In 1977 Mohammad Ali wasn't only a boxing champion, he was a personality. His confidence and poetic rants made people smile, sometimes in disbelief. So they decided to, instead of creating a documentary, allow him to star, as himself, in a film covering his lean hungry youth - when he went by the name Cassius Clay - to his rise as "the greatest boxer in the world".
Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired: at the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing. While he does have a graceful, laid-back charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film's cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand is preposterously contrived.
This Ali's personal propaganda for his Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television but without a lean young actor, much needed to capture the intensity attempted herein.
And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster the year before, this probably would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.
Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired: at the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing. While he does have a graceful, laid-back charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film's cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand is preposterously contrived.
This Ali's personal propaganda for his Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television but without a lean young actor, much needed to capture the intensity attempted herein.
And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster the year before, this probably would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.