Ali to reject his first wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) without helping him better treat his later wives (Nona Gaye, Michael Michele).
- As a film, Ali is a decent biopic elevated considerably by Smith's completely dedicated performance and an unrelenting devotion to realism. When any one of the film's many real-life boxers (James Toney, Michael Bentt, Charles Shufford, Robert Sale) crosses the ring to confront Smith, no matter how much he obviously bulked up for the role, the audience quite reasonably holds its breath. The film also memorably employs location filming in Mozambique to recreate the electrifying (misplaced) optimism of Kinshasa, Zaire in the early 1970's. In my opinion, the film's weakest decision involves depicting historical figures that, particularly in the case of Martin Luther King, Jr. (LeVar Burton), Mobutu (Malick Bowens), and Idi Amin (Themba Gasa), are awkwardly shoehorned in to a story where they do not play a major role. Although the end result is far from being Mann's strongest film, it is a fascinating treatment of one of the few world athletes who actually had interesting things to say.
- I neglected to mention Mykelti Williamson as an excellent Don King and Giancarlo Esposito as Cassius, Sr. Also, minor roles by Paul Rodriguez, Bruce McGill, David Cubitt, and Ted Levine.
