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Zone's Eye View of "Ali" 

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Synopsis of movie:

Based on the period from 1964 to 1974, this film depicts the most tumultuous decade of Muhammad Ali's (Will Smith) life. In 1964 Ali won the heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston (Michael Bent), then years later had his boxing license and championship title stripped when he refused to join the Army during the Vietnam War. But in 1974 Ali capped off a heroic comeback by winning the heavyweight crown for a second time by defeating George Foreman during "The Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire.

Now for The Zone's Eye View

What should have been a movie about one of the most celebrated and extraordinary athletes of our time, instead ended up being a two and a half hour long Michael Mann extravaganza. A director who has established himself with such movies as Heat, The Insider, and Manhunter, Michael Mann just seems egomaniacal with this interpretation of Muhammad Ali. The movie reads like a printed timeline, this happened, and then this happened. No explanations or details are given at all. You don’t even know the characters in his entourage. The audience is never given a chance to “know” the man who was “Ali”. Ali is depicted as a naïve, womanizer. We see only three fights in this film that evidently Michael Mann thought we needed to see, which his fight with Sonny Liston where he won the championship title, his first fight with Joe Frazier where he reclaimed his title after he lost his license to fight due to refusing induction into the Army, and a very brief fight scene with George Foreman in Zaire. The remainder of the film is bits and pieces of Ali’s life, but are so brief we never get the whole picture.

The beginning of the film shows Ali running down a street (obviously in training), and we see a few flashbacks of his childhood, but never enough to really know how he grew up or even where. Other than Zaire, we actually never know where the scenes are taking place. We then move right away to his fight with Sonny Liston, but there is never a mention of what a dangerous fighter Liston actually was. We even see Ali at one point during the fight rub his eyes and tell his trainer (Ron Silver) that he couldn’t see, but we never hear the actual story of why. We can only assume that there was something on Liston’s gloves. We then see some very brief moments with Ali and his friend Malcolm X and Ali’s involvement with the Nation of Islam (which Mann does nothing but portray the Muslims in a bad light). We manage to understand that Ali’s religious beliefs are sincere and the backbone of who his is, but the other members are depicted as money hungry, power hungry manipulators only using Muhammad Ali as a “voice” and a moneymaker. I doubt very seriously the Nation of Islam appreciated this vision of Mann’s.

Then we skip up to meeting his first wife Sonji Roi (Jada Pinkett-Smith), in which we see that Ali’s Muslim beliefs for the wife to “dress down” don’t go over well with her. So, she soon gets the boot. Don’t expect to find out what ever happened to her, Mann didn’t feel that was important. Wife number two, who was already a Muslim, seemed to be a perfect match for him, and they showed the two of them holding children in one scene. But, soon, she too was gone. Again, who knows where and who knows what happened with the children. Mann thought it necessary to have Ali say, “Marriage is the foundation of the Muslim beliefs”, but all we see is Ali eyeing every pretty woman that crosses his path. So…which is it? The only real relationship we actually are allowed to see, is the friendship Muhammad Ali had with famous sportscaster Howard Cosell (played brilliantly by Jon Voight). This is the only storyline that actually gives you a sense of closure. You are definitely made aware that the two are very close, and that Cosell was a huge part of Ali’s return to boxing.

When we see Ali in Zaire preparing for his title fight with George Foreman, we get a long drawn out “Mann Vision” of Ali running through the destitute streets and him looking at the run down shacks, we see a look in his eye of despair, but nevertheless, he keeps running right past it all. We never see him training, more importantly the special training he went through to fight George Foreman and his power punches. Mann shows Don King promoting the fight, and basically showing himself as the moneygrubber that he’s proven himself to be for many years now.

The film is filled with characters that we don’t even know for sure who they are, and of Michael Mann’s attempt to use his trademark filters, and long shot angles, which is not what this film calls for. Anyone who doesn’t know the story of Muhammad Ali, will surely not know any more about the man than they did before after watching this dry and flat so-called biography. You won’t even know when he contracted Parkinson’s Disease or that he even did for that matter. You won’t see “who” the man was. You will get a directors view of the Nation of Islam and it’s members, he even had to throw in his theory that the FBI was behind the assassination of Malcolm X, Oliver Stone style.

There are scenes of riots, war demonstrations, etc. But, if you’re young and unfamiliar with the era, you’ll be completely lost, as they never tell you where they are, let alone what’s going on. Mann also evidently thought of Ali’s other fights as unimportant, because they are never spoken of. His training was equally unimportant. Ali’s trainers, friends and family that always were around him in the film seemed more like “groupies” since we never even knew who they were. We could only assume.

Ali lacked any kind of substance, and when Mann “connected the dots” in Ali’s life, he forgot to fill in the spaces with explanations and details. Will Smith, however did an amazing job portraying “The Greatest”. He gained about 30 pounds and was ripped like a boxer. He managed to pull off the expressions and mannerisms very well. But, unfortunately he seemed to be on his own as far as portraying Ali, since Michael Mann was more concerned with how the movie “looked”. Sometimes, all the audience has to go by, were the expressions of Smith. They helped show that Ali was a caring man, but could also be easily broken. No thanks to Mann for that bit of information.

If you want to see a real look at Muhammad Ali’s life, watch the documentary “When We Were Kings”. You’ll get an actual “Story” of Ali. Not these bits and pieces thrown together in such an unforgivable way. Shame on you Michael Mann, you promised a movie about “Muhammad Ali”, and all we got was your big ego and your particular version of events. I grew up with Muhammad Ali fights, and I certainly remember a lot more going on with the man than what you’ve decided to show us. This bomb gets a 2 out of 10, the 2 is for Will Smith’s performance only. That’s the only thing the movie had going for it, but it’s still not enough to waste 160 minutes of your life on.