Ali (2001)

Starring: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Nona Gaye, Mario Van Peeples, Jeffrey Wright, Ron Silver
Director: Michael Mann

Rating: R

Studio: Columbia

Review Posted: 12.28.01

Spoilers: Major

Rating: 2/4

By Craig Younkin.

It was supposed to be the myth that Muhammad was going to be the champ. He was going to be the man to beat at the Oscars this year. Will Smith was going to get the chance to play one of his heroes, as well as receiving recognition for doing so. Whatever greatness Ali possessed, it certainly does not have the biggest part in this vague biography.

With the exception of Will Smith, who occasionally dives into one of Ali's funniest and energetic rants, director Michael Mann's film is the opposite of energy. It is a film based solely on Ali's fights and many musical montages, but not on the man himself. While I was watching, I said to myself, the soundtrack will probably have more discs than the eventual DVD.

The film begins with a title fight between Sonny Liston and Ali (Smith). Much to the surprise of everyone, including ABC sports commentator Howard Cossell (John Voight), Ali wins. The story then goes into Ali's religion and his citizenship as part of a black Muslims group.

Ali, at the time, was known primarily as Cassius Clay, yet he thought of Clay as a slave name, and thus changed it to Cassius X. It was not until later that he was dubbed Muhammad Ali. He was also close friends with Malcolm X. Their friendship broke off when Malcolm X was ejected from the Muslim group, lead by Elijah Muhammad.

The next period the film takes on is the Vietnam era in 1967. Because of his religious beliefs, Ali refused to fight in the war and took a tremendous beating because of it. The maximum penalty allotted for draft dodging was five years in prison and a 10,000-dollar fine. His license to fight in the states or abroad would also be removed.

Sticking to his principles, Ali fought the system. He later became reinstated into the boxing community, but he had already given up the prime years of his boxing life.

Lastly, the film travels to Zaire to show Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" battle with George Foreman. This great fight couldn't possibly have been told better in the fantastic Academy Award-winning documentary "When We Were Kings", and sadly by the time this fight rolls around, I just wanted "Ali" to end.

It's hard to watch a film in which every plot element feels like it's lacking a huge chunk of information. I can only imagine the screenwriters skimming while researching Ali's life, and only using the key elements without giving us a look at the bigger picture. It isn't possible to witness a great man's life through little snippets of it. This is something Michael Mann knows all too well, and therefore was not able create the inspirational figure out of the pieces that make up Ali.

Many of the supporting players experience the exact same development problems. They all just appear for a while, but never become more than second-hand scenery. Jamie Foxx, playing Ali's motivator Boudini, stands as the film's biggest disappointment because his dramatic range is stunted by melodramatic dialogue and lack of association with Smith through the course of the film. One actor who turns in great work is John Voight, because his delivery is perfect.

Smith is almost perfect in this film. He definitely has the mouth, but he also has the quickness, strength, and intelligence of the man who always stuck up for what he believed in. Watching Smith let out his heat and soul only makes you wish the script was better.

The fight sequences are also not too engaging. Audiences will marvel over the hard-hitting and the speed of the main character, but Mann is unable to take us inside the action to actually make us care about the outcome.

As it stands, "Ali" is a disappointment. It's hard to realize the beginning of the year when both "Ali" and "Pearl Harbor" were the films receiving the most buzz. What a difference a year makes, and what a big difference a lousy year makes.

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